A highlight of the Sydney Fringe Festival won't be making waves this year or next - the Waverley Council has banned the annual nude night surfing event at Bondi Beach.
This despite the popularity of last year's event, which drew 10,000 spectators and was such a hit McDonald's sold out of hamburgers and the international media took notice, says the Sydney Morning Herald.
But the paper says the Bondi Beach local safety committee - composed of the council, police, locals, and businesses - claimed the nude night surfing event drew too much traffic, drunkenness, and glass on the beach, and the Fringe Festival lacked adequate plans to control the event next year.
And the police genteelly reminded the community that nudity on the beaches was illegal. They tell the Herald if they received complaints about a naked surfer they "might have to arrest him or her," which might be hard in a huge crowd.
A new location for the nude surfing event was expected to be announced later this week.
Fringe Festival director Megan Donnolley tells the paper she held only one meeting with the committee and had no chance to present traffic and crowd management plans. She says there had never been any major problems or arrests in previous events.
"It's a conservative backlash," she tells the Herald. "It's got nothing to do with safety issues or traffic. A lot of other events take place at the Bondi Pavilion and the beach that aren't free and that bring in more people. I am very disappointed. If 10,000 people come to see a free event, there are a lot more people for it than against it."
Donnolly says the event has been shown in 38 countries on the BBC and on CNN, and it's "not going to look good for the Waverley Council to have canceled it."
The council has suggested a dawn start for the event but Donnolley says the early start wouldn't draw surfers or spectators.
