NSW music festivals may quit the state as confusion reigns over new licence regulations ahead of protest rally
Music promoters claim they are now operating in the dark on revamped regulations for their events. And the effect on some of the nation’s biggest festivals could prove disastrous.
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Exclusive: Music promoters claim they are now operating in the dark on revamped regulations for their events after the interim festival licence requirements and the matrix to determine their level of risk was removed from the Office of Liquor and Gaming website.
The family-friendly Bluesfest in Byron Bay and Fairgrounds festival in Berry have flagged they may have to move their events out of NSW because of the vastly increased financial cost of new user’s pay police and medical conditions of the licence.
Meanwhile, promoters including Frontier Touring headed by Michael Gudinski, who will stage the Lost City festival for 13 to 17-year-olds this weekend, have been approached directly by advisers to Premier Gladys Berejiklian seeking last-minute “consultation” ahead of the Don’t Kill Live Music rally on Thursday.
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It is understood Lost City was required to have one ambulance on site for the past two years but under new regulations would have to have three.
The festival had been advised “extreme weather” was the reason for the “uplift” in medical resources. The forecast for the Saturday event is 24 degrees with a 40 per cent chance of showers.
“These regulations are already affecting our big under-age show Lost City, which has had no problems before,” Gudinski said.
“These regulations are a complete kneejerk, un-researched over-reaction and the problems which they are attempting to address are much bigger than festivals; they are a major community health issue.”
News Corp Australia has also learned the festival licence regulations come into effect on March 1, the same day the NSW Government enters caretaker mode ahead of the State election.
“Bringing the regulations in on March 1 disregards the long-established conventions of the caretaker provisions of not holding an incoming government to the decisions of the outgoing Government after parliament has been dissolved,” a source said.
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The “risk matrix” — which promoters were required to complete to assess how risky their events are in the wake of five drug-related festival deaths this summer — determined family-friendly events such as Bluesfest, the Illawarra Folk Festival and Hillsong music conferences were “high risk.”
Bluesfest promoter Peter Noble said he is continuing discussions with tourist bodies in Victoria and Queensland about his event because “I need security around my festival.”
Noble said the high commercial risk and slim profit margin of staging festivals would make it unviable to continue in NSW because of the lack of transparency around the user’s pay police and medical facilities requirements of the new licence.
“We could be put out of business. My event is now up for sale; I really am in discussions with Queensland and Victoria and when I get back to Australia, I will be sitting down with those tourism bodies,” Noble said from New York.
“Bluesfest generates more than $240 million in economic activity for NSW, we create thousands of jobs and we will be regulated out of business.”
An industry source said one of the greatest frustrations of festival organisers with the user’s pay police policy was events are often not informed how many officers they would have to fund until just days before gates opened, placing a huge strain on their budgets.
“The industry wants transparency when it comes to user pays policing. With such dramatic discrepancy in numbers across the states, and police never saying what each of those officers are there for, what their role is, it just looks like a cash grab. And that would never happen in any other industry,” a source said.
Australian Festival Association board member Adelle Robinson said the Office of Liquor and Gaming will meet with festival promoters, Music NSW, the Live Music Office, Live Performance Australia and songwriter’s body APRA on Wednesday after weeks of the industry begging to be consulted on the licence changes and how to address harm minimisation strategies in the wake of the drug-related deaths.
She believes the meeting was agreed to because of the support of the Don’t Kill Live Music petition, which now has more than 110,000 signatures — including Bernard Fanning, Courtney Barnett and Vance Joy — ahead of tomorrow’s rally.
Robinson and Labor shadow minister for gaming, racing and music John Graham also expressed concern about the rush to the March 1 deadline for the new licence and called for it to be delayed.
“I think the caretaker period definitely has something to do with that date — I don’t think it is a coincidence that is when the Government wants to bring in the new regulations and obviously that is concerning,” she said.
News Corp asked the Office of Liquor and Gaming for comment on why the interim licence regulations had been taken down from their website and if they are being revamped.
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