Australia News: Festivals, RuPaul, Executive Moves & More

– Myer Music Bowl

Sell-Out Festivals Add To Economic Recovery

Strong post-pandemic consumer demand for live music – along with Australian music fans’ famous penchant for travelling hundreds of miles for events— has seen major festivals sell out and injected millions of dollars into the economy.

The Live At The Bowl concert series at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne provided a A$27.26 million ($21.14 million) boost to the Victorian economy. Over four warm months, 97,843 fans witnessed 1,357 Australian artists including Archie Roach, Vika & Linda, Lime Cordiale, Missy Higgins and The Avalanches.

According to Arts Centre Melbourne, which operates the Bowl, the venue generated jobs for 3,250 people including artists, arts workers, production crew, security, and food and beverage staff.

In terms of the audience, 91% travelled into the City of Melbourne specifically for the event and 21% purchased a ticket support the return of live performance in Melbourne. Just over 50% were first time ticket buyers to Arts Centre Melbourne while 56% of artists appeared on the Bowl stage for the first time. “It has been our great privilege to transform one of Victoria’s most-loved outdoor venues into a symbol of joy and recovery,” said Arts Centre Melbourne CEO Claire Spencer.

As part of COVID-safe measures, the main lawn was fitted with purpose-built private decks where every audience member was separated from others. A crowd survey found 98% of attendees saying they felt safe and comfortable.

– Bassinthegrass

BASSINTHEGRASS festival drew 14,000 to Darwin’s Mindil Beach May 15. In 2019 3,053 attendees journeyed from a different state. In 2021 8,000 out-of-towners came to see acts from their own hometowns like Violent Soho, Peking Duk, Missy Higgins, DMAs, G Flip, Illy and Thelma Plum.

Festivalgoers booked out all hotels and backpacker hostels months before, and filled eateries, clubs and retail stores after the show.

In the coming months a star bill including Paul Kelly, Ian Moss, John Williamson, Tim Finn, Kate Ceberano, Glenn Shorrock, Ross Wilson, Vika & Linda and Wendy Matthews will see 10,000 travelling long distances (13 hours by car from Sydney) for the inaugural Mundi Mundi Bash in Broken Hill in the Aussie red-sand outback.

The August 19 to 21 event sold out May 11 after two months. “We were backing our gut that we were onto a good thing, but never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate that the first Mundi Mundi Bash would sell-out this quickly,” said Greg Donovan, MD of Outback Music Festival Group.

“I am as relieved as I am ecstatic. It was a big call to jump into launching a new festival in these times.”

Mundi Mundi Bash has funding from the New South Wales (NSW) government to bring tourism and jobs to the region, expected to inject $5.4 million (A$4.1 million) into the local economy in its first three years.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Hits The Road

The “RuPaul’s Drag Race TV” franchise, which debuted in Australia and New Zealand this year, goes live in September with all ten contestants.

Live Nation, Voss Events and World of Wonder have the promised flamboyant spectacular at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, Melbourne’s Palais Theatre, Perth’s Crown Theatre, Brisbane’s QPAC and Canberra Theatre.

Melbourne Venues Adopt ‘No QR No Entry’ Policy

– Audience at the Croxton Bandroom

Sixty music venues in Melbourne and state of Victoria adopted a ‘No QR No Entry’ policy, to assure the Dept. of Health they can take responsibility for patron safety and to encourage it to increase their crowd capacity to 100%.

All patrons must check in to a Quick Response (QR) code at the door to track and trace them in case of a coronavirus outbreak at the venue. But a government survey found only 41% complied, and 24% of venues visited by officers between April 30 and May 2 were warned or received notices for lack of compliance in data collecting.

“We know that QR Code compliance is a big piece of the puzzle,” said Simone Ubaldi, booker at the Croxton Bandroom and manager of punk outfit Amyl and The Sniffers. “We’re stepping up to show [the Department of Health] that music venues and music fans can be trusted to do the right thing.”

Added Correne Wilkie, manager of The Cat Empire and Boy & Bear, “As an industry we are doing and will continue to do whatever is asked of us from Health in order to create safe environments for artists and audiences. That is number one priority, not just during COVID times but always.”

The initiative targets a 100% check-in-rate. Many have further COVID-safety features, with Track and Trace fields in their ticketing systems. Some are using government funding to install better ventilation.

Executive Moves At AAM, Sydney Opera House, Vivid & More

Catherine Haridy is leaving as executive director of the Association of Artist Managers (AAM), to become CEO of the Australian Music Centre, an association dedicated to art music, effective July 1. She will continue to manage Eskimo Joe, Jebediah, Bob Evans, Frente and Angie Hart.

Sydney Opera House appointed curator, producer and cabaret & circus performer Beau James to take over June 7 as head of First Nations programming. The program was started in 2012 by acclaimed arts leader Rhoda Roberts, who left this year to become creative director, First Nations for the Northern Rivers Performing Arts NSW.

Festival veteran Gill Minervini began as festival director of the NSW government’s successful Vivid Sydney, which runs Aug. 6 to 28.

– Catherine Haridy

Amber Hasler finished off as festival director of Perth’s Fringe World after eight years to pursue new directions outside festivals.

Arts manager and performing arts producer Kane Forbes joined Tasmanian festival Mona Foma as executive producer after working recently in New Zealand.

Sydney WorldPride 2023 appointed Daniel Clarke as creative director and Ben Graetz as creative director First Peoples.