It’s sad to say, but these days we’ve pretty much grown accustomed to hearing of another Australian music festival announcing a hiatus, taking a year a off, or in many cases, shutting its doors for good.
Obviously, we’re never happy to hear it, but it’s become so common that it’s hard to act surprised when another festival succumbs to an ailing economy, a difficult consumer base, and a crowded market.
Usually we react by sharing the news on Twitter, maybe tagging friend in a Facebook comment, reminiscing on some of the good times had at that festival, and then moving on, leaving organisers and staff to take the brunt of the impact.
But it’s not just fans and organisers who are affected by the loss of a music festival. As the Sydney Morning Herald notes, when a festival leaves a town, particularly in a rural area, the financial effects can be devastating.
Often a music festival is one of the few things bringing tourism into a town and when the event collapses, the host town misses out on thousands, even millions in revenue drawn from the influx of people.
As some readers may be aware, the organisers of Toowoomba’s Christian music festival Easterfest recently announced that they would not be returning for another year in 2016, following several years of declining ticket sales.
“It’s no secret we had a tough year last year and even last year we had to have a look at the future,” event director Dave Schenk told The Chornicle last month. “We’ve never been a festival that’s sold out and there’s never been a year where we’ve broken even before the festival started.”
“We rely on gate sales to make a profit,” said Schenk. However, heavy rains this year saw that walk-up sales were lacklustre and it was soon apparent that hosting the event next year would simply be unfeasible.
“This has been the most difficult decision we’ve had to make, and we understand it will take time for the Easterfest family to process this news,” said Easterfest board chairman Tony Gear.
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“We desperately wanted to find a way forward after this year’s festival. In recent weeks we’ve looked at all the options, we’ve considered all the factors, and come to the conclusion that this current event model isn’t sustainable.”
As a result of the cancellation, the Toowoomba economy could lose as much as $12.5 million a year, according to Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio. According to Cr Antonio, about 80 percent of Easterfest’s 10,000-plus attendees come from outside the region.
Cr Antonio said an additional $6.5 million was added to the wider Queensland community as a result of Easterfest, highlighting the important role that music festivals play in the economies of rural towns.
“As far as we were concerned, [Easterfest] certainly put us on the map and brought a lot of people to town,” he said. “Not only was there the special Christian Easter message that came out of it, but there was also a real economic opportunity for Toowoomba so naturally we’re disappointed.”
Easterfest is the latest Australian music festival to shut down in 2015, with Victoria’s Inca Roads announcing their discontinuation in March and even EDM juggernaut Future Music Festival calling it quits back in April.
