Last month, a music festival arrived in the flood-ravaged northern Victorian town of Rochester, via steam train.
It was the second iteration of the Sound Tracks initiative, a three-day music festival run by Geelong-based music festival organiser Kate Berry and Shaun Adams, which used the vintage locomotive to tour flood-affected towns. In April, it headed from Melbourne to Echuca and back down to Rochester, which is still recovering from the 2022 floods.
“Because of the floods [Rochester] had in October 2022, and in January this year they got a whole other fright with the possibility of floods again, it’s important we bring the good vibes to the people of the town,” Berry says.
The festival is part of a series of events in regional Victoria run by Berry’s OK Motels, a contemporary music festival company founded in 2018 to celebrate some of the state’s lesser-known rural destinations.
The festival has found its home base for the past six years in the north-east Victorian town of Charlton while also spreading the “good vibes” across various parts of the state.
“It’s just nice for people to visit places they may not necessarily have considered visiting before,” Berry says. “It also creates a space for people to come together from different walks of life and get to know each other.”
While the small festival is growing, the wider Australian music scene is reeling.
Four major music festivals have been cancelled or suspended this year, with the blame placed on insufficient ticket sales, the cost of living and a scarcity of big draw headline acts.
Groovin’ The Moo, Splendour in the Grass and Mona Foma have each announced indefinite cancellations, with Falls festival also stating it was “taking this new year’s season off to rest, recover and recalibrate” in early 2023. The smaller Castlemaine state festival also went into voluntary administration this month with claims the past couple of festivals were “underwhelming” and lacked community involvement.
Berry says no event is immune to the threats currently facing the festival industry but smaller operations are more manageable for organisers and allow for greater connection and comfort for punters.
“At the last event we did in Charlton, we had a lot of people saying that even though [our headliners] were incredible, the highlight was sharing the town,” she says.
“On Saturday we had the pool party, the Charlton Youth Group, the Uniting Church market, and the CWA making scones. The whole town comes out and shows everyone what it’s about.
“I think people like to be considered and cared for. After Covid, people do like to have smaller gatherings.”
Jayden Bath is the founder of the Loch Hart music festival in Princetown along the Great Ocean Road.
Bath says he was on the verge of cancelling this year’s event due to low ticket sales.
He made a public call-out warning of the impending cancellation, and festival-goers responded, making January’s event “the best festival yet”.
To ensure the future of his event, Bath has now asked punters to pay a $50 deposit on the $250 early bird ticket price, with more than 120 tickets already sold for next year and incentives for those pledging to attend.
“A lot of us [festival organisers] need to do something different,” he says. “And I think it comes down to early buy-in. If we can prompt that, that’s how we solve it because we can’t go out and get [big headline acts].”
Bath says that while music-lovers are prepared to shell out for megastars such as Taylor Swift, festivals are less popular.
“We need to be more creative,” he says.
According to the Australian Festival Association, 535 music festivals were presented across Australia in the 2022–23 financial year, with Victoria and New South Wales hosting the most events.
More than $234m of revenue was attributed to contemporary music festivals in 2022, making up 11.7% of the total revenue of the Australian live performance industry.
The AFA managing director, Mitch Wilson, says the music festival industry is facing a crisis, with the flow-on effects felt across communities and impacting livelihoods.
“Some festivals have seen strong ticket sales this summer but, with costs up 30-40% across the board and affordable insurance difficult to obtain, margins are tight.
“Festival organisers haven’t raised ticket prices to offset or meet these increases due to cost-of-living challenges being faced by everyone.”
Wilson says festivals were important to regional communities in particular, boosting tourism and creating employment.
They say boutique festivals are continuing to attract crowds due to their “unique offering but also their special connection to their audience”.
“It feels really personal when they communicate to you online or at their events. It feels more like a party with friends.
“Given the difficult economic circumstances at the moment a smaller event is much less of a risk, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we do see more intimate events in the future.”
Berry says it is important to create a safe space where people can escape.
“It’s this one little pocket of joy for a couple of days and it’s nice to share it with the people in town too,” she says.
