A three-day electronic music festival that had been billed to turn Maitland Showground into a psytrance rave this month will not go ahead in the Hunter after police were called in to investigate a threat against the hosting venue.
The Frequency Forest festival was scrapped suddenly on Friday evening, September 18, as police made inquiries into an email threat sent earlier this week to the Maitland Showground while Victorian detectives looked into the firebombing of two luxury cars in Melbourne.
In a statement, the promoter's representative said the festival had been targeted by "escalating threats" for weeks over the involvement of five Israeli DJs booked to perform at its one-day sister festivals in Sydney and Melbourne, planned to run simultaneously with the Hunter event next week.
They said the Maitland festival - the largest of the three events - was called off and acts would instead be relocated to Sydney to be staged in nightclubs.
The artists at the centre of the furore had been taken off the billing, organisers said, over "serious concerns for the safety of patrons, artists, staff, and venues".
The promoter said ticket holders would be contacted directly about the changes to the event, though it was not specified when the relocated events would go ahead, or at which venues.
On Saturday, Victoria Police confirmed detectives were investigating after a BMW X7 and Mercedes AMG A45S belonging to the promoter were burnt outside their home last month.
A spokesman for the interstate police force told the Newcastle Herald at the weekend that the investigation was continuing and the fires were being treated as suspicious.
Residents of the leafy and affluent Malvern East neighbourhood in Melbourne's inner south-east were woken in the early hours of August 16 by "a loud bang", police said, before the cars were found to have been set alight outside about 3.15am.
Emergency services extinguished the fires, but the cars were destroyed. There were no reports of injuries.
A social media account which has railed against the event over staging Israeli music artists appeared to single out the Maitland Showground in a post earlier this week.
The post appeared to decry the event's line-up and encourage its followers to contact the venue to agitate against it and demand a boycott.
"Maitland Showground is hosting [Israeli] psytrance DJs," the post read. "They do not have the privilege of undertaking 'business as usual'."
The venue was understood to have received an email threatening to damage the Showground on Wednesday, reportedly writing: "Do you have enough fire precautions?".
General manager Andrew Jenkins told the Herald that police were quickly notified and had conducted a full risk assessment.
The event would not be going ahead next week, he said.
NSW Police confirmed on Saturday they were aware of the threat and were making inquiries.
Despite the event's apparent foundering, though, promotional material on the festival's website and social media appeared to be still advertising the festival as going ahead at Maitland Showground next weekend.
A ticket sales portal remained live on the festival's website on Saturday, listing final release passes for $419, group tickets for $335.20, as well as bus passes, and day passes priced between $160 and $200.
Passes for non-campers were priced at $349.
The website listed "three days of world-class electronics music" and "BYO camping at Maitland Showground" between September 25 and 27.
In a post on Thursday, September 10, the festival said about 250 tickets remained as the event approached sellout. It had previously been reported to have a capacity of more than 5000.
"This is not a decision we wanted to make," the promoter said in a statement. "However, after weeks of escalating threats, our responsibility has to be to the safety of everyone attending and working at our events."
Forest Frequency's Hunter debut was billed with a line-up of high-profile international music producers and DJs from September 25 for a three-day progressive electronic music and camping festival at the former home of the Hunter's largest music festival Groovin' The Moo.
It had promised some 60 acts across two stages, with carnival rides, large-scale art installations and wellness experiences.
When the event was announced last month, only days before the promoter's cars were firebombed, the company had described it as "creating an escape".
"It's a place where people can leave everyday life behind and spend an entire weekend immersed in incredible music, creativity and community," they said.
"Whether you're discovering a new artist at sunset, dancing beneath the stars or exploring the festival grounds and experiencing the carnival rides with friends, every part of the experience has been designed to create lasting memories."
The festival's promoter, FOMO Events Australia - a corporate holding of Fly High Events Pty Ltd, based in Pendle Hill according to its government filings - was registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in April this year.
The same government filings link the company's former director to another string of Sydney-based electronic music promotions businesses operating under the name of Elysium which was registered to the same addresses as FOMO Events' holding company, Fly High Events.
Taken together, the businesses have variously been linked to numerous electronic and psytrance music festivals including Paradigm Sydney and Future Sound of Egypt in Sydney in 2024, and Zenith Gathering in 2023, among other rave events.
In their statement, the promoter said the Maitland festival had been cancelled with plans to relocate performances, adding the decision was made "solely on safety grounds and is not a political statement or an endorsement of calls to boycott the artists".
"Regardless of anyone's views on the current situation internationally, as a promoter I cannot knowingly put the safety of our patrons, artists, or staff at risk," the promoter said.
"We respect the right of people to peacefully protest, express their views, or choose not to attend an event. What we cannot accept are threats, intimidation, or violence," the company's partner, who wished to remain anonymous, said through a spokeswoman.
The promoter said it would not comment further, citing the continuing investigations, but said it would continue "to work closely with police, venues, and relevant security personnel regarding the safe operation of the events".
NSW Police said Saturday evening that officers were continuing to make inquiries about the email sent to Maitland Showground management on Wednesday. Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
