Music festivals are back

Music festivals have bounced back over Easter with Bluesfest attracting over 100,000 punters, the Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival attracting a younger crowd and the National Folk Festival struggling to reach the 10,400 who attended in 2019.  I was at the Folk Festival again this year and will have an article next week on the new direction taken by the NFF Board, with a salient lesson for anyone relaunching a festival following COVID.

Easter events were followed by the Tamworth Country Music Festival, the Parkes Elvis Festival and this weekend, Groovin’ the Moo in Maitland and Canberra (with Bendigo to follow next weekend).

Festival Director, Peter Noble said of Bluesfest

‘In 2019, we sold 105,000 tickets and generated an economic impact for NSW alone of $270 million. The festival created 1300 full-time equivalent jobs.’

 ‘This year we’ve sold more than 101,000 tickets ­– more than 15,000 of those in the past week. We had a surge of sales in the last 10 days. People waited to make sure we didn’t get cancelled again before they bought a ticket.’

Note that last sentence – confidence is returning, but punters are waiting to the last minute to purchase tickets because a) they want to know the event will go ahead and b) they want to be confident they will be able to attend.

Speaking of Groovin’ the Moo…

Insurer roadblocks force cancellation of pill testing at Groovin’ the Moo Canberra festival

Pill Testing Australia has been forced to pull their services from Groovin’ The Moo’s Canberra music festival at the last minute, after being unable to secure insurance.

An even bigger issue for the event industry is emerging

If you thought COVID was a hit on the event industry just wait until you try to renew your PL insurance.  I’m currently working on a story about a business that has had their PLI premium increased tenfold – yes 10 times more than what they paid last year. And some of the quotes they were getting were just plain ridiculous. $2m coverage for $250,000 or $4m for $450,000 and these quotes included restrictions on temporary structures over 11 metres and nothing to be rigged over areas with people.

If you have encountered similar issues with insurance, please contact me – I would love to have a chat.  

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