Australia News: Festivals Return, 5SOS, Six60 & More

– Midnight Oil at Womadelaide

Festival Sellouts And Expansions Show A Slow But Buoyant Return

Festivals are still operating on smaller COVID-safe capacity but are drawing crowds, creating a surge within the sector.

WOMADelaide in Adelaide, which downsized to four sunset concerts at King Rodney Park, drew 19,000 March 5 to 8. Last year’s tally was 97,000 at the Botanical Gardens. Highlights included Midnight Oil, Tash Sultana, an ailing Archie Roach’s farewell and a 40-minute seven-part song cycle of ancient Hebrew and Arabic texts by Lior, conductor Nigel Westlake and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Adelaide Festival faced venue caps of 50% to 75%. But it beat its 2011 box office target of A$2.8 million ($2.17 million) with a take of A$3.7 million ($2.8 million). Ticket stubs were 60,958. 233 of the 333 shows sold out.

Perth Festival (February 15 to March 14) advised, “Many shows sold out quickly” to a program with 18 world premieres and 44 festival commissions. Singer songwriter Tim Minchin’s performance with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra at Kings Park had 10,000.

Lunar Electric on the Gold Coast March 13 is claiming to be the world’s largest EDM festival so far in 2021. It sold out its 8,000 tix to Aussie DJs Timmy Trumpet, Will Sparks, Joel Fletcher and Havana Brown with hip-hop and EDM acts.

Co-promoter Simon Leigh said he moved the event from Port Macquarie, NSW, because the Coast offered larger space, better weather and a younger demographic. As a result of Lunar hitting full capacity two weeks ahead, Leigh’s crew is working on another equal sized event September.

Live Nation’s inaugural April Sun in Melbourne (April 16 to May 2) continued to expand adding The Church, Leo Sayer and Marcia Hines.

Destroy All Lines’ inaugural alt-music Full Tilt is a runaway success. After its one-off Brisbane show (June 12, Eaton’s Hill Outdoors) was a 90% sell-out, the bill with Northlane, Hands Like Houses, In Hearts Wake and Thy Art Is Murder was extended to Melbourne’s Coburg Velodrome (July 3) to a sell-out. It now stages in Adelaide, at the Showground July 17.

The 29th edition of Western Australia’s Fairbridge (April 9 to 11) sold out. Presented by not-for-profit FolkWorld Inc, it draws 8,000.

Queensland’s Blues on Broadbeach (May 20-23) expanded its lineup with Wolfmother and CW Stoneking making their Broadbeach debuts.

In its sophomore year, TEG Live and Empire Touring expanded its “ultimate Aussie alt-rock festival” Spring Loaded from one city to nine stops. Based on the legendary ’90s large scale events as Big Day Out and Homebake, it runs May 8 to Nov. 27 with twelve ’90s acts including Grinspoon, You Am I and Regurgitator.

After a no-show 2020, Red Hill Entertainment and Greater Shepparton City Council bring back Land of Plenty to Shepparton Showgrounds in regional Victoria Oct. 30. The roster of major acts is due to be unveiled late March.

Darwin Festival returns Aug. 5 to 22, with the Northern Territory government committing to a A$230,000 ($177,941) ad campaign on First Nations events, including the National Indigenous Music Awards and a live recreation of late singer songwriter Gurrumul Yunipungu’s final album Djarrimirri (Child of the Rainbow) with dancers, songmen and the Darwin Symphony Orchestra.

5 Seconds Of Summer Switch To YM&U Group

Five Seconds of Summer left Richard Griffiths and Harry Magee’s London-based Modest! Management after eight years, and are now at

YM&U Group with Joel Mark and Peter Katsis.

The duo is brokering a new U.S. record deal as the Aussie band split with Interscope. Formed in Sydney, they sold 9.6 million equivalent album units globally, 2 million concert tickets, with cumulative 7 billion streams.

Six60 To Launch Concerts At Eden Park

– Eden Park

Recent Pollstar cover artist Six60 got their wish to be first to play Auckland’s 50,000 seat Eden Park sports stadium. It was cleared after a lengthy battle to hold six concerts a year. The show date is April 24 and is an extension of the Six60 Saturdays Tour which made global headlines when it sold 125,000 tickets. That now suggests a count of 175,000, as the band’s current pulling power suggests a sell-out.

As previously, band and promoter Eccles Entertainment protected themselves from covid-related refunds caused by postponement. A fan who buys a ticket for April 24 must be available for the optional Oct. 23 or Feb. 5, 2022.

Brent Eccles said, “The only thing better than this announcement will be the show itself! With everything that’s been going on this year it will be the perfect end to summer!” Eden Park CEO Nick Sautner added, “50,000 fans will have the opportunity to be part of history, and the biggest show in the world right here in Aotearoa (New Zealand).”

Ed Sheeran To Play Gudinski Memorial

Ed Sheeran has slipped quietly into Australia to quarantine for two weeks in Byron Bay at Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman’s house before heading to Melbourne for the state memorial for Michael Gudinski, with whom he had a father-son relationship. To be held Rod Laver Arena March 24, the funeral will almost certainly have sets by Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly and Kylie Minogue.

– Roadies
Roadies form guard of honour at Gudinski funeral

The three were among 360 mourners at a private funeral March 10 at Ormond Hall, where a teenage Gudinski held dances in the ’70s. They included colleagues as Michael Chugg and Glenn Wheatley, musicians as John Farnham, Archie Roach and Paul Kelly, media, politicians as the Melbourne Lord Mayor, blue chip corporate businesspersons, actors as Sam Neill and sportsmen as cricketer Shane Warne.

As the cortege left, 162 roadies in black T-shirts marked with “MG Crew” served as guard of honor. CrewCare’s Howard Freeman, who organized the tribute said, “We exist because of promoters with vision and skill. This is how we show our respect. It’s heartfelt and deep set.”

Two New Festivals Emerge In Regional NSW

Two new festivals were announced for regional areas of New South Wales (NSW).

Broken Hill, the red earth-blue sky mining town, will host the Mundi Mundi Bash Aug. 19 to 21. It is expected to draw 10,000 for multi-generational household names Paul Kelly, Tim Finn, John Williamson, Kate Ceberano, Ian Moss, Shannon Noll, Wendy Matthews, Shane Howard Ross Wilson, Vika & Linda, The Choirboys’ Marc Gable, Little River Band co-founder Glenn Shorrock and bands The Radiators, Mi-Sex, Dragon and The Chantoozies.

The event is by Outback Music Festival Group, fronted by artist manager and promoter Greg Donovan, and the NSW government’s tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.

– Mundi Mundi Bash
At the launch of Mundi Mundi Bash in Broken Hill

At its launch at the Mundi Mundi Plains with the Barrier Ranges providing a rugged backdrop, Donovan and Ceberano were joined by NSW minister for jobs, investment, tourism & Western Sydney Stuart Ayres, who confirmed the 2 million square meter site was secured until 2023 and would inject A$5.4 million ($4.1million) into the local community over the first three years.

“We’ve already proven we can host events in a COVID-safe way here in NSW, and we want to continue restoring people’s confidence – the more people we can get flowing through to our regions and staying overnight, means more jobs and more tourism dollars injected into local economies.”

Donovan said 2020’s lockdown gave his company the time to get the bash “off the ground. It’s an event we’ve been planning and looking at for several years now, and we thank the NSW government for their partnership.”

Aimed at families, grey nomads, camping and caravanners, the festival will have a Nutbush City Limits World Record dance off (current record of 2,330 is held by its sister festival, Birdsville’s Big Red Bash), outdoor film screenings, helicopter flights, camel rides and an undie run fundraiser for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

TEG division MJR Australia has Next Event, which starts May 21 and visits five centers over two weeks. Head of touring Scott Mesiti said, “The original concept for Next Event was to help bushfire-affected towns, regenerate tourism and hire as many local suppliers as possible. So much has happened since then but our aim remains the same.”