Festivals This article is more than 8 months oldFalls festival cancelled for 2023 as organisers take year off to ‘recalibrate’
This article is more than 8 months oldOrganisers say they ‘need a break’ after several challenging years for music festivals across Australia
Falls festival will not ring in the New Year in 2024 after organisers of the annual national event announced that it will take a year off to “rest, recover and recalibrate”.
Wednesday’s announcement follows a challenging few years for the 28-year-old festival. It endured postponements because of Covid-19 lockdowns, a failed attempt to move its Victorian site, and ending the festival’s time in Tasmania in 2021 after 17 years.
The 2022-23 Victorian event, headlined by US rapper Lil Nas X and British rock band Arctic Monkeys, was held at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl across two stages.
“The past few years has seen unprecedented change in the live music space, both front of house and behind the scenes,” Secret Sounds co-chief executive Jessica Ducrou wrote in a public statement.
“Our team needs a break, so this year we’ll take time off to enjoy the holiday period and allow some space to re-imagine how Falls will look in the future.”
Ducrou thanked punters for the ongoing support of the festival, which also ran in Byron Bay in New South Wales and Fremantle in Western Australia.
“You really are the heart and soul of Falls and we look forward to updating you with our plans when the time is right,” she said.
When contacted by the Guardian on Wednesday about the Falls decision, Secret Sounds declined to comment beyond the public statement.
Secret Sounds, led by Ducrou and co-organiser Paul Piticco, also organise Splendour in the Grass, Harvest Rock, Spin Off, Spilt Milk and Heaps Good festivals.
While in the past Splendour in the Grass tickets have completely sold out by April, sometimes as early as February, tickets for this year’s event have yet to sell out, perhaps reflecting the challenges facing the broader performance industry.
Last year’s Splendour in the Grass festival was hampered by challenging weather conditions and logistical chaos, with Ducrou and Piticco saying they were “deeply sorry” afterwards.
Evelyn Richardson, chief executive of Live Performance Australia, said the decision to cancel Falls festival comes during a challenging period across the industry.
“There have been issues in regards to the Victoria site, so they moved it to Melbourne last year, and it may be that impacted things. But on face value, they’ve decided to take a step back and press pause and think about what they want to do next,” she said.
‘Perfect storm’
Richardson said the industry is facing a “perfect storm”, with the cost of freight, security and insurance for weather events going up, as well as skill shortages as workers left the industry during the pandemic as jobs dried up.
At the same time, consumers are also buying tickets later than they did pre-pandemic, while also dealing with a cost-of-living crisis.
“Pre-sales used to help organisers predict their box office, but people buying closer to the event presents risks,” she said.
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“Production costs are going up 30%, 40%, 50%, but you can’t keep increasing ticket prices to address that, so it is very challenging.
“Everybody is reviewing their business models.”
Mitch Wilson, the managing director of Australian Festivals Association, said he believed the challenges would mean “we’re going to see a reassessment by festival organisers across the country about their events going into the future”.
“It is definitely understandable and a sentiment shared – I hope we don’t see more festivals having to do this, but you’ll see some changes in the offering out there,” he said of the Falls decision.
“It is likely we’re going to see a reorganisation in the sector due to the huge disruption, but we’re not going to be seeing big name events making similar announcements, it would be a huge shock and news to me if that were the case.”
Some of the biggest names in music have performed at Falls over its 28 years, including Blondie, Iggy Pop, Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, Moby, Public Enemy, Bloc Party, Silverchair, the Avalanches, Childish Gambino, Tegan and Sara, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
In 2015 the Lorne festival had to be moved at the last minute to Mount Duneed Estate near Geelong because of a bushfire threat. The Lorne festival was cancelled four years later because of extreme weather conditions.
In 2020, a multimillion dollar class action lawsuit involving 77 people was settled with festival organisers with the victims, who sustained various injuries in a 2016 stampede, receiving almost $7m.
Organisers tried moving from the Falls event in Lorne to Birregurra in Colac, south-west of Melbourne, after Colac Shire Otway Council approved a planning permit.
But a group of local farmers concerned about the impact on neighbouring cattle fought the decision, lodging an appeal to the Victorian civil and administrative tribunal, which prompted the festival to move to the Melbourne CBD for 2022-2023.
– with Australian Associated Press
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