People who don’t live in Byron Bay, such as myself, are keen as mustard for the new docu-soap series, Byron Baes. Byron locals, however? Not so keen.
Apparently residents have banded together and started a petition to stop the show. The petition, which was published on Get Up’s campaigning platform, has copped thousands of signatures from angry Byron Bay residents who don’t want the show to see the light of day.
A resident by the name of Tess Hall is leading the charge and on the petition’s website, she asked Byron Bay’s local council to withhold the necessary permits to film in their town.
“We, the community, want all relevant statutory authorities to refuse to grant the production filming permits for any and all local and state government land, roads, parks and waterways proposed for use during filming of the series,” Hall wrote in the petition.
“We further request that any filming permits already granted be rescinded in light of the detrimental impact to both our community and the environment.
“We want the local government areas and state based authorities to prioritise community concern about the impact of the series in line with the relevant filming permit policies.”
She adds that the Byron community is “experiencing significant challenges driven by influencer culture and rapidly shifting demographics of residents.”
“We do not want to be cast as the perfect backdrop and magnet for social media influencers,” she added. “We do not want to appear in Byron Baes.”
Hall said the show would paint the Byron region as a “punch line” and insisted government representatives should instead focus on “supporting our community to address systemic issues of housing affordability, coastal erosion, increasing unemployment, traffic management challenges, low high school completion rates and high levels of gendered and domestic violence”.
“We want our voice to be heard and we do not want to deal with the fallout of being showcased on a global stage in a way that can only harm our local environment and community,” she added.
These residents aren’t the only ones pissed about the show as an actual influencer by the name of Ruby Tuesday Matthews has rained fire on Netflix and she was even offered a role.
Last week, Ruby told her followers that she would not be joining Byron Baes, despite the heavy rumours.
“For everyone asking if I’ll be on this show, I declined the offer. Goodbye Byron, you are officially cooked. How embarrassing,” she said.
So it wouldn’t surprise me if one of those signatures belongs to her.
Meanwhile, two influencers who have supposedly been cast in the series were revealed yesterday, head here to see who they are.
