Premier Peter Malinauskas to declare Harvest Rock Festival a major event to ensure road closure
Harvest Rock festival, which divided the City Council and state government, has officially been declared a major event.
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A music festival which divided the city council and state government has declared a major event allowing it to officially go ahead.
Harvest Rock Festival was threatened after the Adelaide City Council voted against closing Bartels Rd, which was requested to be shut for three days for the festival in November.
Proposed to be held annually and exclusively to Adelaide, Harvest Rock is a two-day major international music event featuring iconic artists, leading Australian performers, the state’s best food and wine, three music stages and pop up cellar doors.
The festival was declared a major event on Thursday, August 11, through an official notice in the Government Gazette.
It comes after Mr Malinauskas said last week he would declare the Harvest Rock Festival in November a major event to ensure Bartels Rd was shut.
“It’s very disappointing that the Adelaide council decided to reject an application for a single road closure for a couple of business days for an important event that actually brings people to our city,” he said.
“I would have thought the Adelaide City Council would want more activity, want more visitors.”
The premier said he was “alarmed” at the prospect of the initial 12 day road closure but said Harvest Festival had accommodated concerns by reducing that to two days.
“It almost looks like the council is saying no for the sake of saying no,” Mr Malinauskas said.
“There has been a lot of discussion about the Adelaide City Council being dysfunctional … I don’t think this decision really serves them very well.”
Mr Malinauskas’ announcement followed a special meeting of Adelaide City Council which voted 8-2 to keep Bartels Rd open despite a personal appeal by one of Australia’s biggest concert promoters for a three-day closure from November 18 to November 21.
South Australian Treasurer Stephen Mullighan told ABC Radio Adelaide the state government would always use its powers to overturn decisions in the state’s best interests.
“If the council can’t do what’s in the best interest of the city as we’re trying to recover from Covid, as we’re trying to get businesses back on their feet, the state government will step in and do the right thing,” Mr Mullighan said.
He slammed the council’s “inconsistency”.
“It just beggars belief that they would see a state government supported event like Illuminate and give them a 12-week road closure for Rundle Rd and the next state government supported events like Harvest Rock Festival seeking a two day business day or four day total road closure and they say no to that.
“I mean what sort of message does it send the major event organisers from around the country or around the world that want to bring events activities to Adelaide when there’s absolutely no consistency?
“It’s close to a council election. I think let’s call this out for exactly what it is. This is a group of councillors who are desperately worried about not getting another four years to carry on their complete dysfunction as an Adelaide City Council.
“They seem to be making decisions in what they believe are the best interests of residents.”
Secret Sounds chief executive Jessica Ducrou told the meeting her company would lose $5m it had spent on securing acts for the event if the connector between the city and eastern suburbs was not closed.
“Alternative locations have been explored but there is no other location suitable,” she said. “If Bartels Rd isn’t closed, it can’t go ahead.”
Mr Malinauskas said he was “very disappointed” the council had voted against supporting the event.
“We want more events in our city, because that means more people in our city and more economic activity in our city,” he said.
“Harvest Rock Festival’s request for a single road closure, for only two business days, is relatively minimal when put against the potential benefit for our city.”
Mr Malinauskas said it was forecast the two-day event would attract 20,000 people each day and inject $10 million into the state’s economy.
“I’m not going to turn my back on small businesses in the CBD, particularly in hospitality who made massive sacrifices during the pandemic,” he said.
“I will do everything I can to generate more economic activity in the city and protect small businesses and the people they employ.
“With that in mind, I will use the authority vested in the state government to pursue a major event declaration for the Harvest Rock Festival.”
Mr Malinauskas said the declaration would grant the government “the power to approve road closures and therefore permit the event to go ahead”.
“This decision is not taken lightly, but it is necessary to ensure we are doing everything we can to support our city’s recovery as we emerge from the pandemic” he said
Welcoming the intervention by Mr Malinauskas, Ms Ducrou said Harvest Rock could not have gone ahead without the road closure.
“We are so grateful that the Premier has stepped in and common sense has prevailed,” she said.
Ms Ducrou, the joint creator of the hugely successful Splendour in the Grass and The Falls music events, said the council decision meant the new “iconic” event with international and domestic bands could have been lost permanently to Adelaide.
“It was really disappointing, we didn’t have a more positive result,” she said.
During her presentation to the meeting, Ms Ducrou said Secret Sounds initially asked last year for Bartels Rd to be closed for two weeks so Rymill Park and King Rodney Park could be used for stages, bars and food outlets.
“For context, we had originally requested a 12-day closure so we could place infrastructure such as pop-up cellar doors and food outlets on Bartels Rd and allow safe passage between the parks.
“As it was a relatively short period it was not flagged as a barrier to hosting Harvest Rock, it was never raised by City of Adelaide as a point of contention.”
Ms Ducrou told the meeting her company had been working on Harvest Rock for 12 months, “spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in pre-event preparation with the understanding we could use this venue.”
“We have already postponed our announcement (of the festival’s performers) by six weeks and invested heavily in Adelaide and Harvest Rock.
“We have financially committed to $5 million worth of international and domestic artists of which we will be required to pay, regardless of the outcome of this meeting.”
Contacted for comment after the meeting, Ms Ducrou told The Advertiser her company had been caught up in a “perfect storm” with escalating public opposition against further road closures by the council.
Councillors were forced at short notice to close Rundle Rd in late June for an Illuminate Adelaide installation while Labor’s victory at the state election had seen the return of road closures from late November until next February for the Adelaide 500.
The council staff who had worked with Secret Sounds recommended the road closure should go ahead, as Bartels Rd was due to close for several weeks within days of Harvest Rock for the Adelaide 500.
In a report presented to the special meeting, council staff said the music festival was expected to attract between 40,000 to 50,000 patrons over two days.
“The organisers project that this event would generate $10m of economic uplift to South Australia,” he said.
The report said the council had “successfully negotiated” with Secret Sounds “to condense the proposed road closure to four days, from 10am on Friday, November 18, until 11.59pm on Monday, November, 21”.
“Any further reduction of the road closure dates would impact the ability to safely set up the road area for this major event,” it said.
The report said Harvest Rock would “not be able to present this event in the City of Adelaide if the road was not closed”.
The proposed road closure was opposed by Cr Alexander Hyde and other members of the council’s dominant faction along with Cr Anne Moran and Cr Keiran Snape.
Community consultation found public opinion was divided on whether the road should be closed, with most opposition coming from East End residents and businesses.
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