Caloundra Music Festival: Report into competition policy could determine festival’s future

A major Sunshine Coast music festival’s future could become clearer next month when the findings of a crucial council review are delivered.

Performers enjoy the Caloundra Music Festival in 2019. Picture: John McCutcheon

A major music festival’s future will become clearer next month with a review under way into its status as a ratepayer-funded event.

The Caloundra Music Festival is one of several business activities being reviewed Sunshine Coast Council.

A report on the review is due back to councillors by the end of September.

Music festivals were put under the microscope by new Division 9 councillor Maria Suarez in June, 2020, at a special council meeting.

Ms Suarez had asked council officers why music festivals hadn’t been identified as a business and whether or not the national competition policy applied to them when the private sector was able to run them at a profit.

Council staff responded that music festivals weren’t considered by the council to be business activities and were instead considered a community benefit and economic development activity.

Division 9 councillor Maria Suarez.

Mayor Mark Jamieson said it was a policy issue for the council, which had started the events when there was “no one doing them”.

“The community was crying out for opportunity and council filled the void that wasn’t being filled by anybody else,” he said.

Ms Suarez this week said she loved music festivals but questioned whether or not they should remain an expense of council.

She also said it was important to determine through the report whether or not they fell in line with national competition policy.

Fellow councillor and finance portfolio holder Ted Hungerford said the application of competition policy had to be considered subjectively.

He said the council should exit business activities once the market had evolved enough to take them on and redirect the resources elsewhere.

“I’d be quite happy if the private sector wanted to take it on (Caloundra Music Festival),” Mr Hungerford said.

“I don’t think we’re making a profit.

“You don’t just do things because we’ve always done them.”

The Caloundra Music Festival has featured some of the country’s brightest stars and international performers since it started in 2007.

Ocean Street business owner Dimi Limnatitis.

Ocean Street hospitality operator Dimi Limnatitis said he was a supporter of live music and had previously backed the festival with its first local stage.

He said the festival was a “really good thing” for the region but he felt the time was right for the private sector to take it on to reduce wastage and hopefully support more local suppliers.

He also questioned why it was still going ahead this year when other privately-run festivals like Woodford, Bluesfest and others had cancelled.

Caloundra councillor Terry Landsberg said he thought the council did a “great job in delivering the festival” and noted a private entity would face challenges dealing with permit requirements to hold the festival on public land.

Mr Landsberg said it was all about attracting visitors to the region and the community benefits it brought into Caloundra and the broader Sunshine Coast were “huge”.

“Privately-run festivals eventually run out of steam, they need to provide a profit for their organisers, the success of this event since its inception 2007 proves long-term commitment, something that may be lacking in the private sector,” Mr Landsberg said.

Division 2 councillor Terry Landsberg.

“Simply, I would not support a private operator.”

He said the council would be happy to chat with any private operator interested in taking on the event as anyone who had looked into it previously had realised “it is not a profitmaking venture”.

In early-2019 a report due to go before the council revealed the festival had cost ratepayers an average of more than $675,000 a year for the previous three years.

The council reported the 2019 edition of the festival had generated “direct and incremental expenditure of $4.4m attributable to the Sunshine Coast region economy” and about $1.4m had been spent locally on procurement.

Festival director Richie Eyles said he thought the council had been open to the event going to the private sector for years but anyone that had looked at it had realised it was not a money-making venture.

He said if it did change hands he expected it would go to a not-for-profit experienced in running events.

Caloundra Music Festival director Richie Eyles.

Mr Eyles said he thought any review would find the festival was about getting people into the region and its hotels and restaurants and if it did go to external operators it would not be due to competition policy.

He said the costs of running a private event on public land could be prohibitive and the real question was whether or not the council wanted to be in the business of running events.

Mr Eyles said he didn’t think the festival – which had started out of a “genuine need” – was competing with others but it was “worth looking at” whether or not the landscape had changed.

Originally published as Caloundra Music Festival: Report into competition policy could determine festival’s future