The immediate future of Floriade hinges on the success of Enlighten, which is set to give organisers the confidence to schedule large-scale events in the capital.
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Canberra's events sector is coming back to life, with new restrictions allowing for crowds of up to 10,000 people.
But a cloud still hangs over some of the city's marquee events, including the Royal Canberra Show and Summernats, with organisers yet to confirm new dates for their events.
However, national conferences and business events are beginning to return with the National Convention Centre set to host a suite of large events for the first time in a year.
Events ACT's Enlighten festival, with space for 8000 ticket holders at a time, is the first large-scale festival since the pandemic, serving as a test case for future events.
Events ACT has not made an application to health authorities to hold Floriade in Commonwealth Park, but has enough bulbs on order just in case it can go ahead.
"We are keen to see how Enlighten goes, and will take any learnings from this festival before making any further decisions about Floriade and whether it will be feasible to hold an event at Commonwealth Park in 2021," an Events ACT spokeswoman said.
Organisers have previously committed to running another instalment of Floriade Reimagined if the main version cannot be held.
The reimagined Floriade featured beds of flowers across Canberra last year after pandemic health restrictions forced the cancellation of the Commonwealth Park version.
In 2019, Floriade contributed more than $44 million to the ACT visitor economy.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said last month before the beginning of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout it was highly unlikely Floriade and other major events would return in their normal formats this year.
"While the vaccine for COVID-19 gets closer, there are still many unknowns about how it will work and therefore the idea of large-scale events where large numbers of people are crammed into small spaces will be off the agenda for the foreseeable future," Mr Barr said.
A spokeswoman for Events ACT said Enlighten would have up to 8000 people across its ticketed events at any time, in line with a previously approved application for the event.
ACT health authorities are yet to receive an application for an event of 10,000 people, the largest size permitted under current public health orders designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Since the beginning of the year, 41 applications have been made to the Chief Health Officer for events of more than 1000 attendees. Of those, 12 are still in progress and 29 applications have been granted exemptions.
More than 75 COVID safety plans were reviewed for events of between 201 and 500 people from January 1 to February 19.
Restrictions were eased on February 20, allowing events of between 501 and 1000 attendees to go ahead without a formal exemption if they register their COVID safety plan with ACT Health.
Seven notifications are currently being reviewed.
Cinemas and theatres can fill venues at 75 per cent capacity if they have a COVID safety plan in place.
Exhibition Park in Canberra and the National Convention Centre are both permitted to use their venues at 75 per cent capacity, while Canberra Stadium and Manuka Oval have returned to 100 per cent capacity.
National Convention Centre general manager Stephen Wood said the significant easing of restrictions sent a strong signal of confidence and allowed the centre to carefully manage most events.
"This year is dramatically different to last year," Mr Wood said.
Mr Wood said the centre had collaborated well with the territory government and health authorities to allow for eased restrictions.
"We feel Canberra represents one of the safest places to hold events in Australia," he said.
ACT Health issued an exemption for the 2021 Anzac Day dawn service this week, with a precise number of attendees still to be determined.
An ACT government spokeswoman said event organisers should allow up two months for a response to requests for an exemption.
"The length of time to process an application depends on a multitude of factors. This can include the quality of the COVID safety plan, risk mitigation planning, characteristics of the event and the size of the event," the spokeswoman said.
"Events which expect over 2000 attendees are referred to the Event Assessment Committee, who meet fortnightly so organisers for larger events need to allow additional time."
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