Festival Promoters Say Multi-Day Events Trump One Day Events

While the topic of the health of Australia’s music festival scene has always been a popular discussion, a number of the country’s leading festival promoters are unanimous on the belief that multi-day events will continue to thrive, while single day events will continue to fall by the wayside.

Speaking at an Australian Music Week panel, entertainment manager Mark Duckworth, Cygnet Folk Festival artistic director Erin Collins and Bluesfest director Peter Noble all agreed that multi-day festivals are more attractive to a wider audience as well as the individual punter.

"You’re sort of building a mini community over that length of time," Duckworth said of a multi-day festival.

"People loosen up as it goes on and build relationships over that time. I don’t think the one-day can be classed as a festival as such."

Collins says audiences are much more capable of connecting with a particular act at a multi-day festival because they are able to explore a particular genre of music much more.

"People will discover an act at a multi-day festival and go and see them every time they perform," Collins said.

"They become a groupie for that particular act and I think that's a great opportunity to really discover a type of music and you can’t do that at a one-day event."

Meanwhile, Noble was far more candid with his opinion, suggesting that one-day events should not be called festivals.

"One day events are exactly that. They’re not festivals," he said.

"The reason they wanted to use the word festival is because festivals are doing so well and so that was branding exercise. But your Big Day Outs and your Soundwaves are not festivals. They’re events. The sooner we call them what they actually are, the better for our industry."