Struggling Festivals Announcing Too Early, Says Top Booker

Australian festivals should be announcing line-ups closer to their dates according to Richard Moffat, who books the Splendour In The Grass, Falls and Groovin The Moo festivals amongst others.

Speaking to theMusic.com.au at Face The Music Moffat said that festivals are missing out on securing the hottest breaking bands due to being fully booked too early and not having space for the truly hyped acts of the time.

“I'm generally advising people I work for to book later, because bands break so quickly. I'll give you and example, Falls is already booked for this cycle, as is Laneway, but in the last month I've had acts sell out shows in the venues I do, now, like in October and November, that we didn't even consider to book and I can tell you for a fact that if they were playing at Laneway or Falls they'd have massive audiences.

"These are like the Kite String Tangle and Dustin Tebutt. And they're the right genre to be on Falls or Laneway or Meredith or whatever but they got famous in November, so they're not relevant for a show that's in December of February? It's kinda crazy."

Moffat suggests that festivals announce their line ups as late as possible, even if that means announcing half the line up early and the other half at the last minute.

“Just book later. You just have to not announce your line-up so far in advance and you have to not announce your entire line-up. So generally, my mantra is if you have to go early, then just put half the line-up out and put the rest at the last possible moment that you can. I'm hoping to convince the people I work for to do it that way so they save up space for bands people want to see when the show is on, not when tickets go on sale.”