Adelaide Harvest Rock festival threatened by Adelaide City Council failure to close Bartels Rd

Premier Peter Malinauskas says he will “explore all options” to overrule the City Council and allow the Harvest Rock Festival to go ahead if he deems it good for SA.

Premier Peter Malinauskas is threatening to overturn the expected torpedoing of a major Adelaide live music festival by Adelaide City Council blocking a road closure.

The Harvest Rock festival, featuring major international and Australian acts, is on the brink of collapse because of the city council’s expected refusal to close Bartels Rd for more than three days, from November 18-21.

The Sunday Mail revealed the closure is set to be rejected by Adelaide City Council at a meeting on Tuesday, which organisers say will scuttle the fledgling event, on which they have already spent millions to book as-yet-unannounced artists and facilities.

But the Premier on Monday morning threatened to use state powers to enable the festival to go ahead if the council blocked the road closure.

“Make no mistake, if my government forms a view that something is in the best interest of the city, then my government will explore all the options available to us and the powers that are available to us to make sure that we facilitate that,” Mr Malinauskas told ABC Radio.

“We worked well with the council where we can and that’s utterly appropriate. But we reserve our right to use the authorities and the powers that are invested in us, if we form the view that that’s in the best interest of the city, and people that work within the city, along with the business owners that employ those people.”

Secret Sounds Group co-chief executive officer Jessica Ducrou said the festival would be sunk if the council blocked the road closure – from 10am on the Friday to the end of Monday – because alternative venues including Botanic Park were unsuitable.

Harvest Rock is touted as showcasing “the best international and South Australian artists along with the finest wine producers, chefs and produce South Australia has to offer”, with music pitched for children to over-50s.

“We do have major international artists. We have some of Australia’s biggest talent. It’s iconic artists and the best of the new stuff. It’s quite different to other festivals out there,” Ms Ducrou said.

Crowds at Falls Festival in Byron Bay, NSW.

The two-day state government-funded festival would be held on November 19-20 in Rymill Park, King Rodney Park and on Bartels Rd, which would be used for stages and as a conduit between the parks.

Secret Sounds, which also runs the hugely popular annual Splendour in the Grass and Falls live music festivals, is forecasting minimum attendances of 20,000 to 25,000 patrons per day – 40 per cent of these from interstate – and an economic benefit to SA of $10m, most to the city.

But city councillor Alexander Hyde said he expected the road closure to be refused because CBD residents and businesses were tired of onerous road closures, particularly for the Illuminate and Adelaide 500 events.

This was despite a city council briefing in early July that said Harvest Rock would attract “music enthusiasts and visitors from interstate and overseas, as well as local and regional visitors to the park lands”.

Some of the best dressed at the 2019 Falls Festival. Picture; PATRICK GEE

Ms Ducrou said the main alternative venue, Botanic Park, was unsuitable because a maximum of 17,000 people could safely fit in front of the main stage – not the more than 25,000 forecast to attend Harvest Rock.

She said the event could not go ahead without closing Bartels Rd, particularly because patrons crossing between parks would pose a safety risk.

Mr Hyde accused the state government of failing to co-ordinate a series of road closures later in the year, including the festival and Adelaide 500, and consider the disruption to the broader community.

“I think most (city) councillors view this as a bridge too far and I would be surprised if more than a couple of councillors support this road closure,” he said.

Mr Hyde questioned why Adelaide 500 footbridges could not link the two parks and said the council had not seen economic modelling.

Originally published as Adelaide Harvest Rock festival threatened by Adelaide City Council failure to close Bartels Rd