A regional Queensland mayor has thrown her support behind a petition calling on national youth broadcaster triple j to withdraw its support of the popular Groovin the Moo festival.
The annual multi-location festival, which visited north Queensland from 2008 to 2019, has dropped its Townsville leg due to logistical and financial challenges and replaced it with a show on the Sunshine Coast.
The Townsville event, usually in early May, has attracted crowds of up to 20,000.
Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill questioned whether Groovin the Moo could continue to pitch itself as a festival for regional Australia without a stop in the country's north.
"Three of the stops, Wayville in Adelaide, Canberra and the Sunshine Coast can hardly be considered regional," Ms Hill said.
"Let's face it, the Sunshine Coast is an outer suburb of Brisbane."
'Tyranny of distance'
Ms Hill said she would support a petition submitted to the House of Representatives by Townsville resident Karl Geiger.
"As Groovin the Moo is sponsored by triple j, owned by the Australian government, one has to question the commitment of the national broadcaster to northern Australia," Ms Hill said.
"The tyranny of distance kills us for events. You shouldn't have to live in Brisbane for liveability. We can't make it a liveable place if we don't have some events.
"That's why triple j supporting events in the outer suburbs of Brisbane [doesn't] go down well for us in regional Queensland.
"If triple j really wanted to have a good presence in the north, it needs to actually sponsor events in the north."
The ABC contacted Mr Geiger and Groovin the Moo management, but neither was available for comment.
Ms Hill said she would like to see the broadcaster sponsor coming Townsville events such as the North Australian Festival of Arts and Tropic Sounds.
Those events are currently sponsored by a commercial radio station.
Broadcaster supports other events
In a statement, triple j said it had a deep commitment to servicing audiences outside the major capital cities and in regional Australia and had supported multiple events specifically in Townsville in the past year.
Those included the Day Trip Festival on August 20, 2022 and the Unearthed competition, which gave emerging local artists from north and far north Queensland an opportunity to play at the Day Trip Festival.
The national youth broadcaster also supported Greta Stanley in Townsville on August 5, 2022 and WAAX, who was scheduled to perform in the region on November 26, 2022, but cancelled due to personal reasons.
The triple j breakfast team also spent a week in Cairns to showcase the region on national radio last year.
The broadcaster said 42 per cent of tours it supported in the past year included regional areas, either partly or entirely.
It said 21 per cent of tours were entirely regional.
