In case you missed the bombshell yesterday, Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest entertainment promotions company, have acquired a 51 percent stake in Australia’s Secret Sounds Group, best known for organising two of Australia’s biggest music festivals – Byron Bay’s Splendour In The Grass and the national Falls Music & Arts Festival.
The sale adds Splendour In The Grass and Falls Festival to Live Nation’s extensive events portfolio, which includes more than 80 festivals around the world, including globally recognised events like New York’s Governors Ball, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Electric Daisy Carnival, Reading, Leeds, Rock Werchter, and more.
“Splendour in the Grass and Falls are the two most iconic festivals in Australia,” said Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino in a statement. “Jess and Paul have created events that attract the biggest artists in the world but still feel uniquely Australian. We look forward to partnering with them to find new ways to grow our live event footprint across Australia.”
Splendour has never had trouble booking the world’s biggest artists and it’s likely that ability will only be bolstered by Live Nation coming into the fold, but there are some concerns that Splendour, which gracefully tip-toes along the line between the worlds of pop and alternative music, could turn into an iHeartRadio-style pop festival.
Speaking to Music Feeds, Secret Sounds founders Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco said everything will be “business as usual” at both Splendour and Falls and fans shouldn’t expect any changes. “Our ethos and concepts will remain as they always have – to bring the best artists and experiences from around Australia and overseas to our events,” they said.
“We’ve had multiple investors over the years and we are thrilled to welcome Live Nation on board who understand the music business completely. We’re really excited about the future,” they added. In fact, if anything the entry of Live Nation into the Secret Sounds fold is likely to impact other events more so than Splendour or Falls.
If Live Nation are smart, and we know they are, they’ll leave Splendour and Falls alone. After all, what’s the saying? Don’t fix what’s not broken. However, when it comes to broken things, there’s certainly more than a couple of gaps in the Australian festival market that Live Nation could be looking to fill. For one thing, we’ve all heard the rumours about Download Festival.
But what’s even more intriguing is the fact that Live Nation own C3 Presents, the former owners of Big Day Out, who at one point said they planned on bringing the iconic festival brand back to Australia, perhaps as an international leg of Lollapalooza festival, which they also promoted. As we’ve noted, the trademark for Lollapalooza is registered in Australia.
As rumours continue to swirl that we may be on the cusp of another major music festival explosion in Australia, the sale of 51 percent of Secret Sounds is certain to have an impact on the wider Australian music industry, but punters can likely rest easy in the knowledge that it won’t be affecting Falls and Splendour.
Photo by Jess Gleeson, via Splendour in the Grass
