West Dubbo Rotary president Lyn Smith confirmed yesterday that the annual Carols by Candlelight will be another unfortunate casualty of COVID-19.

"It's a very sad story, I'm afraid, unfortunately, the carols won't be running this year," Ms Smith said.

Ms Smith said that after careful consideration it was deemed that the restrictions imposed on Dubbo Council and West Rotary as part of the ongoing fight against the pandemic would be too 'onerous'.

"It just couldn't be done how they wanted, we had a limit of 500 or so people, they'd all have to be seated and stay seated," Ms Smith said.

"All the band members had to space out and only one person could be on stage at a time, it was just too difficult."

"Could you imagine trying to have children sit still the whole way through, or when guest 501 comes up, what do we do? We can't just say sorry, no, you're not allowed in."

While Ms Smith called the decision 'very sad' she said it was understandable, as both council and the west Rotary would have been held to the restrictions.

While the festivities won't return this year, and the annual trailer raffle has also been called off, Rotary are still doing all they can to provide reasons to cheer.

"We're running our raffle online instead, it's not quite the same, but people can win a $5000 spending spree at JB Hi-Fi, a fridge freezer with a Honda generator or a set of Makita power tools," Ms Smith said.

Further information about the raffle can be found online at the Rotary Club of Dubbo West Inc. Facebook page.

Tickets for the raffle can be purchased online for $5 each through the QR Code on the Facebook page, or by heading to www.rafflelink.com/dubbowestrotary2020.

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