There is no doubt in any live music lover’s minds that the 2014 Australian Music Festival circuit has been nothing to rave over. Although big name acts have been returning to our shores year after year, the punters who pay to see these acts have not.
For some of the biggest music festivals in Australia, ticket sales have slumped dramatically, resulting in some of the poorest crowd attendance in some time and leaving some of Australia’s biggest promoters scratching their heads.
As a result, some of Australia’s most celebrated, and what we would believe, bullet-proof music festivals have been forced back to the drawing board, retracting geographically as well as downsizing in scale.
Demonstrating that demand for music festival tickets has indeed been on the decline, according to recent data from Viagogo, ticket-holders looking to re-sell their Soundwave 2014 passes through the online platform were forced to lower their return to up to 30% less than cost price.
By comparison, demand for Soundwave 2014 – and its massive bill of 90+ bands – was less than 10% for a single night with The Boss, with tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s return Australian tour last month being the second-highest selling event (behind the Australian Open and ahead of the Ashes) on Viagogo. “It seems that, with Soundwave’s recent woes, the Australian festival season went out with a whimper, not a bang.”
In fact, Viagogo’s top 5 results show that aside from sport, Australians are still completely in tune with live music; Springsteen having raked in a very comfortable $26.7 million for his most recent tour, while the Eminem-headlined Rapture festival and country-goddess Dolly Parton came in at #4 and #5 respectively in a list of the year’s top-selling events so far.
Alex Levenson, a spokesperson for the Swiss-born ticket resale facility, which launched in Australia last September during a media furore over ticket scalping legislation, says that “it seems that, with Soundwave’s recent woes, the Australian festival season went out with a whimper, not a bang.”
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Adding: “With so many major acts now playing several dates in Australia on their world tours… summer festivals need to book big names to draw in the crowds. Unfortunately, this year the country’s biggest festivals have fallen short of the mark and have paid the price with slumping ticket demand.” “Let’s hope that next year the festival chiefs can get it right and book – and retain – the talent that Aussies want to see.”
It’s arguable that both Big Day Out and Soundwave did book ‘the big names’, but both suffered unfortunate from major drawcards pulling out of the event, from the former’s high-profile Blur cancellation to Soundwave losing Megadeth among a string of pull-outs (including Stone Temple Pilots, Newsted, Whitechapel, Desaparecidos, Hardcore Superstar, and Sevendust).
Its not solely a festival bill that affects ticket sales, but both festivals certainly experienced a drop in attendance figures. The once juggernaut Big Day Out suffered immensely, with approximate attendance figures for the 2014 tour amounting to around half of the 2013 tour, with promoter AJ Maddah admitting the festival had suffered “ugly” financial losses as a result.
These poor ticket sales have certainly proved detrimental to both Soundwave and Big Day Out. So much so that promoter AJ Maddah has begrudgingly conceded to removing Perth as a touring destination in 2015 for both Soundwave and Big Day Out.
This raises the question of just how much appeal remains for the once great all-day Australian music festival. It may be a scary thought, but the proof is in the 2014 pudding: we are still willing to pay the big bucks for the big names, but Australian punters are seemingly less interested in the large-scale all-day music festivals… at least according to Viagogo’s re-sale figures.
“Festivals are an integral part of any music fan’s summer and, for many, they’re the setting of some of their favourite musical experiences. Let’s hope that next year the festival chiefs can get it right and book – and retain – the talent that Aussies want to see,” Levinson says.
Viagogo’s Top 5 Selling Events Of 2014 So Far
1. Australian Open
2. Bruce Springsteen
3. The Ashes
4. Eminem
5. Dolly Parton
