CANBERRA, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Scientists on Thursday expressed disappointment to the decision to cancel the long-running Australian Science Festival in Canberra.

The festival has been operating during August for the past 19 years with free and ticketed science education activities.

However, the festival organizers on Wednesday announced to halt this year's program after failing to secure support from the Australian Capital Territory state government in time to arrange events.

According to Australian Science Communicators president, Jesse Shore, thousands of school children have attended the festival over its history to learn more about science as a career.

"It's encouraged other activities to join it, it was very important in getting National Science Week started, and that's stimulated a lot of other science communication activities," he told ABC News on Thursday.

Shore said the decision to close it down is unfortunate as the event has been very influential and instrumental promoting science communications activities.

He said he hopes that a number of people would gather together in a new partnership, with new ideas and hopefully a new funding base.