‘Financially impossible’: White Bay Power Station falls foul of NSW law

NSW government plans to rebirth White Bay Power Station as a music venue have fallen foul of a contentious law Labor is under intense pressure to axe.

House of Mince, a queer DJ party collective, said it had cancelled its single day house-music party set for October at the restored former power station, after discovering the event would be classified as high-risk under the controversial provision.

The heritage-listed White Bay Power Station.Credit: Chris Bennett

The revelation has added to the public clamour for the Minns government to axe such designations under the Music Festivals Act introduced five years ago to minimise social harm.

“From the outset, we were excited about the potential of hosting our event at White Bay,” the collective said in a statement released on Thursday night.

“However, as planning progressed, it became increasingly clear that staging the event presented challenges far beyond what we could have anticipated.

“Adding to this, being classified as a ‘subject event’ under NSW legislation just felt wrong. We are not a high-risk event but have been classified as such due to the capacity.

Festivals such as Mode at Cockatoo Island have fallen foul of the NSW Music Festivals Act.

“The forced ‘user-pay’ payment for police and all the extra compliance costs made it financially impossible to put on an event like this in the amount of time available.”

A government spokesperson said Placemaking NSW had offered House of Mince and Bad Dog a support package to help facilitate the public holiday event at White Bay, however, Bad Dog and House of Mince had made the decision not to proceed.

Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority said it had not declared the event subject.

NSW is the only state in Australia to have such a law specifically targeting music festivals which designates events as “subject” and mandates an increased police and ambulance presence.

The Australian Festivals’ Association says user-pays police costs were up to 12 times greater in NSW than all other states, which has turbocharged production costs and ticket prices for festival goers.

“How many more events and festivals need to cancel before the Premier takes action?,” asked AFA’s managing director, Mitch Wilson.

“At Australia’s largest music industry conference last week delegates from Europe and the US were sharing how bad the reputation of Sydney and NSW is around the world,” they said.

“It will take a lot to reverse this, but we can and must do so quickly.”

Only last week, organisers of Sydney’s Mode Festival claimed heavy police presence required under the provisions had added $30 to the prices of their popular Cockatoo Island event. Festival goers said they felt intimidated by the police presence and sniffer dogs. 

Last year Mode was required to pay for three police boats, dozens of supervising police officers, and put on private ferries.

House of Mince representatives are offering refunds of $80 on tickets and have shifted their Love come set me free event to a new venue in Ultimo.

It’s been a tough year for Australian music festivals with a number of high-profile cancellations of events such as Falls Festival and Splendour in the Grass. Bluesfest has announced 2025 will be its final year.

NSW Music Minister John Graham told parliament last week the government’s review of the festivals act, an election promise, would be released within the month.

The goal of changes was to make the act more “supportive of festivals” and focused on health outcomes, Graham said. “But I do want to stress, even if we make the regulatory environment more supportive, festivals are still under major cost pressure caught between those two dynamics: the costs, and cost of living,” he said.

Placemaking NSW will stage the Power Up festival this month to bring new life to the once derelict White Bay Power Station amid calls for it to be converted into a permanent live performance venue.

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