BIGSOUND's Next Four Years Guaranteed By Qld Government

Establishing itself as a pivotal music event on the Australian calendar, BIGSOUND has secured its next four years through substantial funding via Arts Queensland and Australia Council.

The exciting news was announced at last night on the eve of the massive 2016 run, and sees the annual industry conference and showcase - currently in its 15th year – lock down $350,000 a year from Arts Queensland and $280,000 a year from the Australia Council for the next four years, compared to the $184,000 delivered from Arts Queensland this year.

“We’re looking for a platform on which to build something self-sustainable; that’s a pretty important thing to try and do in the current funding environment, which is very tight,” QMusic executive officer Joel Edmondson told theMusic.com.au.

Edmondson says the boost in funding stems from the undeniable impact the festival is having across the board.

“There’s a whole chorus of people across the country getting a lot better at talking about the value of contemporary music in general to social and economy.

"For a very long time, it was quite difficult to quantify the impact of something like BIGSOUND on the economy, but we know that in 2015 BIGSOUND generated $3.1 million in Fortitude Valley alone over its three days, so there’s some hard data now.”

With four years locked down and new funding to work with, BIGSOUND will look to expand in exciting new ways, introducing new elements into the program to change the overall look of the festival by 2020.

“With that extra money, what we’re really trying to do is expand the event in such a way that we’re bringing people from other industries and art forms into the BIGSOUND space to create new kinds of business outcomes and relationships for the music industry.

“Later in the year we’ll be making some announcements as to what that will look like in 2017.”

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