Only half of Australia’s festivals profitable, says new report

More than one-third of festivals in Australia lost money in the 2022-2023 financial year, according to a new report from Creative Australia.

The report arrives in the wake of a rapidly diminishing 2024/25 festival season with the cancellations of Splendour in the Grass, Groovin The Moo, Coastal Jam, Summerground, Vintage Vibes, Tent Pole: A Musical Jamboree and ValleyWays.

Touted as the first widespread report of its kind, Soundcheck: Insights into Australia’s music festival sector explores the cultural, social, and economic impact of 535 music festivals held nationwide in the 2022-23 financial year.

Of those, more than one-third (35%) reported losses with a median deficit of $470,000 and eight per cent broke even, while more than half of the festivals surveyed (56%) turned a profit (with the median profit being $731,578),.

According to the report, rising operational costs (47%), lack of funding and grants (39%), insurance (31%) and extreme weather events (22%) are currently the most significant barriers to running music festivals in Australia.

“This is the first-ever national research on the size and benefits of our industry”

Festival organisers have also indicated difficulty in “complex and inconsistent regulatory requirements” on a state-by-state basis, which includes “navigating planning and/or local government/council requirements and navigating police and/or security requirements (both 27% of festivals)”.

On average, 9,506 tickets per festival were sold during the 2022/23 financial year, up from 8,116 tickets in 2018–19. However, the trend of late ticket-buying continues, plus 18-24-year-old punters are buying tickets at lower rates than pre-Covid but people in their mid-to-late 20s purchased tickets at greater rates in the last financial year.

“Soundcheck is a game-changer for music festivals in Australia,” says Australian Festivals Association (AFA) managing director Mitch Wilson. “This is the first-ever national research on the size and benefits of our industry. Thanks to Creative Australia for their work on the report. It will be the bedrock of data for the AFA in our advocacy work for years to come.”

Creative Australia’s executive director of strategic development and partnerships, Georgie McClean, adds “Music brings us together, and millions of Australians attend festivals annually. Yet, until now, the size, scale and impact of the industry has not been well documented or understood.

“We hope this report will serve as a useful tool for festival organisers and help us to better understand the role and contribution of festivals within the broader creative industries as they face multiple challenges. To inform the future work of Music Australia, we will be undertaking further research into how Australians discover, engage with and consume music in order to better understand the broader ecosystem that underpins live music, including festivals.”

Read the full report here.

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