Festival bosses from some of Australia’s biggest events – including Big Day Out, Stereosonic, and Future Music Festival – have opened up about some of the major issues facing the festival market Down Under.
Speaking on at this year’s Electronic Music Conference (EMC), which wraps up today in Sydney, a panel of festival honchos addressed topics such as the price of festival tickets, the fierce competition and immense costs of booking bands, and the difficulties faced by festival promoters which has led to an industry squeeze that’s led the cancellation of the likes of Homebake, Pyramid Rock, Harvest Festival and Big Day Out‘s second date in Sydney (before the whole Blur cancellation fiasco).
Big Day Out CEO Adam Zammit said that skyrocketing artist fees, which can take up to an average 80% of a festival’s budget, was one of the bigger hurdles for the Australian market, especially given its isolation where overseas agents take advantage of competitive bidding.
“[Agents and bands] know we’re a fervent, competitive bunch of assholes down here [in Australia], and God knows they prey on that,” Zammit told the audience at the ‘Booms, Busts and Bidding Wars – We Need to Talk About Festivals’ panel at EMC yesterday.
“Our industry can be fucking retarded when it comes to the way we coordinate,” Zammit admitted, noting controversially that with a little price collusion, “we’d all be better off.” “Our industry can be fucking retarded when it comes to the way we coordinate.” – Big Day Out CEO Adam Zammit
“Niche is a great way to build a business,” says Zammit, noting that the Big Day Out had gone in the opposite directions of most festival by opening itself up to sharing acts with other festival promoters, later comparing the complexity to a marriage; “we love each other half the time,” he joked.
Brett Robinson, director of Future Music Festival (which is now being presented in association with Mushroom), says the volatile festival scene is unlikely to settle anytime soon; “there’s more changes from year to year than ever before.”
Robinson, who along with fellow Future figure Jason Ayoubi also emphasised the growing interest in the Asian market, where the event has already established a foothold with Future Music Festival Asia in Malaysia, saying that the territory was a potentially lucrative area of expansion for Aussie promoters.
A point agreed on by Richie McNeill and Dror Erez, the Co-CEOS of SFX Totem – the newly-minted US owners of Stereosonic – who said Asia “is going to be the next battleground between these guys [Future Music Festival] and us.” To which Future’s Robinson retorted, “we’re already there,” Ayoubi adding, “you guys should hurry up and get over there.”
On the topic of inflating ticket prices, the Future directors said that they’d achieved a ceiling, while Zammit declared, “this industry is not guilty of profiteering through ticket prices.”
Simon Coffey, the director of Q-dance Australia however, said that ticket prices were likely to continue to rise. Q-Dance are the team behind Defqon.1, the hardcore EDM event where a 23-year-old patron died of a drug related overdose in September, while 14 more were hospitalised and 84 arrested related to drugs.
The delicate issue was also touched on by McNeill, who had attended New York’s Electric Zoo festival where two punters died of drug overdoses. “The US is 10 years behind in safety standards,” said the Stereosonic boss, while all panelists agreed that American companies had a lot to learn, especially in making inroads into the Australian market.
“You don’t just drop a brand down here and say that’s a festival – it certainly undermines the intelligence of an audience,” said Zammit, whose Big Day Out is partnered with Austin-based promotions company C3 Presents. “It’s Australia, we don’t need anything else from other people.”
In related news, Big Day Out is currently finalising the contracts of the three bands set to replace Blur on the Big Day Out 2014 lineup, Stereosonic 2013 saw over 120 patrons hit with drug charges by Police over the weekend before continuing its tour around the country this weekend, and Future Music Festival has announced its 2014 Asian leg and gearing up for the Australian edition next March.
