Tasmania’s Panama music festival takes a break for anti-logging campaign to save forest

The organisers of a Tasmanian music festival have announced they are taking a break in 2026 as they launch a campaign to save the forest where the festival is held, adding to a significant lineup of recently-cancelled Aussie festivals.

Held in early March each year, ‘A Festival Called Panama’ is hosted in the Panama Forest north of Launceston, which, along with 39,000 hectares of native land, is slated to be logged by the Tasmanian government and Forestry Tasmania.

“It’s the right time for us and it will be nice for the land and the valley to have some time to rest,” said festival organisers.

“If you look up above the main stage you will see a swathe of native forest stretching up to the ridgeline. That forest is our namesake; The Panama.”

“If PANAMA has ever meant something to you, we ask that you take the time now, to send a few emails to the people in power,” they said.

Expanding logging in the state is a major promise of the Tasmanian Liberal Government’s 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future, including making up to 40,000 hectares of forest available for its “wood bank”.

Right to Information documents released in December last year revealed that 6364 hectares of the flagged land was ‘old-growth’ forest, while 70,000 had been historically preserved.

Forests likely to be logged are also home to endangered species including wedge-tailed eagles and multiple kinds of quoll.

The Tasmanian government’s approach contrasts with deforestation policy in Victoria and Western Australia, which both banned native forest logging last year.

“This community is a special one and we look forward to working out what makes sense for us in the coming years,” the festival organisers said in their closing statements. “We appreciate your support.”

Other Australian music festivals that have been cancelled in the past two years include Groovin the Moo, Splendour in the Grass, and Caloundra Music Festival.