The sudden cancellation of one of Australia’s largest touring regional music festivals will have “a profound ripple effect” on the towns that had planned for it, and has prompted calls on the federal government to establish a support package for live music.
On Wednesday, organisers of the Groovin the Moo festival, Cattleyard Promotions, announced they were cancelling all six regional festivals, just eight days after tickets had gone on sale.
International headliners including Melanie C, GZA of Wu-Tang Clan, the Kooks and the Beaches were to play the touring festival in late April and early May, alongside Australian acts Jet, King Stingray, Mallrat and San Cisco.
In a statement on social media, the festival said they were “extremely disappointed” but that “ticket sales have not been sufficient to deliver a regional festival of this kind”.
All ticket purchases will be automatically refunded. The organisers have declined to respond to media requests for further comment.
With dates set for Wayville in South Australia, Bendigo, Canberra, the Sunshine Coast, Newcastle and Bunbury in WA, Groovin the Moo is the latest music festival to temporarily fold this year. On New Year’s Eve, the long-running Falls festival in Byron Bay did not go ahead, with organisers saying they would take a year off to “recalibrate”. Adelaide’s Vintage Vibes was cancelled in late January and Camden’s ValleyWays festival was also cancelled in January, citing “cost of living pressures”.
The Greens issued a statement on Thursday saying music festivals were collapsing due to inflation, and changes in how the public purchases tickets due to an uncertain economic environment.
“It’s clear that there is an urgent need for government support to keep the industry going through these uncertain economic times,” said the Greens spokesperson for the arts, Sarah Hanson-Young, who has asked arts minister Tony Burke to fund another round of live music grants in the May budget, and work with the festivals industry to enable them to stay viable.
But an insider told Guardian Australia that poor tickets sales may have also been affected by the mix of artists chosen to perform. “We think we got the lineup wrong,” they said the organisers told them.
‘We need to take stock of what’s really going on here’
The Greens said it was clear the festival industry was still “struggling to get back on its feet since it was decimated by the Covid pandemic”.
But Dr Andy Ward, senior lecturer in contemporary music at the University of the Sunshine Coast – a short drive from a Groovin the Moo site – said the issues facing the live music industry were more complex.
“The industry has been through the wringer since Covid, but we can’t really continue [just] blaming Covid-19 for the change in consumer behaviour,” said Ward, whose research area is the economic and political environments of the music and entertainment industries.
“Younger audiences have completely different expectations to pre-Covid audiences. You’re talking about a generation who … may have spent their last years of high school or their first years at university in lockdown, isolated at home or certainly in less close social contact environments … and there is the issue of social anxiety we’ve been looking into.
“We need to look at the other things they’re spending money on, and it seems to be home entertainment and more streaming-based media. Younger people aren’t engaging in the traditional coming-of-age [experiences], they’re socialising at home and having house parties.”
Ward said the Groovin the Moo cancellation on the Sunshine Coast was nevertheless surprising, given its enormous success last year. All 25,000 tickets sold out within five days, for a lineup that included Fatboy Slim, Amy Shark, Eliza Rose and Ocean Alley.
The chief executive of Queensland’s music industry development association, Kris Stewart of QMusic, said rising insurance and transport costs meant touring events had to practically sell out in order to break even.
“We need to take stock of what’s really going on here,” he said. “Do these festivals need to be smaller, do we need to find less expensive ways of touring? Are there other more sustainable ways of doing things, where maybe [organisers] pick up more national artists, instead of international artists, and have fewer people on the road? There’s a number of things that I think need to be considered … we can’t just keep ploughing ahead like this.”
‘We’re looking at a seven-figure loss’: destinations left reeling
Regional music festivals fill local restaurants and hotels, with local caterers, cleaners, transport workers and security companys all benefiting from the influx of thousands of young people attending a weekend event.
Terry Karamaloudis, Bendigo’s manager of tourism and major events, said the Groovin the Moo cancellation would take a considerable toll on the city’s economy.
“There is no doubt we’re looking at a seven-figure sum,” he said. Based on Tourism Research Australia data, Bendigo’s loss is “going to be a lot more than a million bucks” he said.
“It’s been one of the best attended and best run events in Bendigo for 15 years, and we’ve had a very long and very rewarding relationship with Groovin the Moo … It’s unfortunate, but this has not been an easy decision for them to make and we continue to fully support the event organisers.”
The chief executive of the South Australian Business Chamber, Andrew Kay, said the cancellation of such a large event in Adelaide will have “a profound ripple effect” on local supply chains.
“Businesses that are struggling to stay afloat were relying on income to be generated by this festival,” he said.
“From food vendors to security teams, clean-up crews, audiovisual technicians, staging companies, furniture providers, logistics firms, and many more, each of these businesses will now miss out on significant income opportunities. Many of them may have turned down other work in anticipation of this event.”
