A BELOVED Australia Day tradition, the Eglinton barbecue breakfast, won't be kicking off Bathurst's celebrations this year.
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The event had to be scrapped about two months ago, councillor Alex Christian revealed, with the strict COVID-19 protocols for events too hard to comply to.
"We're all really disappointed, but essentially it became so difficult with COVID restrictions; it'd have to be a ticketed item, we'd have to put up barricades, it'd have to be a fenced off area, and the number would have to be limited," he said.
"With all these sort of things, it simply became unmanageable."
It came as a blow to the people who have been involved with the event for a long time.
"I think they feel the same way as I do, very frustrated," Cr Christian said.
"It's got this COVID link, where we live out in a regional area, but we still have to live like we've got 50 cases in town in some respects."
While the breakfast can't go ahead, there will still be an array of other events on throughout the day the community can attend.
Cr Christian hopes the new addition of the Bathurst Fun Fair will help make up for the loss.
"The fun fair is brilliant in regards to filling the void. We're really, really lucky that that's an option," he said.
