Jitters bug gigs
One for the roadies
TO Missy Higgins, they are the unsung heroes.
She regards those who build the stages, sound systems and lighting rigs for her shows as her road family, a tight-knit crew of skilled technicians essential to the magic of concerts.
MUSIC festival promoters are losing confidence in staging events without the safety net of a government-backed insurance fund amid growing fears COVIDSafe shows, greenlit by state governments, will still be shut down by authorities at the last minute.
Splendour In The Grass co-creator Jessica Ducrou said the axing of Bluesfest on the eve of the annual Easter festival after one COVID case in Byron Bay was a “watershed moment” for the live music industry.
While the 20-year-old Splendour has been moved from its usual winter dates in July to November in the hope the vaccination rollout will safeguard it against sudden cancellation, Ducrou said promoters face losing up to $10m without a Business Interruption Fund.
The federal government gave the screen industry a $50m insurance net last year, allowing 41 film and TV productions to go ahead.
Opposition arts spokesman
She’s joining artists for this year’s Roady4Roadies, a series of concerts on Sunday to raise money for those out of a gig for the past year. The nearest is in Brisbane. “I’ve always felt the crew have a bit of a thankless job compared to us performers.”
Tony Burke has backed the promoters’ desperate plea for assistance, launching a petition calling for the government to take immediate action on the fund as “jobs and livelihoods are at stake”.
“Australian live music and entertainment needs this scheme to put on the big events and festivals that we know and love,” he said.
Ducrou said the live music industry had “now lost confidence about being able to deliver a show”.
While she appreciated Splendour and other festivals should be subject to “harsher restrictions” than other industries opening up in the pandemic era, they also deserved the same treatment as sports and other community events, such as the Royal Easter Show.
“If there is a chance they are going to shut an event down due to COVID, they should just say no at the start because it is more damaging to spend all that money and build a site in its entirety without having the safety net of an insurance policy,” he said.
There are some who might think Greg Donovan is taking a big gamble in the pandemic era launching his new Mundi Mundi Bash, which kicks off in Broken Hill with Kate Ceberano, Paul Kelly, Ian Moss, Tim Finn, John Williamson and more in August.
Donovan swung into action plotting the three-day festival when his annual Big Red Bash in July last year was cancelled due to COVID shutdowns. It returns to Birdsville in Queensland this year with many of the same artists as Mundi Mundi.
“When the Big Red Bash was cancelled, we went from 2020 going to be our best year ever to being our worst year, so for all of our sanity, to keep our staff focused and have some light at the end of the tunnel, we got working on Mundi Mundi,” Donovan said. “Being a new event, you think it unlikely you will completely sell out — we just wanted to be able to cover costs — but we’ve already sold more than 90 per cent of 10,000 tickets.”