Aussie Music Festival's Proposed New Southbound Location Ires Locals

A popular Aussie music festival is looking to secure a new home for its future over in Western Australia, but after proposing a new site in Hamelin Bay, residents of the small coastal community are opposed to the move.

The annual Southbound Festival, which often mirrors the big-name lineups of the East Coast’s Falls Festival for the western seaboard each year, is looking to relocate to a new area for 2015 away from its regular home in Bussleton.

Promoters Sunset Events are expecting more than 10,000 attendees for this January’s 2014 edition, featuring international headliners Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend, and The Roots topping a strong 50+ bill of artists, but are facing resistance from worried locals over a shift to Hamelin Bay, as the Margaret River Mail reports.

Local resident Jane John, who organised a public meeting about the festival’s arrival in Karridale, tells the local paper that, “I’m a very optimistic person,” but that of the 40 people in attendance at the gathering “everyone there was against the festival for different reasons.”

Residents’ issues included traffic congestion, damage to the environment, noise pollution, and population increases as a result of Southbound Festival, says Ms John. “Not only will it affect people who live here, it will also affect everyone who visits here.”

But the biggest concern of disgruntled locals at the meeting, adds Ms John, was fire risk and management, especially in the wake of the Margeret River bushfires that scarred the region in 2011. “Everyone there was against the festival for different reasons… Not only will it affect people who live here, it will also affect everyone who visits here.”

Sunset Events’ Southbound application to Augusta Margaret River Shire Council is for two four-day events, expected to draw up to 20,000 attendees, and another for a single day and night event, at the site of Lot 22 Caves Road, Kudarup, according to the council’s Sustainable Developer Director Iliya Hastings.

“The application will be assessed against the zone and range of policies applying to the area, including relevant fire and emergency management requirements,” Mr Hastings tells Margaret River Mail.

Southbound promoter David Chitty is keen to address the concerns of residents regarding fires, with a Fire Management Plan; a work-in-progress report (which can be viewed in full here) prepared by Sunset Events with consultation of Strategen’s Roger Banks.

“The Fire Management Plan aims to be self-protecting in the event of a major fire in the area,” says Mr. Banks, noting that the document is being prepared with Shire Council to satisfy government regulations and departments.

Mr Banks indicates that there are “adequate” emergency meeting ‘muster’ points on the proposed festival site, which are “on low-fuel areas and will contain the patrons on site rather than have them evacuate on local roads and create congestion should an incident occur,” he says.

Sunset Events Managing Director Chitty sees the festival as a low fire risk for attendees, but is preparing for the case of an emergency with the proposal of several trained fire fighting teams available on-site along with a large dam at the proposed festival location. “All our fire equipment and personnel is independent of local fire brigade resources so we don’t impact on that resource if there’s a bushfire in the area unrelated to the event,” says Mr Chitty.

It’s unlikely to be the first time that Sunset Events has faced opposition from residents, with the promoters having satisfied plenty of council concerns in the past with their decade-long experience in presenting Western Australian events such as the Bunbury leg of Groovin The Moo, the recently relocated Laneway Festival, as well as Fremantle’s West Coast Blues N Roots.

But the biggest hurdles promoters have faced are in hosting popular electronic music event Stereosonic at the Claremont Showgrounds, where the powers that be at the local Claremont Council have seriously butted heads with Soundwave and Big Day Out in the past, while labelling Stereosonic punters of last year’s festival, “the worst ever.”

Claremont Council recently took aim at Stereosonic patrons for this year’s edition, concerned that attendees of the newly expanded two-day event would rather become overnight squatters than to have the common sense to book accommodation.

Hopefully, the Augusta Margaret River Shire Council shows a little more decorum in dealing with Sunset Events. The Council is currently opening the Southbound application to submissions from the general public at amrshire.wa.gov.au, closing 8th November.

(Image: Brandon Davies . Source: Southbound 2012 Gallery)

Southbound 2014 Lineup

!!! (Chk Chk Chk)
Anna Lunoe
Asta
Big Scary
Bombino
Bonobo
Boston Switch
The Cat Empire
Charlie Bucket
Chet Faker
Crystal Fighters
DJ Mandy Bubb With L.C. Drums
DJ Swami Adima
Emma Louise
Flight Facilities
Frank Button
Gossling
Grizzly Bear
Hanni El Khatib
Hermitude
The Housejunkie
Hungry Kids Of Hungary
James Vincent McMorrow
Johnny Marr
London Grammar
MGMT
Micah
Mutch & LZ
Neil Finn
Oliver Tank
The Paper Kites
Pond
The Preatures
Purple Sneaker DJs
Pussy Shoogah
RÜFÜS
The Roots
The Rubens
Sosume DJs
Slumberjack
Solange
Thundamentals
The Wombats
Tom Odell
Tyler Touche
Vampire Weekend
Violent Femmes
Violent Soho
The War On Drugs
White Denim