Perfect storm for festivals

Festival organisers have outlined the perfect storm of economic pressures, regulatory nightmares and late ticketbuying habits that have brought the industry to its knees, in a groundbreaking research report.

The Soundcheck report reveals promoters face soaring operational costs, including insurance excesses of a whopping $250,000 per show on top of premiums that have doubled since Covid, and up to 50 per cent jumps in supplier bills between hiring them and actually putting on the event.

“So the (insurance) excess used to be like a standard commercial policy, which is like $4000 or $5000,” reported one organiser to the Music Australia research team. “Our excess for this year is $250,000.”

With major festivals such as Groovin The Moo and Splendour In The Grass, which had lined up Kylie Minogue, G Flip and Future, cancelling their 2024 events, promoters also cited the battle to secure international and Australian artists who will sell tickets as a barrier to going on with the show.

The report found the average cost of staging a music festival in Australia is almost $4m and with the weak Australian dollar and increased travel and accommodation costs, the fees to book big name international acts to headline have blown up by 30 to 40 per cent.

“Securing talent has never been more difficult,” one organiser reported. “The Aussie dollar is really weak, freight and logistics and travel costs have gone through the roof. Either you’re paying like 30 or 40 per cent above what you have paid previously, or they’re not coming. And fair enough.”

Extreme weather, a lack of government grants and funding and a labyrinth of regulatory red tape that varies wildly across the states are also crippling live music events.

Soundcheck revealed ticket buyers aged 18-24, once the biggest group of festival goers, dropped from 41 per cent in 2018-19 to 27 per cent in ’22-23.