Bluesfest gets the nod for COVID safety plan

One of Australia’s major music festivals has had its COVID safety plan approved by the NSW government seven weeks out from its planned start date.

Bluesfest director Peter Noble on site at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, where up to 15,000 fans per day will attend the festival from April 1 2021. Picture: Natalie Grono

One of Australia’s major music festivals has had its COVID safety plan approved by the NSW government seven weeks out from its planned start date.

Bluesfest is to be held near Byron Bay across the Easter long weekend and will be welcoming about 15,000 music fans a day onto the festival grounds. That’s half the usual number, but director Peter Noble is counting it as a win.

“It won’t be as big, but gee, it’s a hell of a long way that we’ve come,” said Noble. “This is only a small part, but if there’s a future, we have to hang on because we can’t have our industry decimated and unable to return.”

The Bluesfest team began work on its COVID safety plan in May last year, soon after the 2020 event was cancelled.

First lodged in August, the 150-page plan has been refined in consultation with government agencies. As it stands, the outdoor seated event won’t require attendees to wear masks.

Noble and his team aren’t the only ones cheering. Thousands of workers in the national live entertainment industry have been keenly anticipating this outcome as Bluesfest will be the first major multi-day music event held anywhere in the country since March last year.

“It’s the head of the spear,” Noble said of his festival. “It’s the sharp end of the return of the Australian live music industry at the levels we were accustomed to in the summer of 2019 and 2020.”

Its five-day program is composed entirely of Australian artists, such as Jimmy Barnes, Tash Sultana, John Williamson and Kasey Chambers, and will run from April 1 to 5.

About 80 per cent of tickets have been sold, with about a third of the 15,000 daily patrons choosing to stay in the campgrounds on site.