Music festivals are probably coming back, but they’ll look very different
Sweaty, thousands of people crammed in, many of them drunk – music festivals are a nightmare in a post-COVID world. If they ever come back, they’ll be very different.
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The road out of the music festival wilderness is going to be a long and winding one, according to some of the industry’s most experienced voices.
Excess overheads and reduced revenues will make staging big, outdoor music events – an already economically fraught affair before COVID-19 – even trickier, they say.
However there could be some (faint) light at the end of the tunnel, with many minds working on ways to make post-pandemic festivals a viable prospect.
There is one thing almost everyone agrees on – we’re a very long way from the return of the mosh pit.
Sacha Sewell has worked on many of the country’s biggest music festivals. He was the Adelaide promoter for both the Big Day Out and Soundwave and has played key roles in staging Parklife, Summerdayze, Future Music and Triple J’s One Night Stand.
Mr Sewell said the industry was already pivoting to smaller, more boutique festivals before the pandemic and the current situation was only going to amplify that trend.
“Looking through the post-covid lens, any sort of big event is looking exceptionally difficult in the short to medium term,” he said.
Mr Sewell said the “big three” of covid event management – contact tracing, density and social distancing – all posed unique challenges for promoters.
“Contract tracing is relatively easy, because that’s basically your ticket,” he said.
“Density is simple enough to achieve logistically, but the concern is what the patron experience is going to be like. A restaurant that’s full, for example, has a very different vibe to one that’s half full.
“Social distancing is the one that’s pretty much impossible at this stage. Whether it’s a show at the Uni Bar or at Adelaide Oval, it’s so hard to enforce that 1.5m rule. I mean in front of the barriers at something like the Big Day Out or Soundwave you’re probably talking eight people per square metre!”
Mr Sewell said once the novelty factor of post-covid festivals wore off, people were going to long for the rough-and-tumble days of mosh pits and crowding the front of the stage.
“People want to be down the front,” he said. “They want to hear the guitar pounding through their heart, they want a bit of the singer’s sweat on them. That camaraderie that exists at the front of the stage and that level of interaction between the concertgoer and the performer is going to be completely lost.”
Mr Sewell said the extra costs that would undoubtedly accompany a covid-safe festival would pose challenges to promoters, who were already operating on slim margins.
“The Rolling Stones are never going to play eight nights at the Entertainment Centre,” he said in response to the idea of hosting smaller crowds over multiple nights.
“The windows for those huge artists are small, and they’re simply not going to be available to play smaller concerts over several nights.
“Even if they could play, say, five nights then that’s five nights of security, five nights of staffing, five nights of production crew. It’s going to be expensive.”
Peter Darwin, who has worked in live entertainment for more than four decades and helped stage concerts by everyone from U2 to Guns N’ Roses, agreed that cost was going to be a major factor in any festival comeback.
“For example, there’s a festival in Queensland that I should currently be working on,” Mr Darwin said.
“In its normal context the promoter would be risking in excess of $6 million, and potentially grosses $8 million dollars if it sells out. Looking at guidelines put out in Queensland, that promoter would be risking $4 million dollars to maybe make $20,000 – if it was a sellout and everything went well. Nobody can afford to do that.”
He said it was very difficult to put a timeframe on a return to normal, but he backed outdoor festivals to be the great hope of the industry.
“I think there’s a reasonable chance that by the end of this year outdoor seated events are likely to be operating.” Mr Darwin said.
“Outdoor shows will, I think, beat even shows in entertainment centres.”
And he said many promoters had some difficult choices to make looking towards 2021.
“They have to ask themselves: Do you want to put on an event that so changed that could potentially damage your brand?” he said.
“And if there is an event that could do that, is it better to pull the pin now?”
Mr Darwin said everyone in the industry was asking themselves the same question at the moment.
“Promoters, tour managers, everyone is sitting around asking how do we deal with an event that revolves around thousands of people standing around and getting drunk? It’s a tricky question to answer.”
State Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said: “Clearly the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted music festivals across the world, but South Australia’s handling of the health and economic challenges has allowed us to get back to supporting live music sooner in a COVID safe way.
“As far as outdoor festivals go, as we head into the summer months and SA’s traditional busy festival period over February and March, I anticipate festival organisers will be working closely with SA Health to get their events off the ground … music festivals an important part of our visitor economy in the city and regions, and we’re keen to see this sector ramp back up as soon as it’s safe.”