Cash-Strapped Festival Management Sacked

The festival lost A$342,906 ($255,153) in 2015, and a report by auditors Deloitte suggested mismanagement. This year (beginning Aug. 4 for 18 days), it is expected to lose A$400,000 ($297,642) and has asked the Territory government for an extra A$500,000 ($372,050) to stage in 2016.

Now placed under administration, the festival will go ahead as scheduled. Tensions had begun between the festival and the Northern arts minister Gary Higgins when he discovered that among those booked were Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett’s solo band. Higgins revealed on radio he was “extremely annoyed as funds should have been used for Territory talent. “Why in the hell are we paying that much money… for him to come up and perform… when we are in a financial hole?”

With Midnight Oil, Garrett has sung about indigenous rights and about the Territory in songs included “Beds Are Burning” and “Dead Heart.” In 1985, the Oils and indigenous act Warumpi Band joined together in a high-profile tour through the Northern Territory’s remote communities, playing for free. Former festival management claimed that the 2015 deficit was caused by a drop in sponsorship and rise in production costs.