National Festival BIGSOUND Attacked By Anonymous Brisbane Musicians

An anonymous group claiming to be made up of Brisbane musicians has criticised Australia’s premier music industry showcase and conference BIGSOUND for not hosting enough Queensland bands.

Calling themselves ‘Brisbane Musicians United’ but keeping their identities anonymous (“Out of concern regarding any negative impact from this communication”) the group’s open letter was addressed to Queensland’s Minister For The Arts Ian Walker and sent to media outlets.

BIGSOUND is run by Queensland’s peak music industry body QMusic, whose funding comes from Arts Queensland as well as national bodies the Australia Council For The Arts and APRA. They receive funding specifically for BIGSOUND as well, which, by its mantra, is a national event and features a two-day showcase where over 100 emerging bands play in venues around Fortitude Valley in front of industry assembled from Australia and around the world.

The open letter claims that current booker Nick O’Byrne and former producer Graham Ashton have a bias against Queensland bands and that at least 50 percent of artists show be Queensland based.

According to their figures, 27 Queensland acts have been booked for the 2014 event, while Victoria have 40, New South Wales has 31, Western Australia 11, South Australia nine and one each for Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. There are also four New Zealand artists.

According to APRA figures of musicians in Australia and New Zealand, just 12 percent of musicians reside in Queensland

The letter reads, “What we want to know is why Qld State Government funds are supporting Big Sound when the amount of Qld music artists involved for this next series is approx 21%... We are left wondering is Big Sound all about QMusic’s interest in staging their own music ‘festival’ event and thus the lack of Qld inclusions? If so then surely this should be treated in that regard or if not then a minimum quota of Qld contributions imposed nearing at least the 50% mark or even 40% needs to be applied.” (sic)

According to APRA figures of musicians in Australia and New Zealand, just 12 percent of musicians reside in Queensland, with 24.1 percent coming from New South Wales and 22.3% from Victoria. There is a slightly higher percentage of artists from Queensland registered through the triple j Unearthed platform, which is where the sort of ‘emerging’ acts BIGSOUND deals with are registered. There, 18 percent of artists are from BIGSOUND’s home state, still lower that the quota that has been booked for 2014.

The letter also attacks Executive Programmer O’Byrne for being from Victoria, although theMusic.com.au understands that there is a group of individuals – approximately five – who are consulted when booking acts. They are all understood to be from either Queensland or New South Wales.

Although this anonymous letter is nothing more than exactly that at this point, there are fears that in a political climate where the Queensland Government has already cut QMusic’s funding around BIGSOUND that such criticisms could endanger the annual pilgrimage.

Read the letter here.