The organisers of the annual Byron Bay 7's have had a rollercoaster few weeks.

The event, run by the Byron Bay Rugby Union Club, now the Byron Shire Rebels, will be held for the 32nd year, but it is only due to the support of several key organisations.

Like most major events around the world, COVID prevented the tournament from running in 2020 and 2021.

The event returned in 2022, but increasing costs and regulations put pressure on the events future.

Earlier in the year the 32nd edition was launched and team registrations rolled in, but skyrocketing costs resulted in the organising committee to release a statement on 5 July.

Dear Rugby Community,

We regret to inform you that the 2023 Byron Bay Sevens Festival will not be going ahead.

Bringing the event back in 2022 after a three-year Covid hiatus was a monumental task for our small group of volunteers, and we were very proud of the event that we were able to produce and deliver to you all for the Australian rugby community, which included:

• Welcoming 900+ players from 60 teams across Australia
• Playing and officiating 130 matches across 3 fields over 2 days
• Delivering a huge schools gala day and coaching clinic for 60+ kids on the Friday before the senior rugby matches

Anyone who attended the event in 2022 and prior would have seen the extra infrastructure including but not limited to: improved fenced bar area, bar furniture, extra security, extra police presence, and hydration stations.

This increase in infrastructure was the result of increased compliance requirements within our event liquor license, all of which added significant costs to our not-for-proft community rugby club as hosts of the event.

Naturally we wish to deliver a responsible, safe and compliant event, and we have done our best to mitigate and manage all these extra costs.

However within the last week, unfortunately, we have learned that the cost of insurance through Rugby Australia has increased 167% from the previous year. This has tipped the scales to make the event too risky to run in its current format due to the risk of delivering a financial loss for our small community rugby club. The primary reason we stage the event (in addition to it being the best weekend of sevens rugby fun each year) is as a fundraiser to sustain and develop rugby in our town.

It takes so much organisation and time from a small group of volunteers to execute, and if it does not generate income for our community rugby club to survive and prosper, equal to the work put into it, then it just does not make sense to run the event.

Rugby participation is struggling in our local area and wider region. To combat this on the local front, we brought together two rival clubs this season – Byron Bay and Bangalow – to form a new club to keep rugby alive and growing. The new club Byron Shire Rebels has been a huge success for us, with participation at a high from juniors through to senior women’s & men’s teams. This was an immense workload throughout the off-season for our small group of volunteers. It was well and truly worth it, but frankly, we’re exhausted as a result.

Also, sadly some clubs around us are not doing so well in this regard, resulting in a number of forfeits against us this season, starving our club of critical home match-day income. This makes taking any kind of financial risk for an event even more unpalatable.

I love rugby, and I have taken my volunteer role as the custodian of this historic event very seriously over the last few years, but it has now hit the point that the event will lose considerable money before a ball is kicked or a whistle is blown.

We are truly grateful for the support the event has received over all these years, from players, coaches, volunteers, match officials and all our long-standing sponsors and supporters.

I hope that we can achieve the necessary support for it to resume so that this is not the end of its incredible 32 year history. 

Eddie Brown

Byron Bay Rugby Club President

On Behalf of the Byron Bay 7s Organising Committee

Teams and supporters were devastated, and messages of support began to flow in via social media and directly to the club.

Local clubs have always been strong supporters of the event, with teams from every Far North Coast club taking part in recent years.

Behind the scenes, support at higher levels began to take action and less than two weeks later, the club and organisers were able to release a positive statement, after the support of NSW Rugby Union and Rugby Australia allowed the tournament to return to the Australian rugby calendar.

Dear Rugby Community,

10 days ago we announced the difficult decision to cancel the 2023 Stone & Wood Invitational Byron Bay 7s Festival. The feedback and support from the rugby community has been overwhelming, and we are truly humbled and grateful.

In response, both NSW Rugby Union, through its Positive Rugby Foundation and Rugby For Good partnership, and Rugby Australia have reached out to us to offer their support to ensure the event is back on the calendar in 2023.

In short, the Stone & Wood Byron Bay Sevens Festival is back on as originally planned on 14-15 October 2023.

REGISTER YOUR TEAM

A huge thanks to NSW Rugby Union, NSW Positive Rugby Foundation and Rugby Australia for their support. As a result, we believe it will be the best event we’ve staged to date, with an even better experience for teams on and off the field. 

We’ll share more details in due course but we wanted to announce this exciting news as soon as possible in the hope that you can join us. To register your team, complete the form at https://byronbay7s.com.au/registration/ 

Once again, a massive thank you to everyone that has expressed their support or reached out to us to offer help.

The tournament has developed over the years into an integral part of the Australian 7's calendar.

Attracting teams from across Australia, and international groups from New Zealand, Fiji, USA, Singapore, Germany, Spain and across Asia, it has brought millions of dollars into the Far North Coast economy over 30+ years.

Countless Wallabies and International stars have graced the Byron Bay Rugby fields and it's iconic location will, luckily, again be busy in October.

The support is welcomed by a number of local families across the region, with the club being very proactive in helping local families and businesses clean up and recover after the devastating floods hit Lismore and surrounding areas in February and March 2022.