Kids have not ‘gone soft’ when it comes to music festivals

When I was 19, I went to a music festival in the north-western French commune of Caen.

I vividly remember the final song – Latch by the electronic music duo Disclosure – because it was during this home stretch that my phone died.

The Beauregard Festival, held next to a 15th century French castle, was my first ever, and I remember the panic setting in as I feverishly combed the crowd for my host sister who had driven me several hours to the venue.

Regional music festival Groovin the Moo has cancelled its 2024 events.

In the five years that followed, I haven’t been to another music festival. Not because I didn’t enjoy (most of) that first experience, but because I haven’t quite had the chance. Now, the industry in Australia is reaching a tipping point.

Australian music festivals are dropping like flies. It began with a handful of smaller events hitting the wall. Then, regional touring event Groovin the Moo pulled the pin in February.

When the country’s biggest music festival, Splendour in the Grass, pulled the plug last week, it started ringing alarm bells. The rapid decline in Australia is symptomatic of a bigger problem, and not because, as some have suggested, that kids have gone soft.

Businesses have had a tough ride in the past few years. Most sectors have felt the pressure, but music festival businesses have been smacked around by every challenge under the sun (and, for those who remember the 2022 “Splendour in the mud” debacle, rain).

Two COVID-disrupted years have been chased up by increasingly extreme weather – from heat warnings to floods – and wages that have barely kept up with the rising tide of price pressures.

To say that young people avoiding heat stroke, and being picky on what they spend on during a cost of living crisis, is simply indication of them becoming “soft” is unfair.

Music festivals have always been a stomping ground for youth, but no other generation passing through has had their festival experiences, and ability to pay, challenged quite like this one.

During COVID, we said we were all in this together. But the music industry has been taking it a little too far with their significant run of mergers since well before the pandemic. Typically, when economic conditions get tough, you see businesses merge with each other to create a new, bigger business, or one firm buying or “taking over” another that is about to go under.

Often, bigger firms are more efficient because they can make things in bulk or buy materials at a lower cost. But too much of a good thing is bad.

Having just a handful of major companies in an industry means they’re more likely to charge higher prices simply because they can – and may become more complacent when it comes to innovating and upholding quality.

Industries such as finance and utilities are especially concentrated in Australia, meaning a few big firms dominate the market.

Golden Plains Music Festival in 2024.Credit: Vicki Bell

We have watchdogs including the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) which are supposed to crack the whip when they think an industry is getting too concentrated. But the music industry, perhaps because of its lower profile compared with the banks or supermarkets which have come under fire recently, seems to have flown under the radar.

Now, it’s in the spotlight.

Two years ago senior music industry figures sounded the alarm over the takeover of the Australian live music industry by US-based corporate giants, but to little avail.

Over the past decade, Live Nation has bought up more than a dozen Australian music festivals, ticketing companies, music agencies and venues. On its receipt are Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival: both of which have been canned this year.

Having just a handful of major companies in an industry means they’re more likely to charge higher prices simply because they can – and may become more complacent when it comes to innovating and upholding quality.

Live Nation, TEG and AEG controlled roughly 85 per cent of Australia’s live music market in 2022 according to industry insiders.

That has given companies such as Live Nation a truckload of power when it comes to negotiating with artists, often leading to deals that are worse for performers. Some artists were left out of pocket when the first day of Splendour was cancelled in 2022 due to flooding after new contracts put much of the burden of risk on performers if the event didn’t go ahead.

Those terms have since been revised. But there have been other unfavourable terms such as artists having to agree to “exclusivity periods” of up to three months that prevent them from playing their own shows before or after a festival, except in specific venues.

That means emerging artists in particular, who lack the weight to push for a better deal, are worse-off – and some may find it too difficult to participate. It’s an experience that isn’t just limited to festivals, but also the entire music industry from signing on and investing in talent, with a tendency for big corporations to prioritise a handful of megastars guaranteed to rake in big bucks.

Festivals certainly benefit from a few big headline acts to draw the crowds. But when the entire music industry is dominated by a few companies, it limits the discovery and development of emerging local talent (an important input and output of music festivals).

Cost of living and climate issues have undoubtedly made music festivals less appealing. But allowing a handful of large corporations to take over large swathes of the Australian music industry certainly plays a part. It creates high barriers for any smaller players hoping to challenge them and help emerging artists get a foothold.

The crunch on spending by young people doesn’t indicate they are “soft”. It highlights issues we’ve neglected over the past decade. Young people may begin to return to the festival scene when economic conditions improve.

But letting the underlying issue continue, like my draining phone battery at the Beauregard Festival, could leave us scrambling for a fix. Without a hard look at the creeping consolidation of the industry, we could be left with a permanent shift that leaves most of us worse off.

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.