Festivals in NSW are really going through some defining changes at the moment in light of the recent last minute cancellation of the Mountain Sounds the Australian Festival Association has released the following statement and is important for every one to read and understand the changes facing your favourite festivals or any future would be festivals.

In September 2018 after two deaths of suspected drug overdoses at Defqon 1, the NSW Premier called for the event to be closed down. In a backdown after public pressure the Premier announced an expert panel would be appointed to look into music festival safety. The panel were given only four weeks to come up with a report.

During this time there was just one meeting where only two festival organisers were invited to give 5 minutes of feedback to the expert panel.

The expert panel came back with recommendations around three key areas:

Improving the regulation of music festivals by introducing a new, specific and consistent licensing regime to improve safety, and provide certainty for the music festival industry and other stakeholders;

Strengthening drug and alcohol education, and providing more support for frontline health workers at music festivals; and

Strengthening laws to target drug suppliers by introducing a new offence that will hold drug dealers responsible for deaths they cause, and trialling on-the-spot fines instead of criminal proceedings for small-quantity drug possession at music festivals

The introduction of the new Festival License and Interim Health Guidelines has been too rushed and without enough consultation or consideration given to the impacts on the industry as a whole or the operational capacity each government branch has to implement these changes. Most significant changes to an industry like this would require a Regulatory Impact Statement to assess the real economic impact on an important cultural sector.

Music Festivals which are affected by these changes have an estimated combined audience of over 750,000 patrons and contribute millions of dollars to rural, regional and urban communities in NSW. Last minute conditions, increased user pays police costs and liquor licenses that are issued less than 24 hours before an event have contributed to an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty for many event organisers.

To ensure the safety of people across NSW and provide certainty for the music festival industry we are asking the government the below:

Roll out the Music Festival License as a trial, to ensure that the definition of a music festival can be applied evenly, that the risk matrix being used to assess events can be reviewed and so the real impact of these changes can be assessed for all genres of music festivals.

Maintain the fees for the Music Festival License in line with current Special Event licenses, to ensure the fee doesn’t result in a competitive advantage being given to concerts and other events

Roll out a comprehensive online portal which provides harm minimisation training for event staff, patrons and young people across NSW, to address the society-wide issue of drug use which resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 Australians in 2018.

Open an offsite drug safety checking & education facility, to trial pill testing in a controlled environment that gives people access to a harm minimisation service with appropriate health intervention at any time, not just at music festivals.

To ensure that emergency service costs borne by events are negotiated ahead of time.
The AFA will be hosting an industry forum on Friday 15th February to discuss the above and encourage members and the industry to provide feedback and submissions to Liquor and Gaming and the Premier’s Department.