How a popular bush doof festival became a gastro nightmare — and now faces the axe

The immediate future of a popular regional Victorian music festival is on a knife’s edge, as a local council considers cancelling the event four days before gates open.

Buloke Shire Council officers recommended refusing a planning permit for the 2025 Esoteric Psychedelic Circus Festival in Donald, saying festival organisers failed to provide health and safety plans.

Esoteric Festival is a large Australian bush doof – a regional rave gathering featuring psychedelic music and art.

But the festival organiser disputed this, saying he had received approvals from health and emergency services to run the bush rave.

In a statement, Buloke Shire Council said organisers provided insufficient information and despite two further requests for information in October and December a “satisfactory response” was not received.

The council will decide on Monday whether to allow the festival to take place from March 7-11.

Ticket sales for the 2025 festival continued without a permit and recent social media posts showed equipment and neon signs assembled on the festival grounds.

Last year’s Esoteric festival also made the headlines after 250 festival goers reported gastroenteritis symptoms.

The Victorian Department of Health later confirmed an outbreak of Shigella – a highly contagious infection spread through contaminated food and faecal-oral route with symptoms including diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and fever.

Council’s call

Buloke Shire Council chief executive officer Wayne O’Toole said the council had worked with event organisers, consultants and various emergency services since receiving the application last year.

“However, our officers are not satisfied that the health and safety concerns in relation to the safe running of the event have been met and are therefore recommending the planning permit application is refused”, he said.

“We understand the impact this decision will have on the event organisers, patrons and the local community, and acknowledge their disappointment, but we are also committed to ensuring any event within the shire is safe and compliant”.

The lineup for the 2025 Esoteric Festival, subtitled “Psychedelic Circus”.

Esoteric Music Festival managing director Sam Goldsmith said he was shocked by the “roadblocks” from the council and said festival organisers had “absolutely addressed everything to ensure this event will run safely”.

“ We’ve run this festival for eight years – with the exception of 2021 due to COVID-19 – and we’ve always submitted our applications around the same time and it’s usually approved within two to three months,” he said.

He said the festival expected between 9000 and 10,000 people and predicted a $15 million injection into the local economy.

In its agenda for Monday’s upcoming meeting, the council noted that Goldsmith submitted the application in August.

But staff wrote that this document did not provide details on matters such as effluent disposal, impacts on surrounding farms, health and bushfire safety.

When contacted for clarification, Goldsmith maintained that he provided all the necessary details in his original application.

He provided this masthead with written approvals from police, EPA, firefighters, health, water and transport authorities.

Goldsmith was confident councillors would vote in the festival’s favour.

“If things don’t happen that way, we will address that at the time,” he said.

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