The war against music festivals is well and truly on in Perth as Claremont council who yesterday declared that the Big Day Out was ‘not welcome’ back have voted in favour of seeking legal advice to try and ban festivals from returning to the showgrounds.
At a vote held during a council meeting last night the council led by Mayor Jock Barker voted unanimously to seek legal advice on its options to stop Big Day Out and Soundwave from returning to the showgrounds.
According to WA Today, Mayor Barker told the council that “despite the best efforts of the staff to work with the RAS, promoters and other authorities the fact remains the impact on Claremont residents is unacceptable and is not getting any better.”
He also took aim at the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) who have locked horns with the council for siding with the festivals. The council claims the RAS failed to ensure that the required sound levels were adhered to.
“When they don’t do that, then the promoters just do what they like,” Mayor Barker said. Of particular annoyance to the council is the annual Soundwave Festival which this year attracted more than 30,000 metal heads and according to the council breached volume restrictions ‘excessively’.
Barker says that the festival would be facing prosecution as a result and that the anti-social behaviour exhibited by Soundwave patrons forms part of the reason they too are not welcome back.
“It’s not just about the noise, it’s about the trashing of the town,” Barker said. “We all like music, I grew up with rock and roll, but if people behaved themselves, and noise conditions weren’t breached, you wouldn’t hear a peep out of anybody.”
“We get consistently ignored in terms of what we require by Big Day Out and Soundwave. When we approve it we apply conditions… and they seem to get ignored.”
“So we had a discussion with the liquor licensing people recently, and there does appear to be some new grounds under which we can make sure that the event is conditioned in such a way that it doesn’t exceed the level.”
It’s unclear what the next step in this battle will be, but the council will no doubt have a fight on their hands from not just the promoters but the thousands of music lovers who attend the festival held at Claremont Showground each year.
