Splendour faces music as trial ends
SPLENDOUR in the Grass swings into action today for what marks the final year of its initial trial approval at North Byron Parklands.
The festival has been held at the sprawling site near Yelgun for the past five years under a trial set by the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC).
The original trial approval was designed to give Parklands the chance to demonstrate that it could host large outdoor events in line with a range of key performance indicators covering things such as noise, traffic and flora and fauna.
With the trial over, North Byron Parklands has lodged a development application to become a permanent cultural events site and for expansion and approval for up to 50,000 patrons per day.
The proposal, currently before the Department of Planning and Environment, is yet to reach the public exhibition stage.
Under NSW law, any project with a capital value of more than $30m is required to be referred to the Department of Planning and Environment by Council as a “state significant development”, which means the NSW Government will rule on the application.
Local police have been scathing in their assessment of issues surrounding the festival in their submissions to the department, claiming the event “stretches” resources.
Tweed Byron local area command (LAC) Brendan Cullen said he could not support the application until issues such as policing numbers, emergency plans, a safety audit, improved/additional roads and traffic management were addressed.
Founded by co-producers Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco and now in its 17th year, Splendour has become one of the most popular and successful music events in Australia, with tickets for this year’s event snapped up in less than an hour when they went on sale earlier this year.
This year’s bill boasts more than 100 artists – including Queens Of The Stone Age, The XX, Bernard Fanning, Peking Duk, Sigur Ros, Haim, Vance Joy, Father John Misty, Tash Sultana, and Dan Sultan – performing for a capacity crowd of 32,500 from today until Sunday.
More than 19,500 ticketholders are camping on site.
The festival has ditched drink tokens this year, with patrons able to use cards with a chip or mobile to pay for drinks over the counter at all on-site bars.
Extra security measures will be enforced this year after experts warned the event was now more vulnerable to a terror attack than any similar event in Sydney or Melbourne.
New steps will include the banning of backpacks, and personal searches with electronic “wands” on entry.
Organisers have also flagged more car searches, restrictions on bag sizes and checks with handheld metal detectors.