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- Taking stock of Australian festivals
The announcement that 2024 Splendour in the Grass is cancelled was a surprise but not a shock, you know? Of course it immediately prompted an endless stream of takes about why. While I’ve read some very interesting thoughts over the past few days, imo no one has really been comprehensive enough – yes it’s cost of living but its also a culture shift and the climate crisis and the decline of Australian music and poor decision making and even more. Focusing on any one of these elements to the exclusion of the others won’t lead us to the answers about what has to change for live music to thrive in Australia.
So today I’m compiling all factors creating the music festival death spiral on one page – dot point style because it’s a long weekend ☺️ Use this as the discussion starter at family lunch today and your public holiday Monday hangs.
All The Reasons SITG & Australian Music Festivals Are Dying
COST OF LIVING + ECONOMY
– Everything is more expensive, so young people have less disposable income than ever to spend on festival tickets;
– Despite the fact that the price of festival tickets has not risen as much as they could have (should have?) with inflation – we dug into this when Groovin’ The Moo cancelled and found that tickets were comparable to 2016 prices
– But for regional festivals like SITG and GTM, you have to figure in much more than just cost. If you’re driving, the fuel cost alone is enough to rule out the trip… once you add in accomodation (if you’re not camping), food etc, it’s far from an affordable weekend away. This is likely a big reason why metropolitan festivals like Laneway still had strong ticket sales in 2024.
COST OF INSURANCE + CLIMATE CHANGE
– For event planners, the cost of insurance is being pushed up because the climate crisis is increasing the likelihood of extreme weather events. Again, this is a factor that could be affecting regional festivals more than metropolitan festivals.
– Pitch Festival 2024 is an example of just how dangerously this can unfold. Despite extreme bushfire warnings being issue for the region, Pitch reportedly could not officially cancel the event until the Country Fire Authority upgraded the warning to ‘catastrophic’ – otherwise, the insurance would not cover refunds to patrons.
LINE UP PROBLEMS + TRAVEL COST
– Let’s be honest – the SITG lineup was not strong. And this criticism has been given to a lot of Australian music festivals in the past few years. Kylie Minogue for a camping festival is a fundamental mismatch; Arcade Fire would have been a worthy headliner in 2014; which leaves Future as the only headliner worth travelling to see. One out of three is too few!
– I think travel costs (and possibly artist fees) is prohibiting Australian bookers from being able to get those big international acts (at peak hype) that really sell tickets. Even in a cost of living crisis, clearly people will fork out to see internationals like Taylor Swift and Fred Again. But having to book multiple acts at or near that level, when the cost of travel has increased so much, doesn’t make business sense to me.
THE CULTURE SHIFT + DEATH OF MONOCULTURE
– POP CULTURE IS NOT THE SAME AS IT WAS IN 2014 OR 2004! And I can’t help but feel that some of industry leaders in Australia have failed to adapt with the changing times. Cost aside, this might be why a ‘youth’ festival like SITG is booking an indie rock headliner whose hit peak relevance a decade ago?
– But a much bigger factor than that is the death of monoculture. I wrote about this recently in relation to Kate Middleton, but it doesn’t surprise me that festivals are failing at a time where almost no young people are listening to Triple J. “Digital platforms have made entertainment and culture very personalised, driven by algorithms that know you better than you know yourself. Spotify makes playlists curated not only to your specific tastes, but catered down to your listening preferences on the time of day and day of the week.” How do you curate a lineup designed to attract a mass audience in this environment?
DECLINE OF AUSTRALIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY
– This is the one no one wants to talk about, but can’t be ignored in the discussion. Australian music is not in a good place right now. I’m not an expert in this subject, but I’ve been listening to the discussions of people who are and these are the key factors:
– We do have to talk about the decline of Triple J, as it has been the driver of Australian music consumption among young people for the past 20+ years. There is clearly a programming issue, as every time I listen I hear way to many of my favourite artists… from when I was 19 (a while ago). In the absence of a strong youth platform for established and emerging Australian artists…
– We come back to the dominance of algorithimcally-driven digital platforms that cater to a global audience. Something I’ve been thinking for a while is how heavily these platforms favour American culture (I need to sit down and write something more in depth about this). And in the American-pop-culture-hegemony, Australian artists struggle to cut through.
– Even for ‘mainstream’ music consumption (if that still exists?), the ARIA charts are badly out-of-sync with how we actually listen to music. Just look at how many older songs are still sitting on the weekly Top 50 Singles Chart –five of the Top 10 were not released this year. Taylor Swift’s ‘Cruel Summer’ is sitting at #6… it was released in 2019. The Top 20 Australian Singles Chart is even worse… 8 out of the top 10 were not released this year. The chart features ‘Riptide’ by Vance Joy (2013), ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ by Gotye (2011), ‘Thunderstruck’ (1990) and ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ (1980) by AC/DC. A sorry state of affairs!
– The high cost of travel and low ticket sales due to the cost-of-living crisis makes a gig tour difficult for local acts; festivals used to play an important role in Australian acts finding new fans.
MUSIC MONOPOLY
– One last factor that I’m sure plays a role but I’m not quite sure how is the fact that three American companies “control at least 85% of Australia’s live music market”. It’s Live Nation, TEG and AEG-Frontier. The SMH report on this is worth a read – apologies that it’s paywalled, I couldn’t find anything that was as in-depth as this.
Still mulling over that last point. If you have thoughts on how this whole mess comes together, email me! Would love to hear it.
Good stuff on Zee Feed rn:
I feel like we need a reset on the generational discourse in Australia. Gen Z, Millennial and Baby Boomer (sorry, Gen X) are becoming rage-bait terms to make people mad about stuff that doesn’t matter (or isn’t real), isolating us from the ways we could be working together. CLICK HERE TO READ.
Smart stuff on the Internet 💭
All the stuff I found on the web that made me think, smile, or have an ‘aha!’ moment. Spend your Sunday reading them – you'll be better off for it:
The Body Shop shouldn’t have failed in an age when consumers want activism from their brands. What happened? on The Conversation
Super interesting, I found myself agreeing with a lot of this. “What was once an extraordinary point-of-difference is now seen as standard… When The Body Shop opened in 1976, cruelty-free products and ethical business practices were unheard of. It is now challenged by competitors with more radical claims.”
Global Women: Braids That Bind on Vogue
A stunningly beautiful series of articles and photo/video shoots of braiding traditions in Tibet, Spain, Mexico, India, Togo and the Oglala Lakota nation of South Dakota. “Braids are also: A sign of tribal affiliation. A right of passage. An embrace of Blackness. A form of protest. A celebration of culture. An act of resistance. A map to freedom. A source of stigma. A birthright. A secret language. A place to rest. A proud lineage.”
Fleeing bloodshed in Gaza, Palestinians arriving in Australia find they have no place to call home on Guardian Australia
Powerful journalism by friend of Zee Feed, Rafqa Touma. “Salma struggles to sleep at night. ‘I’m very worried… I can’t sleep from the stress, because I don’t have money to pay rent.’ Salma’s young daughter sits next to her in a purple summer dress in a sterile room at the Settlement Services International office in Liverpool. By the end of the month the pair are likely to be homeless.”
This Reddit comment about Beyonce’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ album. None of the major media outlets worldwide have commission Black women critics or journalists to write reviews of Beyonce’s country album. So far the analysis that has really helped me understand Cowboy Carter’s POV is this Reddit user: “For a lot of Black Southerners, we have the same "raising" as our white counterparts. The mudding, the bonfires, riding backroads, driving tractors, attending rodeos, love of community, love of God, etc etc. Is my country less country than my white counterparts because I was primarily listening to Nelly, Outkast, Ludacris, etc with the occasional Dolly, Reba, Garth, Tim, and Faith, etc thrown in? To me, that's what the album represents and is a really great blend of her whole experience as a Black Southern because for a lot of us, the sounds go together.”