The community fundraising and music event, Surry Hills Festival, will not be returning this year with organisers confirming that the 2013 edition has been cancelled owing to financial struggles.
Surry Hills Festival 2012 was held in late October at Sydney’s Prince Alfred Park, but the event suffered severe financial losses which have forced the 2013 edition to into hiatus, as a representative from the event’s organisers, the Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre confirms to The Music.
The rep also emphasises that organisers are currently sourcing funds for a replacement edition, tentatively scheduled for March or April next year.
The annual festival (not to be confused with the Victorian version of the same name, which took place last Saturday 26th October) is the primary fundraiser for the Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre, providing finances for its various community services with a day of music, arts, market stalls, and a local favourite, the annual Surry Hills Dog Show.
Last year’s lineup featured the likes of Tijuana Cartel, Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!, The Tongue, and DJ sets from Alison Wonderland, Canyons, Purple Sneakers, Sosume, and more.
A bill that was put together by then-Festival Director Matt Grant, the head of the Festival Company and the figure at the centre of the controversial Peats Ridge Festival collapse.
The Peats Ridge promoter first announced that the annual NSW event was ceasing and going into liquidation in January, before a messy investigation uncovered that he’d been the head of several companies that had been made insolvent in recent years, then in July there were accusations that Grant had been embezzling money with over $1.3 million in debt still unaccounted for from the Peats Ridge wind-up.
At the time of the flagship event going into collapse, Matt Grant told The Music that: “The Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre will continue to be the promoters of the Surry Hills Festival and this process in no way effects either The Surry Hills Festival or the Neighbourhood Centre.”
The Peats Ridge Festival collapse was among the first victims in what’s been a worrying year for the Aussie music festival market.
More recently there’s been the cancellation of major players like Homebake, Harvest, Pyramid Rock and Big Day Out’s second Sydney date along with rumours it would be facing a $10m loss, as well as issues with Bluesfest’s inaugural Boomerang festival and ATP’s Release The Bats, among others.
Then there’s the likely cancellation of Summadayze as messy liquidation proceedings continue for Future Entertainment Pty Ltd, as their flagship Future Music Festival is taken under the wing of Michael Gudinski’s Mushroom Group.
All of which may serve to demonstrate that the burgeoning market of the early oughties is a bubble that’s beginning to burst as the festival market resets and adjusts, while a recent industry survey indicated that punters weren’t buying tickets to festivals based on the quality of their lineup and ticket cost.
In more positive news however, a number of new mid-range events have sprung up this year, demonstrating that perhaps the market may instead be favouring smaller boutique festivals.
The list of new festivals includes Tasmanian festival Panama – announced yesterday – Efterski Festival, Paradise, and NYE On The Hill in Victoria, the Skrillex-headlined Beachlife in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, and the continued success of events like Inca Roads in Ballarat, Festival Of The Sun, and Riverboats Festival.
