Following the success of Triple J’s One Night Stand earlier this year, Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson has begun talks with Groovin The Moo promoters Cattleyard Promotions in the hope of replicating the economic boom thousands of visitors provided to the rural city.
Already Australia’s largest regional festival, Groovin The Moo visited Maitland, Canberra, Bendigo, Townsville and Bunbury in 2013. Each year thousands of regional Australians flock to the festival to see international and local acts alike that often bypass Australia’s regional centres when on tour.
Mayor Dickerson thinks an expansion of Groovin The Moo to Dubbo would provide a huge economic benefit to the city and would attract bigger crowds than Triple J’s One Night Stand which saw visitors booking out every available bed in the city and filling local pubs and restaurants. The city estimates that the vent brought around 14,000 visitors and an estimated $2 million boost.
Originally, the mayor had enquired to Triple J’s Chris Scaddan about the youth-orientated radio station holding the annual One Night Stand again in Dubbo reports The Daily Liberal. Scaddan told Dickerson that the event moves location every year, but put him onto the promoters behind Groovin The Moo.
The mayor said his Groovin The Moo contact was “keen to come to Dubbo and have a look at the facilities we have to offer”. “We’ll do that when we can find a convenient time,” Cr Dickerson revealed.
Luckily for the mayor a representative of the music festival happened to be driving near town during this year’s One Night Stand. “He said he saw a constant stream of vehicles coming from Dubbo and knew from that, before he heard the numbers, that it had been a huge success,” says the mayor.
But the council is realistic about their chances of convincing the festival to expand, noting that the event is not “backed by a government body” and that it needed to be “financially viable”.
“They’re not sure if the Groovin The Moo model is exactly the right model for Dubbo,” says the mayor. “But there might be some other modified versions that might be appropriate… something smaller.”
“The number of bands they have, the full-blown size of the concert, it might be more appropriate in Dubbo to have a smaller event with smaller expenses and a lower ticket price. These are all the things we’ve got to sit down and go through and talk about.”
The council’s approach to live music events is a breath of fresh air compared to Claremont council in Western Australia, who have been hostile towards live music festival for the past few years.
Council representatives have been butting heads with music festivals in the area for some time, including labelling electronic music festival Stereosonic’s punters “the worst ever”, even after deciding to give the green light to the large-scale electronic music festival.
As previously reported, the local council in the Town of Claremont rejected both Soundwave and the Big Day Out’s applications to use Claremont’s Royal Showgrounds, effectively forcing the Environment Minister to step in, which lead to hour earlier starting and finishing times for Soundwave this year.
A similar 10pm curfew was placed on the Big Day Out in January for its 2013 edition, a decision handed down by Environment Minister Bill Marmion which was no doubt influenced by the local Town of Claremont council’s reports of noise complaints and general grievances over the 2012 iterations of Big Day Out and Soundwave.
