Like many music lovers across New South Wales, I’ve been pretty fired up about the changes to music festival regulations which have seen Mountain Sounds and Psyfari pull the pin in recent weeks.
The party line from Gladys Berejiklian and her Liberal mates is that slugging festival organisers for additional police presence, to the tune of approximately $200,000, is essential for keeping punters safe. However, demanding such an exorbitant sum, especially just a week before the event, feels a lot like an attempt to close it down. We can’t have people overdosing at festivals if there are no festivals, right? It’s a genius plan designed to take the heat off a government a month out from an election. Add in a rushed festival licensing policy demanding more police, more ambos, and other measures at a hefty cost to organisers and you’ve got a system that should hopefully stop people nattering about pill testing, right?
The thing the state government didn’t count on is the backlash. Festival organisers, musicians, and punters are making plenty of noise about this, and quite rightly so. While I wasn’t attending Mountain Sounds or Psyfari, I think it and other cultural events like it are so important to the fabric of our state and our country. I’ve looked through the government’s festival licensing requirements, to be implemented March 1, with horror. The lack of transparency regarding how much they’ll make organisers stump up for police and ambos is especially troubling. The matrix of assessing which events are high risk is also concerning. Any matrix that labels the Illawarra Folk Festival a high-risk event is clearly flawed.
So what’s the potential fallout? Industry experts say that many festivals will simply collapse or relocate to other states where they can continue more affordably. Illawarra Folk has already indicated the measures may kill off its annual event, while Bluesfest says it will find a new site on the other side of the border. Wollombi was forced to cut the number of tickets it sold this year and find a new site for 2020. Some large festivals may endure, although you’re likely to see higher ticket prices to cover the increased police and medical presence. But it’s really going to hit the boutique festival market. Events attracting between 2000 and 5000 are large enough to face increased scrutiny, yet small enough to take a real financial hit to comply with licensing orders.
The thing is though, this isn’t a done deal, yet. We’ve got an election looming New South Wales. If like me you feel the festival licensing laws are the latest in a long line of measures designed to kill our live music industry, vote accordingly. If you’re not old enough to vote yet, talk to your parents about the issues. This is the government who introduced the lockout laws that saw countless venues close. This is the government who is unwilling to consider pill testing as a viable solution to the spate of recent drug overdoses at our festivals despite several medical experts stating the benefits. It’s a government out of step with what so many of us want and value.
I don’t know how effective signing petitions is, but adding your signature to the change.org petition certainly can’t hurt. If you’re anywhere near Sydney on Thursday, February 21, there’s a rally in Hyde Park from 6 pm. Then on March 23 we’ve got the big one, the state election. MusicNSW has compiled a handy report card which shows you exactly what each party will do for music in our state. I know it’s easy for parties to make promises when they want power, but I’d rather vote for the guys saying they’ll do the right thing rather than the ones that seem hell-bent on killing off our live music industry.