Big debate on future of music festivals here in Australia

Festivarian Events Telluride Bluegrass Festival
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Interesting time here in Australia. We’ve had a spate of cancellations of high profile music festivals. The biggest one ( Bluesfest) had very low numbers over Easter. Lots of public discussion as to why. There is a genuine public interest in this issue because we rely on festivals to showcase local performers alongside international acts. One suggestion is that Live Nation has driven up price of international acts and effectively squeezed out local, independent festivals.

One of the factors no one is discussing is the poor customer service and lack of community building at our festivals. It’s much more transactional here, no sense of fostering regular attendance or consulting fans between festivals. Such a stark comparison to Telluride!

Interested in what’s happening in US. Are music festivals under threat?

Ps only two months till we fly back, looking forward to seeing everyone :blue_heart::green_heart:

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I’d say the over-all live music scene is flourishing in the US, but individual music festivals have an ebb and flow, dependent on scene and the line-ups. Historic, long running fests like TBF don’t have quite the same dependency on any current “scene” as do many of the smaller festivals. All that being said, I’ve seen a ton of small and mid level festivals come and go over the years.

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I think over-saturation is an issue. There are so many different festivals competing with each other. Most of them have padded lineups with a handful of marquee names and lots of barely known and barely paid undercards. A shakeout is inevitable.

But for many attendees unfortunately, it’s just a backdrop for their Insta feeds, the music is secondary.