Jungle Love Festival director Raymond Williams on decision to relocate

The director of a popular Mary Valley festival has spoken out about why organisers made the tough call to move the event out of the area.

Organisers of the Jungle Love festival have made the tough decision to move the event out of the Mary Valley amid tensions with the council and some local residents.

According to the festival’s director, Raymond Williams, the council was forced to carry out a formal investigation after receiving a complaint from locals in the area.

He told the Gympie Times the Borumba Deer Park near Imbil, where the festival was normally held, was now required to get development approval from the council and the cost was so prohibitive it was “not viable for them”.

“It did start with a complaint, the council didn’t have a problem with anything but then when they have an official complaint they have to act on it”,” Mr Williams said

The Jungle Love festival is an art and music event that has been hosted in Imbil for several years, bringing in large numbers of tourists and extra business for the Mary Valley region.

“We’ve had some of the local businesses tell us that they were close to shutting shop post lockdown but the amount of people coming through on the Jungle Love weekend saved them”, he said.

Getting into the Jungle Love Festival spirit last year.

After finding out the news about the council requirement, Williams took to Facebook to announce the decision which he labelled “a bit of a blow” and thanked all of the festival’s dedicated fans for their support.

He said some fans were so dedicated to keeping the festival in Imbil, they had offered their own properties.

The festival will now be hosted in Gootchie, north of Gympie and located in the Fraser Coast region.

Organisers are hopefully this will become the festival’s new annual home.

The Gympie Regional Council was contacte and this was their response:

“Gympie Regional Council can confirm it has received a number of complaints in relation to the Jungle Love Music Festival. However, for privacy reasons are unable to disclose the specific nature of the complaints.

Jungle Love has been run from the Borumba Deer Park at Imbil.

Part of our correspondence with organisers is around the need for a planning approval to host music events. Specifically, This would include a Material Change of Use.

Should a Material Change of Use application be submitted, Council will evaluate it in accordance with its planning approval procedures.”