The ‘harmful’ festival law adding $30 to the price of a ticket

Measures demanded under a law for festivals deemed “risky” are adding $30 to the ticket prices of a popular Cockatoo Island event, its organisers claim.

Sydney’s Mode Festival, a celebration of electronic music and digital art, has been required to pay for three police boats, dozens of supervising police officers, and put on private ferries as a result of a law the industry says is throttling the sector.

The co-founders of Sydney’s Mode Festival, Joe Ireland and Robin Sen. Credit: Nick Moir

Their claim adds pressure on NSW Labor to axe the Music Festivals Act, which promoters say is adding tens of thousands of dollars to their bottom-line costs, and turbocharging ticket prices during a cost-of-living crisis.

Australian Festivals’ Association launched a social media campaign on Monday calling on festival goers to write to the NSW police and arts ministers to revoke the act, which is now under review.

Mode has been designated a so-called risky event for three years running under the contentious law, which was introduced five years ago in a bid to minimise social harm.

Last year the festival – with four stages, three indoor – was charged more than $50,000 for police patrols, including almost $6000 for use of three water rescue boats on standby in case of water accidents. NSW ambulance’s attendance fee was $13,450.

This October, Mode has again been classified as a “subject” event. Organisers are currently awaiting a quote from NSW Police. NSW Ambulance is charging $15,993.48 for their attendance.

By contrast, Victorian police have not levied any user-pays charge for Mode’s sibling event at the Port Melbourne Industrial Centre for the Arts.

Festival co-founder Joe Ireland said he had a good working relationship with police, whose hands were equally tied by the legislation. It is music lovers who are the losers, he said. In past years, police charges had added $10 to a ticket and fans had been mandated to arrive by private ferries, adding another $20.

Ireland and business partner Robin Sen established Mode in 2022 when they were both 22.

“We are one of the few festivals to pop up post-pandemic,” he said. “Once a festival goes you lose your crowd’s confidence, and they never come back. There are no replacement events for those that cancel. No one is risking starting events in such a hostile climate.”

Mode Festival, Cockatoo IslandCredit: Ravyna Jassani

The Greens are pushing the NSW government to release the findings of its long-awaited review into the Music Festivals Act of 2019. The review had been a Labor election promise and submissions were due in December 2023.

Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said it was particularly concerning that police did not allow Mode festival goers to use public transport to get to the festival. Attendees were forced through one private dock to get to Cockatoo Island, with drug check officers and sniffer dogs at the entrance.

Many of the 80 officers who showed up to last year’s festival were dressed in riot gear, she said.

“NSW is the only jurisdiction in the country that has these ridiculous laws, which deem certain music festivals ‘high risk’,” she said. “It’s time for them to be scrapped, along with the ability for police to charge eye-watering sums for heavy-handed police operations that music festivals in other states seem to do just fine without.”

Ireland said the festival required no urgent medical transfers last year and only one non-critical one in its first year.

But police said festival organisers knew the additional risks of holding the event on Cockatoo Island. Additional police resources, dedicated vessels and crew, were required to support other emergency services in the event of a medical evacuation.

Mode Festival, Cockatoo Island.Credit: Ravyna Jassani

Australian Festivals’ Association managing director Mitch Wilson said NSW is currently the only state in Australia with such a law specifically targeting music festivals, making it the most costly jurisdiction in which to run a festival, Wilson said.

September marks the beginning of Australia’s summer festival season. Wilson said he knew of 11 festivals that had cancelled in the past 12 months.

“This [designation] essentially puts us under the microscope and means we have to prepare a Safety Management Plan – a document that is currently over 500 pages long,” Mode’s Joe Ireland said.

“This elevates the requirements for an event and really is the difference between manageable costs and costs blowing out.”

Arts minister John Graham did not indicate when the review would be complete but said he wanted to see how the Festival Act could be reshaped to support the industry while “finding a better balance between festival visibility, safety and good government processes”.

NSW Police said the user pay monies paid by festivals cover the cost of personnel and resources used, so that normal policing services are maintained for the rest of the community.

The number of police required varies and depends on factors, including crowd size, risk assessments, venue size, and safety measures.

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