Last east coast festival standing? Funding to keep Woodford alive
In the last year, beloved Australian music festivals have fallen like dominoes, succumbing to mounting economic, cultural, regulatory and environmental pressures.
Those to pull the pin include regional touring festival Groovin the Moo, Caloundra Music Festival, and Byron Bay icons Splendour in the Grass and Bluesfest.
North of Brisbane, Woodford Folk Festival is one of the few still standing, and the Queensland Labor government wants it to have a future.
Aerial view of Woodfordia, the site of the annual Woodford Folk Festival.Credit: Woodfordia
On Saturday, Premier Steven Miles announced a $2 million funding package he said would help future-proof the arts and culture festival and protect hundreds of jobs.
“We know small businesses are doing it tough and none more so than arts businesses and live music venues, which are the lifeblood of precincts and communities across the state,” Miles said.
The annual festival has been running since 1987 and provides employment for an estimated 1700 established and emerging musicians, as well as nearly 300 full-time jobs for the local region and other parts of the state each year.
Brisbane’s Regurgitator performing at last year’s Woodford.Credit: Matt Craven
From the allocated funding, $1.6 million will be invested into the event site, Woodfordia, to “improve the visitor experience and mitigate weather impacts through infrastructure enhancement”. Organisers said that will include the construction of all-weather pathways and improved drainage in campgrounds.
Woodfordia co-founder and festival director Amanda Jackes said they had invested more than $26.6 million into the site since 1994 to make it “something people from around the world and within Australia travel to each year in celebration of our arts and culture”.
But against changing conditions, particularly in the way of adverse weather events and climate change, government support for the outdoor festival isn’t just welcomed, but needed.
Since 2020, more than 20 festivals have been relocated, postponed or cancelled outright, many as a result of extreme weather events including rain, flood, heat and fires. This follows the significant impact of COVID on the live music industry during 2020 and 2021.
In 2023, extreme heat compounded by severe storms reduced day visitor attendance at Woodford Folk Festival, resulting in revenue loss for the organisation, performers and its 300 stallholders.
In their submission for the inquiry into the challenges facing the Australian live music industry, Woodfordia advocated for a national government-subsidised cancellation insurance scheme to provide coverage for large-scale live music events against cancellation due to public health measures and extreme climate impacts.
They said the risk of cancellation had “grown exponentially in the last five years”, along with a 500 per cent increase in insurance quotes for large-scale independent festivals since 2017.
Earlier this year, industry leaders urged the federal government to increase grants for festivals in the upcoming budget, and encouraged the state governments to offer festivals “time-limited funding to help us through the next two seasons”.
In response to weather impacts, some have called on festivals to relocate to less remote areas or bring events indoor. But for most regional festivals like Woodford, that would have enormous economic ramifications for local communities.