You & Me Festival cancels before launch
The debut edition of Western Australia’s You & Me Festival has been cancelled, dealing another blow to a suffering festival scene in the country.
The multi-day event, set for 29-31 December in Bunbury (175 km south of Perth), was created by Together Group and Palace J Entertainment “with the aim of innovating the festival game to bring back camping festivals to WA for good,” organisers said on their website.
But more than a month out from the inaugural event — set to be headlined by rapper Soulja Boy and Australian singer-songwriter Ruel — organisers have announced it can no longer proceed.
“I explored every possible avenue for the festival to go ahead, however unfortunately it was just not feasible,” the team wrote on Instagram.
“I just ask one thing. Please keep supporting Australian festivals and live music or they will be gone before you know it.”
Festival founder Bailey Chalmers explained the decision to ABC News, citing poor ticket sales, high insurance costs and a last-minute withdrawal of an unnamed international headliner who “was unable to get into the country,” Chalmers said.
“Unless you can find a replacement of similar calibre, it becomes an issue of try[ing] to go ahead with a very different show than was originally advertised,” he said. Chalmers also expressed hope in reestablishing the event when the sector is in a stronger position.
“The arts, and events like Bluesfest, are worth protecting”
The Australian festival scene has had a year of intense setbacks, as several major festivals — like Splendour in the Grass, Groovin the Moo, and Return to Rio — called it quits for the 2024/25 season. As costs for festivals skyrocket — some higher than 500% — the Australian sector finds itself in crisis.
Despite festivals in the country generating revenue of $355m (€218m) last year, the sector is still battling to stay afloat in a challenging and changing market.
“While attendance and revenue peaked in 2023, the pausing or cancellation of festivals this year shows some parts of our industry are still dealing with very challenging business conditions due to higher operating costs, changing audience preferences and ongoing cost of living pressures,” said Evelyn Richardson, CEO of Live Performance Australia, earlier this year.
In April, Creative Australia found that only half of Australian festivals are profitable, with rising costs, lack of funding, insurance, and extreme weather being the most significant barriers to running festivals in the country.
But the determination to rebuild for the future is palpable, with Bluesfest festival director Peter Noble saying the long-running event, which is set to draw its curtains after the April edition, “doesn’t have to be the last”.
“I firmly believe Bluesfest is something worth preserving – not just for today’s music lovers, but for future generations, including those who haven’t even been born yet. The arts, and events like Bluesfest, are worth protecting. It’s something we believe is worth fighting for,” he said in a letter.
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Australian festival scene ‘in crisis’ as cancellations rise
At least six Australian festivals have been called off since the beginning of this year, in what some executives are calling a crisis.
Groovin The Moo, an annual festival that has booked acts including Billie Eilish, alt-J and Wolf Alice during its 19-year history, became the sector’s latest casualty earlier today.
“Ticket sales have not been sufficient to deliver a regional festival of this kind,” reads a statement from Groovin The Moo organisers.
“All tickets will be refunded automatically. Thank you to everybody who has supported the festival. We hope to be able to bring Groovin The Moo back to regional communities in the future.”
The festival had tapped Mura Masa, The Kooks, Melanie C, Mallrat and more for this year’s festival. It was set to begin in late April and run through until mid-May, hitting venues in Canberra, Bendigo, Newcastle, Sunshine Coast and Bunbury.
“Costs are up 40% across the board, and we’re just not able to raise ticket prices to the same level”
The news comes days after Groovin The Moo programmer Rich Moffat announced that he is stepping away from the music industry after 30 years.
Other festivals that have cancelled 2024 editions include Coastal Jam, Summerground, Vintage Vibes, Tent Pole: A Musical Jamboree and ValleyWays – all of which cited financial difficulties amid the cost-of-living crisis.
“Costs are up 40% across the board, and we’re just not able to raise ticket prices to the same level,” explains The Australian Festival Association’s (AFA) managing director Mitch Wilson. “So the economics of festivals are becoming more difficult in this environment. The margins were already so tight, and the substantial increase in costs has made them even tighter.
Gold Coast-based Apex Entertainment’s Andrew McManus asserted, “If we’re looking at five festivals closing within weeks of each other, and one just days out before gates opened, then obviously the festival scene is in a crisis.”
“At the end of the day, our government is not addressing the cost of living crisis. Until it does, the future is a little murky for the live sector except for recession-proof superstars.”
“The margins were already so tight, and the substantial increase in costs has made them even tighter”
Even promoters that are enjoying record-breaking attendances are concerned about how the festival cancellations will impact the market.
The Untitled Group, Australia’s biggest independent promoter, enjoyed its most successful New Year’s festival run with 150,000 tickets sold for Beyond The Valley, Wildlands and Sun Cycle.
However, Untitled co-founder and managing partner Michael Christidis admits to concerns over the “vulnerability” of smaller festivals.
“Seeing many of them cancel and postpone could impact market confidence in consumers tying up funds with new or smaller events,” he says.
“Particularly with the cost of living going up so much, it’s not as easy for patrons to continually make plans and invest in as many shows that are often several months out. This concern will simply see us introduce less new events and concepts, and focus on developing what is already working in market.”
“If we’re looking at five festivals closing within weeks of each other, obviously the festival scene is in a crisis”
This year’s cancellations follow a patchy 2023 season in which Bluesfest lost 30,000 punters, Splendour In The Grass failed to sell out, and Falls (multi-state), Dark Mofo (Tasmania) and Goomfest (Victoria) took a year off.
Several festivals last year called it quits for good, including Newtown Festival in Sydney after 40 years and Play On The Plains in Deniliquin. Victoria saw the end of Wangaratta Jazz & Blues, Music In The Vines and Goldfields Gothic.
In addition, the parent companies of Now & Again, Grass Is Greener and Lunar Electric, went into voluntary administration or put in liquidation.
Hoping to avoid the same level of catastrophe as last year, the AFA is urging the Commonwealth government to extend its Live Music Major Events Fund for another four years, for the Victorian government to open applications for its similar fund, and for NSW to provide more specifics about its $103 million commitment.
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Drug testing saves lives at GTM Canberra festival
The Pill Testing Australia (PTA) consortium returned to Canberra-based music festival Groovin the Moo for the second time this year, with increased numbers of punters using the service and a higher quantity of lethal substances detected.
The consortium, previously known as the Safety Testing Advisory Service at Festivals and Events (STA-SAFE), detected seven lethal substances among the 171 samples tested.
The testing revealed the potential fatal samples to contain n-ethylpentylone, a substituted cathinone believed to be responsible for a number of deaths, detected for the first time in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) during the first drug-testing trial at Groovin’ the Moo last year.
PTA reports that in all seven cases, those found to possess potentially harmful substances elected to discard the drugs in the amnesty bin after learning about the dangers involved.
MDMA, cocaine, ketamine and methamphetamine were also identified during the trial at Groovin the Moo (20,000-cap.) which featured performances from Billie Eilish and Hilltop Hoods.
According to PTA, the second edition of the pill testing service was “overwhelmingly positive”. The organisation carried out twice the amount of tests as the year before, with 234 punters opting to use the service, compared to 129 in 2018.
Despite the success, PTA has announced that the drug testing at this year’s Groovin the Moo would be the last free trial it runs in the ACT, as enough data has been collected to prove the pilot works.
“This is a healthcare intervention and we are trying to encourage young people to learn a little about the stuff they are putting into themselves”
A PTA representative confirms that the consortium would like to continue testing but could not do so on a self-funding basis.
“Pill Testing Australia is a not-for-profit, we’re only looking at cost recovery,” says PTA co-founder, Gino Vumbaca.
The organisation is crowdfunding to run further pill-testing trials at music festivals, as well as exploring the use of public subscriptions and promoter-based funding. PTA has ruled out charging festivalgoers for the service.
“We will never charge the punter,” says PTA’s Dr David Caldicott. “This is a healthcare intervention and we are trying to encourage young people to learn a little about the stuff they are putting into themselves.”
The ACT is currently the only state in Australia to allow pill testing. ACT health minister Meegan Fitzharris says the state government is committed to “contemporary approaches”, focused on harm reduction, rather than punitive practices.
Groovin the Moo festivals taking place in Adelaide and Maitland, New South Wales (NSW), over the weekend (26 to 28 April) did not offer pill-testing services. NSW police said 14 people were taken to hospital with suspected drug and alcohol intoxication cases at the Maitland festival.
NSW has been at the centre of the pill testing discussion, following a strong of drug-related deaths at festivals in the region. The government has consistently rejected calls to introduce testing services, opting for the implementation of new licensing laws that demand detailed safety plans from festival organisers and impose significant licensing and security costs.
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First Oz pill testing trial “an overwhelming success”
Australia’s first-ever front-of-house festival drugs testing, at Groovin the Moo in Canberra in April, has been hailed an “overwhelming success” by organisers, paving the way for its roll-out at future events across the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) – and, hope campaigners, the country as a whole.
In addition to recommending further pill testing in the ACT, a report by Safety Testing Advisory Service at Festivals and Events (STA-SAFE) – which oversaw the Groovin the Moo (GTM) trial – says the success of the pilot scheme shows that pill testing could, and should, be introduced “as a harm-reduction service across Australia”.
“The pilot demonstrated that such an intervention is possible, and that people are willing to use the service, despite the limitations arising from the tight timelines, inauspicious physical infrastructure and the lack of dissemination strategies on site during the festival,” it reads.
“The development of a uniquely Australian pill-testing service model that involves peers, health professionals and law-enforcement officials working together to reduce harm among drug users needs to be prioritised and supported by all Australian governments.”
“As the first trial to be conducted in Australia, I know that other jurisdictions will be looking on with interest”
A total of 129 people used the STA-SAFE facility, with analysis turning up “a range of substances, ranging from lactose to high-purity MDMA, cocaine and ketamine”, as well as “one dangerous substance that has led to hospitalisations in New Zealand and deaths in the US”.
Jon Drape, whose Ground Control Productions company works with Kendal Calling, one of the select number of UK festivals where front-of-house pill testing is offered, told IQ in 2017 drug testing is a “no-brainer”, as around a quarter of those who tested their drugs opted to bin them after discovering their content. At Secret Garden Party 2017, meanwhile, in addition to high-strength MDMA, drug tests discovered ‘ketamine’ that was actually an antimalarial and ammonium sulphate – used as a soil fertiliser and insecticide – sold as MDMA.
ACT health minister Meegan Fitzharris, who backed the GTM pilot, comments: “The trial was a success and had shown there was a demand for the service. This will assist to better understand how pill testing may help reduce the harms of illicit drug use at festivals and will inform next steps and future drug policy.
“As the first trial to be conducted in Australia, I know that other jurisdictions will be looking on with interest to see the results of the evaluation. We look forward to releasing the evaluation once complete.”
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Mixed reactions as GTM pill testing to go ahead
After almost two years of false starts, Australia’s first-ever pill testing trial will go ahead at Groovin the Moo in Canberra this Sunday.
Promoter Cattleyard Productions revealed earlier this month that while the trial had been cleared by local authorities, including police, it remained concerned over any potential legal issues. “Some of the complexities that we are working through involve clarification around patron protection and legal ramifications for those who participate,” said a spokesperson. “We are also working through guidelines relating to insurances and liability.”
However, those legal hurdles have now been cleared, and pill-testing consortium Safety Testing Advisory Service at Festivals and Events (STA-SAFE) will run the service at this weekend’s event at the University of Canberra, according to ABC.
A recent review of Australian drug policy, ‘Worth the test?’, concluded pill testing – which is in force at festivals in the UK, Austria, Spain and the Netherlands – could be a vital part of wider harm reduction strategy. “It is important to focus on prevention, public awareness campaigns and education to shift cultural attitudes, so that use of party drugs is identified as a public health issue rather than a criminal one,” writes report author Andrew Groves.
“When people have more information about what it is in the pill, many of them may choose not to take it”
The announcement has met with a mixed reaction in Australia, with the Liberal Party’s Jeremy Hanson, shadow attorney-general for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), saying the move will encourage drug use. “It’s essentially saying we’re the pill-popping centre of Australia, come to Canberra because this is where you can get your drugs tested,” he says.
However, ACT health minister Meeghan Fitzharris, who backs the trial, says the service is designed to minimise harm rather than encourage drug-taking. “When people have more information available to them about what it is in the pill that they may choose to take, many of them may choose not to take it,” Fitzharris comments – a position borne out by similar testing in Britain.
Jon Drape, whose Ground Control Productions company works with Kendal Calling, one of the festivals where pill testing is offered, told IQ in 2017 drug testing is a “no-brainer”, as around a quarter of those who tested their drugs opted to bin them after discovering their content.
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As GTM mulls legality, researcher says pill testing could save lives
On-site festival pill testing, of the kind common in Austria, the Netherlands and, most recently, Britain, could reduce the harm caused by drug use and potentially save festivalgoers’ lives, according to major new review of drug policy out of Australia.
The publication of ‘“Worth the test?” Pragmatism, pill testing and drug policy in Australia’, published in the Harm Reduction Journal today and shared under embargo with IQ, comes as Cattleyard Promotions – the promoter behind Groovin the Moo, one of Australia’s biggest music festivals – weighs up whether to introduce pill testing at the 2018 events, in what would be the first full-scale trial down under.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a potential trial at the Canberra festival, which takes place on 29 April, has the backing of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government and police force, but promoters remain concerned over legal issues – despite pill-testing consortium Safety Testing Advisory Service at Festivals and Events (STA-SAFE) offering legal indemnity to Cattleyard if it allows drug testing.
A spokeswoman for Cattleyard says the promoter needs clarification on who is legally liable for the trial. “As pill testing has never been trialled before in Australia, the decision to implement it is not solely ours, as there are multiple stakeholders involved in undertaking the exercise,” she says.
“Some of the complexities that we are working through involve clarification around patron protection and legal ramifications for those who participate. We are also working through guidelines relating to insurances and liability.”
Two teenagers, including a 15-year-old girl, overdosed on drugs at Groovin the Moo 2016.
“The debate must be about harm, rather than criminality”
In ‘Worth the test?’, Andrew Groves of Deakin University in Victoria examines evidence in support of pill testing to reduce fatalities caused by party drugs, such as ecstasy and methamphetamine, at festivals, clubs and raves. He compares Australia’s “inadequate” current approach, which centres on prevention, with attitudes in other countries, such as Portugal, Austria and the Netherlands, where the focus is on harm reduction.
Dr Groves reveals that Austrian initiative chEckiT has seen two-thirds of users binning their drugs when they discovered their content, while “a similar project in the Netherlands found that pill testing did not increase the use of party drugs, which is often perceived as a risk of such initiatives”.
“Although considered radical at the time, these measures have been effective in reducing the harms associated with illicit drug use, and problems for drug users and the wider community,” says Dr Groves. “The examples evaluated in this study support the idea that party-drug use requires pragmatic, evidence-based initiatives, such as pill testing, rather than criminal justice responses.”
In the UK, meanwhile, pill-testing charity The Loop is already working with a number of festivals, including Kendal Calling and Boomtown Fair, and recently called for the introduction of similar ‘drug-testing hubs’ in city centres as a means of stemming a rise in drug-related deaths.
“The most surprising finding of our research is that the evidence has clearly identified the inadequacy of existing punitive, zero-tolerance strategies across several countries,” continues Dr Groves, “and yet such policies often remain embedded in government legislative action. While we still need further evaluation of how best to implement pill testing and other harm reduction initiatives, the evidence suggests that they are useful and there is widespread support from the community and practitioners in the field.
“The debate must be about harm, rather than criminality.”
“Party-drug use requires pragmatic, evidence-based initiatives, such as pill testing”
Jon Drape of festival production outfit Ground Control told IQ in 2016 that around 25% of those who tested their drugs with the Loop at Kendal Calling and Secret Garden Party opted to bin them after discovering their content. There were 80 “substances of concern” discovered at SGP 2016, including extremely high-strength ecstasy, ‘ketamine’ that was actually an antimalarial and ammonium sulphate – used as a soil fertiliser and insecticide – sold as MDMA, he explained.
Previous attempts to get pill testing off the ground in Australia have been unsuccessful. While harm-reduction activist Will Tregoning said in August 2016 there would be pill testing at a festival in Australia in 2017, the festival in question – Spilt Milk – pulled out with six weeks to go, citing “insufficient” documentation from STA-SAFE.
ACT health minister Meegan Fitzharris said the Canberra government is doing “everything [it] can to ensure pill testing goes ahead at Groovin the Moo”. “The ACT government is being proactive and working with stakeholders to address any questions or concerns so we can see this happen,” she adds, “and I hope we have a final outcome soon.”
Dr Groves stresses that although pill testing cannot eliminate the harms of drug use, and cannot be used as a stand-alone solution, it could be a vital part of wider harm reduction strategy. “We are calling for further collaboration between law enforcement and healthcare providers to ensure that they take appropriate action to reduce the harm caused by drugs,” he concludes. “It is important to focus on prevention, public awareness campaigns and education to shift cultural attitudes, so that use of party drugs is identified as a public health issue rather than a criminal one.”
Royal Blood, Public Service Broadcasting, Alex Lahey, Duke Dumont, Lady Leshurr, Portugal the Man, Sampa the Great and Claptone are among the performers at Groovin the Moo 2018, which kicks off in Wayville, South Australia, on 27 April and wraps up in Bunbury on 12 May.
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‘Hardcore festies’ also key to Australian success
Mirroring the trend seen in the UK and US, festival super-fans – dubbed ‘hardcore festies’ – are driving the majority of festival business in Australia, despite making up only 14% of festivalgoers, research by Eventbrite reveals.
The ticketing company’s State of Australian Music Festivals 2016 study found that while Australian hardcore festies represent a smaller proportion of the overall market than in Britain and America (where they comprise 28% and 20% of festivalgoers, respectively), they still “outrank casual fans in VIP purchasing, social influence and virtually every other aspect of spending, attending and engagement”, with an average annual festival ticket spend of over A$600 (US$459 or £348).
Eventbrite also revealed that, despite the recent disappearance of high-profile music festivals such as Stereosonic and Soundwave, demand remains strong, with 65% of respondents going to the same number or more music festivals this year compared to 2015 and 49% planning to attend more festivals next year.
“While people have a growing appetite for festivals, there are also more festivals than ever before… which is why the hardcore festival fan is so critical”
As in Britain and America, headliners are the number one reason (35%) for attending festivals, with the artist line-up as a whole most important overall (46%).
Hardcore festies’ favourite festivals are (in order) Stereosonic, Groovin the Moo, Soundwave, Falls Festival and Splendour in the Grass.
“While people have a growing appetite for festivals, there are also more festivals than ever before,” says the report, “making it harder for festival producers to turn a profit – which is why the hardcore festival fan is critical to the success of your business.”
Read the report in full at Australian Festival Fans Revealed: What Drives the Most Valuable Festival-Goers to Spend and Attend More.
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Two drug overdoses, 36 arrests at Australia’s Groovin’ the Moo
Two teenagers were admitted to hospital on Saturday after suffering suspected drug overdoses at the Groovin’ the Moo (GTM) festival in Maitland, New South Wales.
A 15-year-old girl, who was given CPR after she collapsed and stopped breathing, and a 17-year-old boy were admitted to Maitland Hospital, and a third festivalgoer was treated for non-life-threatening “bad effects” of drugs.
Thirty-six people were detained after police dogs discovered their trying to carry drugs, mainly MDMA, into the travelling festival, which stopped at Canberra on Sunday and continues on to Oakbank in South Australia today, Bendingo in Victoria on 30 April, Townsville in Victoria on 1 May and Bunbury in Western Australia on 7 May.
The overdoses come just over three weeks after the cancellation of long-running festival Stereosonic, which had itself been experienced a string of fatal overdoses in recent years
“We continually warn people of the dangers of using these substances but the message doesn’t seem to be getting through,” says Detective Inspector Mitch Dubojski of New South Wales Police. “That is very concerning.”
Promoter Cattleyard Promotions has not yet issued a statement on the incidents, and has refused repeated requests for comment by The Sydney Morning Herald.
The overdoses come less than two weeks after the death of five patrons at, and subsequent cancellation of, Argentine dance music festival Time Warp, and just over three weeks after the cancellation of long-running Australian festival Stereosonic, which had itself been experienced a string of fatal overdoses in recent years.
Performers at GTM 2016 include Australian acts British India, Alison Wonderland and Golden Features and American bands Ratatat, Twenty One Pilots and Odesza.