‘Totally devastating’: New threat to Australia’s live music industry

Strawberry Fields, described as “four days of live music, large-scale art, workshops and wild river swimming” is held annually on the Murray River in Tocumwal, a town on the Victoria-NSW border.

The bush bash was scheduled for October 28 to 30, but after watching flood levels on the Murray River rise well into September, organisers made the call to cancel the event at the “11th hour”. It was a month out from the festival, and right before construction needed to start.

Going to a music festival has been a rite of passage for many Australians, but there’s no bass thumping loud enough to drown out warnings that the beloved sardine-packed sweaty mosh pit in the middle of a paddock is in trouble.

The waterlogged mess of this year’s Splendour in the Grass was just the start, with organisers, artists and attendees alike warning that wild weather has put Australia’s live music scene under serious threat.

Strawberry Fields is not alone. This That Festival, Yours and Owls, Jungle Love and many more have been forced to postpone or cancel this year due to weather-related events.

“It’s been totally devastating,” said Tara Benney, director of Strawberry Fields. “If I’m being completely honest, it’s just a massive moment for us all to stop and reflect on what is happening to our planet.”

Strawberry Fields festival in drier times.Credit: Romello Pereira

Extreme weather events as a result of climate change are becoming more frequent across Australia and conditions are intensifying. The Australian Actuaries Climate Index measures extreme weather conditions in the country, recording changes in the frequency of extreme high and low temperatures, heavy rainfall, dry days, strong winds and changes in sea level. This autumn, the index recorded its highest measurement since records began in 1981.

Coping with these weather events, alongside widespread labour and supply chain shortages, and trying to recover from COVID-related cancellations, is having a cascading effect on the live music industry. And risks associated with putting on a good show are greater than ever, as an industry already on shaky ground faces rising insurance costs and hesitant insurers.

“After being in Tocumwal for a decade we have never seen these [river] heights persist,” Strawberry Fields organisers wrote on their website, announcing the cancellation on September 27. “Critical access and entertainment areas are currently metres underwater, and expert advice suggests the situation could only worsen from here.”

That same week, authorities issued warnings for communities along the Murray River, and Australia’s Insurance Council asked residents to prepare properties for a third year of La Nina floods. Since the cancellation, water levels have risen another 1.5 metres.

Festival goers enjoy swimming in the Murray at Strawberry Fields 2017.Credit: Duncographic

Ticket-holders could receive a full refund minus handling costs, or roll their ticket over into 2023, when the event will be held in November to avoid the wet season.

While bad weather may be part and parcel of the Australian festival experience, some organisers cannot afford to risk a repeat of this year’s muddied Splendour in the Grass, when downpours caused havoc for organisers, performers and patrons. Some festivalgoers lined up for 15 hours and had to sleep in their cars overnight. Videos of a bayou for a camping ground went viral – and the event had to be cancelled on its first day.

Strawberry Fields are paying for the cost of cancellation out of pocket. They were not offered insurance coverage in time, despite beginning talks with insurance brokers in July, much earlier than usual. Typically, Benney said, organisers begin engaging with insurance companies six to eight weeks before the show.

“By the time there was 100 per cent support from the required insurers to offer us a policy in early September, the venue was already under a minor flood – making us ineligible to accept that coverage,” Benney said. “We’re not protected in the same way as we were in the past.”

Splendour in the Grass cancelled its first day after flooding left campgrounds saturated.Credit: Nine

Insurance woes are not unique to the live music industry. A KPMG general insurance industry review outlined the risks in April, stating that the sector was concerned that the “frequency and severity” of weather events would push premiums up significantly, and even make some areas uninsurable.

Amid the hesitation to offer coverage from insurance companies is the problem of rising premiums, the amount of money an individual or business may pay for an insurance policy. According to Australia’s insurance regulatory body, gross public and private insurance premiums rose by 7.5 per cent between 2019 and 2020.

While Strawberry Fields said the issue for them was not about the cost of insurance, it was partly why This That Festival cancelled its October and November dates in NSW and Queensland. In a statement announcing full refunds to its ticket holders, the event said the cancellation was due to a “combination of issues ... including ballooning insurance premiums and infrastructure costs, and the forecast of extreme weather patterns”.

An Insurance Council of Australia spokesperson said the market for public liability insurance, which covers live music events (among other industries such as pubs and theme parks) had tightened over the past two years.

“There is no one silver bullet to fix these issues, and solutions, where they exist, require a concerted effort between insurers, business, and government,” they said.

Select Music executive chairman Stephen Wade says the live music industry is stuck between a rock and a hard place as putting on a good show becomes riskier than ever. Credit: Rhett Wyman

Select Music chief executive Stephen Wade, who is also chairman of the Australian Live Music Business Council, echoes this sentiment. As an agent for some of Australia’s biggest names in music, Wade is responsible for handling live bookings for artists including Lime Cordiale, Rufus Du Sol and Baker Boy.

“It’s a unique time for us where these weather patterns consistently continue to throw havoc at our industry,” Wade said. “There are events that have 30,000 attendees, and the people promoting these shows are literally in the lap of the gods leading up to the shows, hoping that they’re not going to be absolutely smashed with weather.”

The industry, Wade says, is stuck between a rock and a hard place: the pressure on organisers to bear the burden of weather-related cancellations has become too high.

But the alternative could see organisers including weather cancellations in an event’s force majeure clause (the clause that frees both parties from any contractual responsibility). While relieving the risk for event organisers, the responsibility would shift onto the artist to take out insurance to cover themselves in the event of a cancellation.

“Insurance has become a very, very big issue for our industry,” he says.

‘The people promoting these shows are literally in the lap of the gods leading up to the shows, hoping that they’re not going to be absolutely smashed with weather.’

Stephen Wade, Select Music chief executive

There have been government initiatives to support the industry after it was decimated by lockdowns. Last month, the federal government announced the Live Performance Support Fund, designed to provide coverage between November and January 2023 for events affected by the nationwide requirement to isolate after a positive COVID test. But given that mandatory isolation rules were scrapped by national cabinet last month, the fund may have come a little too late. The Greens are now calling on the federal government to extend this coverage for events cancelled due to the weather.

“Even before COVID we saw festivals cancelled due to bushfires, and more recently due to flooding. When the pandemic is over, the climate crisis will still be here,” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

Wade says a concerted effort is needed from brokers, industry and government bodies to “point us in the right direction”.

A spokesperson from the Department of the Arts said the decision to end isolation periods meant events could proceed with confidence without the need to access pandemic-related coverage, but added: “The government will continue to support the arts, entertainment and cultural sector, and will announce the way forward in its landmark National Cultural Policy by the end of this year.”

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