Australia News: Big Red Bash Sets Records, The Lorde Factor & More

Despite being the world’s most remote music festival, Birdsville’s Big Red Bash still claimed three new records when it took place July 6-8. Outback Music Festival Group stages the event near the outback Queensland town of Birdsville, on the edge of the Simpson Desert. The world’s largest parallel sand dune desert covers more than 176,000sq km, an area larger than Belgium. There were no social distancing issues here.

Firstly it drew a new attendance high of 10,000, each making an average trip of 4300km, and exceeding the 9,200 of 2019. The figure would have been higher but covid outbreaks in parts of Queensland and NSW cut travel plans for some.

The bill included household names Paul Kelly, John Williamson, Ian Moss, Busby Marou, Wendy Matthews and Daryl Braithwaite, bands Thirsty Merc and Eurogliders, and Abba tribute act Bjorn Again to finish off. In between, crowds sandboarded the red dunes and engaged in Dunny (outside toilet) Door Painting, helicopter rides, whip cracking, camel rides, big screen movies, desert volleyball and drama workshops. 400 took part in Bashville Drags showcasing their satin and lace costume creations.

Setting two new records for The Australian Book of Records were 2,878 dancing to Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits” (breaking the 2019 record of 2,330, also at Big Red Bash) and 2,878 uniting for the Twist dance. The festival raised $100,000 ($74,767) for rural lifeline the Royal Flying Doctor Service, $46,000 ($34,393) of it from the Nutbush workout.

New South Wales (NSW) Fair Trading is investigating Viagogo after receiving 36 complaints this year. Most involved the Hamilton musical, which set a new local box office record with over 250,000 tickets sold and a $40 million (US$29.9 million) box office draw by March.

Fair Trading specified 16 complaints about Viagogo were about exceeding 110% of the face value of a ticket, eleven about non-refunds for cancelled concerts, five for misleading insinuations it was an authorized reseller, and one for not adhering to age restrictions.

NSW Fair Trading commissioner Rose Webb said,  “It was big news in 2018 when NSW Fair Trading made ticket scalping illegal by making it an offence for ticket resellers such as Viagogo to charge more than 10% extra on the original ticket price and transactions costs.”

Webb revealed complaints have sparked after a drop following last year’s live closure.

“However now that events are back on the agenda, we have seen a spike again and despite Viagogo being explicitly warned and receiving a $7 million ($5. 23 million) fine from the ACCC in 2020, they continue to flout the rules.

“Those within the entertainment and arts industry have been vocal about the obliteration of their industry due to covid and they do not need the additional stress of ticket resellers scalping well-meaning fans.”

Zac Leigh, CEO of Australian-based ticket resale marketplace Tixel was among those welcoming the inquiry.

“We agree that it is perfectly OK for someone to resell a ticket. We do not agree that someone should be enabled to resell that ticket at a grossly inflated price. 

“This often creates an environment where dishonest buyers are motivated to purchase tickets to in-demand shows for the purpose of reselling them later for commercial gain.”

Leigh added, “It’s also not unthinkable that the kind of person that tries to sell a ticket at a 400% markup might be the same kind of person that would try to sell a fake ticket.

“Both of these outcomes are wildly unfair to the real fans handing over their hard earned dollars to see the artists they love.”

Lorde fans in her home market New Zealand turned to Christchurch’s February 26 Electric Avenue festival after three of the “Solar Power” singer-songwriter’s five headliner Frontier Touring/ Eccles Entertainment shows (February 27 to March 5) sold out in minutes.

The Electric Avenue headliner appearance at North Hagley Park kicks off her first NZ dates in five years. It shifted 10,000 of 25,000 tix in two days, according to Callam Mitchell, director of Team Event. Stubs for VIP experience and the $139.90 general admission tier one also sold out. On the bill are Drax Project, Harper Finn, Lee Mvtthews, Summer Thieves and Supergroove.

Sydney-based promoter and ticketing company TEG, and The Rockefeller Company of New York which creates film, animation and live family entertainment theatre shows, set up a joint venture under the name TEG Rockefeller.

It will expand market reach for both TEG and Rockefeller Productions, with the latter to promote TEG’s experiential family content in the US and elsewhere. The JV’s first project is Pixar Putt, the 18-hole pop-up mini golf course designed by TEG’s Life Like Touring, which opens in Manhattan early August.

Co-founders Jonathan and Wilson Rockefeller will work with Tim McGregor, managing director with the TEG Live division.

Sydney-born Los Angeles-based global breakout The Kid Laroi maintains his First Nations roots. He had three noms for the August 7 National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) alongside rapper Baker Boy and pop singer Sycco.

MusicNT, which stages the NIMAs at Darwin Amphitheater, said the Kid’s worldwide success and collaborations with Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber “reiterated the promising potential of First Nations artists and their pursuit of musical recognition.” 2021 was a year more First Nations acts received mainstream exposure, including Miiesha’s three wins at the Queensland Music Awards and Jessica Mauboy wrapping filming as a coach on The Voice Australia.

The Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Festival, both staged in February/ March, released economic impact results in July showing they were tourism attractions even during coronavirus concerns and reduced venue capacities.

Adelaide Fringe generated $16.4 million ($12.26 million) at box office from 632,667 tickets. Of those, 73,710 stubs were to 26,649 tourists visiting South Australia, resulting in 106,585 visitor bed nights. The festival delivered $56.39 million ($42.16 million) in gross economic impact to the South Australian economy and generated $31.6 million ($23.6 million) in new net expenditure to the state during the 2021 festival.

Adelaide Festival’s box office income of $3.93 million ($2.93 million), which surpassed its target of $2.77 million ($2 million) included the sale of 61,000 tickets. It brought 4690 visitors who generated 35,301 visitor bed nights. As a result, it contributed $42.5 million ($31.7 million) to the state.