With the ongoing fuel crisis and cost-of-living pressures, the Jindabyne Chamber of Commerce said it has made the difficult decision to postpone the Jindabyne Snow Ball, its signature event, until 2027.

Jindabyne Chamber of Commerce president, Olivier Kapetanakos, said community feedback helped the chamber make its decision.

“This event means a great deal to us and to so many of you, but we recognise that right now is a challenging time, with increasing costs and tighter budgets affecting many,” Mr Kapetanakos said.

“We look forward to returning the event in 2027 with the anticipation that the environment will be more conducive to people spending money.

“The sad reality is that the cost of holding events is just getting more expensive and we did not want to reduce the event itself, so we thought with the cost-of-living and pressures with fuel costs and uncertainty of our upcoming winter season we thought it was unfair to ask people to spend the money right now.”

Early bird tickets to this year’s Snow Ball to be held in May went on sale months ago.

While the Snow Ball is on pause, the chamber’s commitment to Jindabyne is not, said Mr Kapetanakos.

“The chamber is working on new initiatives to help drive visitation, supporting the local economy, and we want community to be part of what comes next,” he said.

Mr Kapetanakos said although the Snow Ball is an expensive event, it is a valuable community gathering and fundraiser. He said people didn’t see the value in it this year because they are prioritising where their money goes.

“We are however looking at other ways of driving economic value via the chamber which has led us to look at a wedding exhibition where we will be inviting venue operators, property owners, caterers, celebrants, event planners and more as we continue to see that the Snowy Mountains is a very popular and beautiful location for weddings. So we really want to showcase what we have here locally in the wedding industry,” Mr Kapetanakos said.

The last event hosted by the chamber was the business awards in May. Mr Kapetanakos said the event was a success, bringing together many businesses from across the region to celebrate each other.

“Business chambers are there to represent and to advocate for businesses. There’s a lot of value for businesses that join chambers and not just the Jindabyne chamber, or the Cooma Chamber, there are many chambers in our region and if businesses are interested in getting involved with or joining a chamber they should contact,” Mr Kapetanakos.

“To those who secured early bird tickets, thank you for your support, you will receive a full refund. We’re also incredibly grateful to our Snow Ball vendors and partners for their understanding and flexibility.”