Big Day Out Founder Denies There’s A Festival Crisis

Big Day Out founder Ken West has denied that Australia is experiencing a festival crisis while speaking at a music industry conference this morning.

The opening panel of Melbourne's Face The Music, West responded to claims that the era of multi-genre festivals is over by saying that ticket sales were shifting to other events.

“I don't believe there's a crisis on any level,” West said. “Big Day Out was the gathering of the tribes, there was no way to get a metal fan to watch a techno show until I brought them together.”

 He claimed that Big Day Out got “loved to death” when people were buying tickets off the festival name alone.

“You don't want to be selling tickets for FOMO – fear of missing out,” he said, “because there'll be a year when FOMO will run out.”

The comments came after agent Paul Sloan, from Billions Australia, had said, “It is the end of an era of sorts, the multi-genre [festivals] are the ones that have suffered.”

The line-ups “made sense at that time,” he said, but it for punters looking to see a headline act the multi-genre environment is no longer “their preferred place to see a band”.

“In the '90s when you announced a festival it was a social and cultural event so it mobilised everybody,” Sloan said. “[But now] whether you're a hipster or whatever, the way you claim status is by criticising things online. You say 'Oh, that line-up's fucked' and your four friends read it.

“Once something's got a smell on it, it's over… you can't overwhelm sentiment of the people with an ad or a promise.”

Groovin The Moo promoter Stephen Halpin has experienced ongoing success with the regional multi-genre event but said they've tapped into another stream.

“Our festival is very closely aligned with triple j,” he said. “You can have Parkway Drive, Flume and Matt Corby, because they're all triple j.”

Sloan, who promotes the West Australian festival Rock-It amongst other events, hasn't been immune to the slump.

On last year's Rock-It he said he “stiffed my balls on that pretty badly… but I didn't tell the media so I didn't get dragged through the mud as a loser promoter.

“I couldn't scientifically explain the reason for that, it had never happened before.”

But he added, “There's no economic situation going on, the money's still there. And if the promoter books that band in a venue that romantically connects with you, you'll go and see that band.”

“It might be fragile, but generally the sales are all there,” said West. “They've been reallocated for the time, we're in a competitive business. But we just want to put on the best show possible, everybody.”

He admitted that “The bubble has popped” for artist fees. “When festivals are bidding against festivals it's an arms race.”