Secret Sounds co-CEO and co-founder Jessica Ducrou has announced her departure from the Australian company after eight years.

Ducrou launched the group, which includes festivals such as Splendour in the Grass and Falls, with Powderfinger manager Paul Piticco in 2016. Live Nation acquired a majority stake in the firm later that year.

Following her exit, Ducrou will continue her roles as chair of Sounds NSW and deputy chair of the Australian Festival Association (AFA), plans to take time off to spend with her children and travel.

She describes the last near decade at Secret Sounds as a “wild ride” full of “so many memorable moments”.

“I’m well due for an overseas summer holiday so it’s a good time to take a break before I embark on my next chapter,” she says. “It has been an epic journey that has been truly inspiring, and an opportunity to collaborate with the best in the business. It would not have been as rewarding, possible or enjoyable if it weren’t for the people I have worked alongside of.”

“I wish all at Secret Sounds and Live Nation the very best success in their future endeavours”

After a spell as a booker for Sydney’s Lansdowne Hotel, Ducrou joined the city’s APA booking agency and went on to represented clients such as Powderfinger. She later teamed with the band’s manager Paul Piticco to launch Splendour in the Grass (SITG) Festival in Byron Bay in 2001. She also set up the IMC agency with booker and manager Joe Segreto, which spawned the all-Australian festival Homebake.

After taking over Falls Festival in 2012, Ducrou and Piticco merged their businesses into one entity to create NSW-based Secret Sounds. The group is also home to Secret Sounds Touring, Village Sounds booking agency, Secret Sounds Connect commercial rights and creative agency, Secret Service PR agency, North Byron Parklands, The Triffid venue in Brisbane and more.

Through its Live Nation partnership, it also brought brands including Download Festival to Australia. However, SITG’s 2024 edition was cancelled due to “unexpected events” and last year’s Falls was also axed to “allow space to reimagine how the festival will look in the future”, amid a testing period for Australia’s festival scene.

“Paul Piticco has been a great business partner for more than 30 years and we will no doubt continue our friendship well into the future,” adds Ducrou. “The Secret Sounds team, notably Elise Huntley and the festivals gang, are the absolute best, I will miss working with the awesome individuals who inspired me every single day. I wish all at Secret Sounds and Live Nation the very best success in their future endeavours.”

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Australia’s festival crisis has deepened following the cancellation of the long-running Splendour in the Grass (SITG).

The festival, held at the North Byron Parklands in Yelgun, New South Wales, was due to take place from 19-21 July, topped by Kylie Minogue, Future and Arcade Fire.

But just two weeks after unveiling the bill, Live Nation-backed organiser Secret Sounds today confirmed that it has called off the 2024 edition, blaming “unexpected events”.

“We know there were many fans excited for this year’s line-up and all the great artists planning to join us, but due to unexpected events, we’ll be taking the year off,” says a statement posted on social media.

“Ticket-holders will be refunded automatically by Moshtix. We thank you for your understanding and will be working hard to be back in future years.”

The likes of Groovin the Moo, Coastal Jam, Summerground, Vintage Vibes, Tent Pole: A Musical Jamboree and ValleyWays have also been cancelled

It follows a difficult couple of years for SITG. Co-producer Jessica Ducrou reported a 30% drop in sales from 50,000 tickets to 35,000 in 2023, while the previous edition was hit with the worst weather in the festival’s 20-plus-year history, resulting in the cancellation of its first day.

SITG, which was launched in 2001, has become the highest-profile casualty yet on Australia’s 2024 festival circuit, joining the likes of Coastal Jam, Summerground, Vintage Vibes, Tent Pole: A Musical Jamboree and ValleyWays, all of which referenced financial difficulties amid the cost-of-living crisis, plus Groovin the Moo, which cited slow ticket sales.

In addition, New Year’s Eve’s Falls Festival, which is also organised by Secret Sounds, fell by the wayside for 2023 in order for promoters to “allow space to reimagine how the festival will look in the future”.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year, Music Victoria CEO Simone Schinkel suggested the challenges were a legacy of the pandemic.

“There is a generation who missed out on those coming-of-age, life-affirming moments,” she said. “We’ve had a really fundamental shift. If you grew up in a pandemic, going into an enclosed space that’s small and meant to hold lots of hot sweaty bodies just might not be the same vibe you’re calling for. It’s also really hard when we have a cost-of-living crisis, when tickets are going up.”

“The Australian music festival industry is currently facing a crisis”

SITG had received a A$100,000 (€60,000) in funding via the Live Music Australia programme to assist with organising this year’s festival.

“The cancellation of Splendour in the Grass is devastating news,” says NSW government’s minister for music John Graham. “The festival industry is under extreme pressure, and I am deeply worried about the health of the festival scene here in NSW. The NSW government offered financial support to help the event proceed this year. We will continue to work with them and hope to see them return next year.”

Australian Festival Association MD Mitch Wilson says he is “devastated” by the event’s predicament.

“The Australian music festival industry is currently facing a crisis, and the flow-on effects will be felt across the local communities, suppliers and contractors that sustain our festivals and rely on them to support their livelihoods,” he says. “We need government at the table to help us through this period and assist in stabilising our industry to sustainable levels. This needs a national approach.”

More than 40 Australian music festivals have also been cancelled, postponed, or evacuated due to heat, fires, rain or floods over the past decade, including more than 20 in 2022 alone, amid record rainfall in the eastern states.

Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival, where two people died in 2019, is set to become the first in Queensland to introduce pill testing

This year’s cancellations follow a patchy 2023 season in which Bluesfest lost 30,000 punters and Dark Mofo (Tasmania) and Goomfest (Victoria) took a year off. Several festivals also called it quits for good, including Newtown Festival in Sydney, Play On The Plains in Deniliquin, and Wangaratta Jazz & Blues, Music In The Vines and Goldfields Gothic in Victoria.

In addition, the parent companies of Now & Again, Grass Is Greener and Lunar Electric, went into voluntary administration or put in liquidation.

Meanwhile, ABC reports that Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival, where two people died in 2019, is set to become the first in Queensland to introduce pill testing. Health minister Shannon Fentiman says the state government would invest almost $1 million to fund the the scheme over the next two years.

Festival organiser Eric Lamir describes the move as a “step in the right direction in reducing drug-related harm”.

Last week’s announcement followed a study which analysed drug-related deaths at Australian festivals over almost a decade, which showed that most could potentially have been prevented through harm reduction strategies such as pill testing.

The study, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, and led by Associate Professor Jennifer Schumann, from Monash University’s Department of Forensic Medicine, looked at drug-related deaths at music festivals throughout the country between 1 July 2000 and 31 December 2019.

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The organisers behind Splendour in the Grass, one of Australia’s biggest and longest-running festivals, have reported a 30% drop in ticket sales.

Co-producer Jessica Ducrou says sales are down from 50,000 tickets to 35,000, with only a few days to go until the Byron Bay event.

It comes after last year’s Splendour was hit with the worst weather in its 20-year history, resulting in the cancellation of the first day.

Many campers opted to sleep in their cars to avoid pitching a tent on the swamped campsite. The downpour also caused significant traffic delays, for which the Splendour organisers were forced to pay $100,000 to schools.

“No doubt last year’s experiences have impacted sales,” Ducrou told ABC. “There has been a lot of thought, consultation and consideration to avoid what happened last year.”

“No doubt last year’s experiences have impacted sales”

Ducrou pointed out a range of traffic management measures that have been put in place, including vehicle passes sold to ensure visitors come onto the site via designated directions and at particular times.

The co-producer believes that the drop in ticket sales for this year’s edition is also “a reflection of the current economy”.

“We are seeing a lot of people buying single-day tickets rather than three days and that is very much a reflection on the budget,” she added.

The 21st annual Splendour in the Grass Music and Arts Festival is returning to Ngarindjin/North Byron Parklands from 21 July to 24 July.

Lizzo, Flume and Mumford & Sons top the bill, with support from acts including J Balvin, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sam Fender, Little Simz, Arlo Parks, Tove Lo and more.

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Gathering speakers from Australia, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland and the UK, Festival Forum: Reboot & reset delved into the states of those local markets and their various timelines for reopening.

Moderator Beatrice Stirnimann, of boutique event Baloise Session, explained that when her event was cancelled early on in 2020, it allowed the organisation to spend time concentrating on a series of livestreaming shows, leading her to quiz her fellow speakers about how they have spent the last 12 months.

Stephan Thanscheidt, CEO of FKP Scorpio, disclosed that the company had to get creative during last year’s first lockdown by developing digital versions of festivals to prepare audiences for the rescheduled 2020 festivals, although he admitted that this year’s diary is now looking precarious as well.

Thanscheidt said tickets are currently on sale for events, but nobody is buying at the moment. “I don’t see festivals happening in June or July in continental Europe,” he stated, adding that he believes a lot more events will cancel their 2021 events in the coming weeks. “We have to think about strategies to keep people on board to have the best possible outcome for 2022.”

“I don’t see festivals happening in June or July in continental Europe”

Jim King reported that AEG Presents took a view to pause and review what the situation was during the past year, while the company tried to be a voice to support the various organisations that have been lobbying on the industry’s behalf. “With the success of the vaccination programme in the UK, it’s giving us a foundation to build off,” he said. “What is important for us [in the UK] is that we now have these ‘not before’ dates which brings all the stakeholders together in the industry so everyone can align. That means that the planning side now becomes easier, although it’s still not easy.”

Jessica Ducrou of Secret Sounds explained that the company has recently rescheduled its 2021 edition of the Splendour in the Grass festival from July to November. “We’ve been offering refunds to people, but the retention is high at 90% despite rescheduling three times. So that shows that people are really looking forward to events reopening,” she said.

Tommy Jinho Yoon of International Creative Agency revealed that there are shows currently happening in Korea, but a travel ban means there are no international acts performing at the moment. “I’ve been doing the same as everyone else at the moment – basically putting out fires,” he said.

Explaining that his events generally twin with festivals in Japan to share acts, Yoon observed that optimism appears to be is higher in that country than Korea, which informed his decision not to plan any festivals in 2021. However, he revealed that the shows he is booking for Q1 and Q2 of 2022 are in conjunction with artists who are also confirming Australian dates, hinting that international touring could be on the way back sooner than some people imagine. “When our shows go back on, it’s going to be intense,” said Yoon. “Machines are not going to replace that.”

Exploiting domestic talent makes sense for the UK while there is a high degree of hesitancy for international acts to travel

For her part, Ducrou told her peers that Australia is gradually getting back to business. “Domestically, artists are touring not at full capacity, but the shows are getting bigger,” she said, noting that the government recently gave approval for a festival at Easter with a 50% capacity and other restrictions.

“Using domestic talent is where Australia is at the moment. Shows are getting bigger and density is getting higher, so I’m optimistic,” added Ducrou. But in terms of international acts, she stressed that the mandatory two-week quarantine for anyone entering the country remains the biggest challenge.

On a similar note, King said exploiting domestic talent made sense for the UK while there is a high degree of hesitancy for international acts to travel. Therefore any AEG events this summer would likely be dominated by UK artists.

However, Thanscheidt said that having only domestic artists would not work for some of Scorpio’s festival brands, where restrictions such as social distancing or zero alcohol policies wouldn’t be a good fit either.

But Thanscheidt also ended on a positive vibe, by repeating a theme that has run throughout the discussions at ILMC, thanks to regular calls that the FKP Scorpio team have had with the likes of AEG Presents, Eventim Live, Goodlive, Live Nation and Superstruct as part of Yourope’s Solutions for Festivals Initiative. “The teaming up by different companies in solidarity is, for me, a very astonishing and very good outcome,” he declared.

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