Experts, musicians weigh in on multiple Sunshine Coast music festival cancellations

Festival insiders reveal the hidden struggles that have led to the cancellation of some of Queensland’s biggest music events as they plead with punters to put their faith in the industry.

Multiple Sunshine Coast music festivals have canned their 2023/2024 instalments, citing cost of living pressures and high operational costs.

Experts have weighed in on the unnerving collapse of music events on the Sunshine Coast following the cancellation of several festivals.

Regardless of genre, location or punter size, some festivals in our slice of paradise have opted to abandon their instalments in 2023 and 2024, citing cost of living pressures, low ticket sales and spiralling external costs.

Cancellation of festival juggernaut Splendour in the Grass put chills in the spines of event organisers who tried to comprehend how Australia’s biggest single ticket festival could cancel.

The Sunshine Coast has lost multiple events such as Groovin’ the Moo, Caloundra Music Festival, Elements and Jungle Love. 

The future of these booming live music events hang in the balance with experts giving their take on whether there is a death knell for festivals on the Sunshine Coast.

Groovin the Moo on the Sunshine Coast in 2023. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Sunshine Coast Events Industry Association president Lenny Vance said the loss of Groovin’ the Moo hurt due to its 2023 instalment at Kawana Waters selling out within two days.

“Those guys were very keen to come back to the Sunshine Coast, but Groovin’ the Moo’s national program fell over,” Mr Vance said.

“It was so successful compared to its other regional spots because we had the appetite and opportunity for it.”

Mr Vance said this hunger for a large-scale music festival would be a driving force for the Big Pineapple Music Festival, which was returning this year after a three-year hiatus.

Speaking generally, Mr Vance said operational costs of festivals including permits and licensing issues could be a financial roadblock to a successful gig.

He said the Sunshine Coast Council was supportive of events due to the economic benefit through jobs and tourism dollars.

Sunshine Coast Events Industry Association Chair Lenny Vance.

Mr Vance said the Caloundra Music Festival, run by the council, was possibly a good example of “wrong place and time” due to it being held over the public holiday weekend in October.

“Caloundra is already full even if there wasn’t a festival on, it’d be full as well due to it being the lead up to summer,” he said.

“Was that model right?

“Possibly not, especially when it's council and ratepayers' money going into it.”

Mr Vance said different consumer behaviours emerged from the pandemic, which included punters holding off on buying tickets in fear of cancellations.

In Creative Australia’s Soundcheck: Insights into Australia’s music festival sector report, data revealed 18- to 24-years-olds were purchasing tickets at lower rates than before the pandemic.

The report also claimed 47 per cent of Australian festivals said rising operational costs was a significant barrier to their events, as well as a lack of funding and grants, insurance costs and extreme weather events.

Jungle Love was an independent festival held in Imbil in the Gympie hinterland.

Jungle Love cancelled their latest instalments, noting they would not return until at least 2025.

“It’s a double-edged sword because the operators not only have their supply chain costs going through the roof, they also have costs to insure the event … public liability insurance … cost of transport as well,” Mr Vance said.

“We can see a 30 to 40 per cent increase across all of these costs, with organisers taking a commercial risk on whether to go ahead or not.”

Mr Vance said with these upfront costs, festival organisers and promoters needed money coming in before punters arrived at the gates.

“You need that cash flow long before the event happens and if there are no early ticket sales, you’ve got a problem,” he said.

“There’s a timeline implementation in place, whether to pull the pin earlier or put their house or business on the line.

“It’s created this perfect tsunami across the industry.”

The events veteran said the key message to the consumer was for them to be prepared to “get out there” and support live entertainment.

“Buy your tickets early, support the promoter and trust there will be a cancellation return if it happens,” Mr Vance said.

This sentiment was echoed by musicians Zane Harris and Paddy Macrae who make up folk pop band The Dreggs.

The independent duo was robbed of a chance to play the amphitheatre stage at Splendour in the Grass this year due to the event’s cancellation.

Zane Harris and Paddy Macrae from The Dreggs were devastated at Splendour’s cancellation. Picture: Contributed

The Sunshine Coast favourites hoped to capitalise off the release of their latest album Caught In A Reverie by performing at the ticketed festival in Byron Bay.

“That festival [Splendour], if you can score a slot, that can solidify your spot in the Australian music industry, if you’re playing that stage,” Harris said.

“The only reason we got it is because [the organisers] saw us play at the small stage at Spilt Milk on the Gold Coast.

“You couldn’t fit enough people in there … it was the first recognition from the industry, and to get [the Splendour spot] ripped out of our hands is devastating.”

Harris said it was a “super scary time” to be in the Australian music industry, and pleaded for punters to support local music again and not just the big name artists such as Taylor Swift and Fred Again.

University of the Sunshine Coast senior music lecturer Lachlan Goold said music festivals often acted as pathways for up and coming bands to be put in front of new audiences.

Dr Lachlan 'Magoo' Goold is part of the University of the Sunshine Coast's School of Creative Industries.

The veteran sound engineer, who has worked with Powderfinger and Midnight Oil, said the loss of festivals robbed musos of that opportunity, and risked them taking their craft away from the Sunshine Coast.

Dr Goold said in a report on the Sunshine Coast’s night-time economy, a lot of respondents felt there was a “lack of vibe” but was optimistic on the future of live music in the region.

“In recent times it’s started to change with The Station at Birtinya which is encouraging, along with smaller venues and the Nambour Special Entertainment Precinct getting off the ground,” Dr Goold said.

“Kings Beach Tavern is also putting on a lot more music and getting national touring acts, they’re on a trend, but there’s a long way to go.

“We have to stop local musicians needing to move to urban centres.

“The Chats are a great example, they ended up moving to Brisbane to base their career, now they’re an international act.”

Jinja Blue at Caloundra Music Festival, which had its 2024 instalment cancelled by council. Picture: Patrick Woods.

The Big Pineapple Music Festival organiser Mark Pico knows all too well the cost of running a music event, with its last instalment in 2021 being one of the only festivals of its size in the world to run during the pandemic.

Mr Pico said his team had to abide by stricter legislation and even had to stump up $500,000 to create another stage area to comply with social distancing laws.

He said after a jaunt overseas, organisers decided to bring back the popular event in a “massive break and reset”.

Big Pineapple Music Festival organiser Mark Pico. Picture: Contributed

“A lot of bands from overseas aren’t coming over, and that’s really affecting festivals like Groovin’ the Moo and Splendour, the overseas acts have stuffed them up a bit,” Mr Pico said.

“It’s business as usual for us, we don’t chase the overseas acts, we try to support local as much as we can, I couldn’t be more positive, which is a rare thing to hear.”

Mr Pico said what set the Big Pineapple apart from other events cancelling was a culmination of a strong support and fan base, along with organising an event that was not focused on just a line-up but more cultural and food experiences.

Punters at a previous Big Pineapple Music Festival. Picture: Contributed

“What happens to some festivals, they’re philosophy is you got to get bigger and better … don’t fall into that trap, just try to be better,” he said.

“Work on different ideas and play around … don’t necessarily rely on getting bigger bands from overseas, think artistic and the experience.”

The festival organiser said punters could expect to see international food experiences, skating, an outdoor cinema and more at this year’s event in October, and would tease these offerings in the lead up to dropping the festival’s artist line-up in July.

“It feels like a reset for the industry after we went away for three years, it gives everybody a chance to look at what they’re doing and approach it in a different way,” Mr Pico said.

“Work on different ideas and play ground, you don’t want to get stagnated.”

Originally published as Experts, musicians weigh in on multiple Sunshine Coast music festival cancellations