More Shows Planned For Bluesfest Site

Bluesfest chief Peter Noble has told the Live Music Globally – The Ever Changing Landscape panel at BIGSOUND that he's looking forward to staging more festivals on Bluesfest's Tyagarah Tee Tree Farm now “that it looks like the Greens have lost the election”. The Greens performed poorly in Saturday's NSW local government elections.

But he also warned bands about overplaying a market, citing a headline act who played four shows in Byron Bay over an 18-month period, if they wanted to remain appealing to festival bookers.

The panel, which took place in an overflowing Cloudland Moon Room, focused on the state of music festivals.

Way Over There's Richard Moffat, who books festivals including Falls and Melbourne venues such as the Corner Hotel and Northcote Social Club, believes the presence of major headline acts on festivals are not as important now that the way punters consume music has changed. He said we're living in a “glorious age” where people have more diverse music tastes; he finds punters are much more familiar with a festival's entire line-up, rather than just the top few acts on the bill. But he said listeners also move on from their favourite acts much more quickly.

Moffat said he thinks next year's Big Day Out line-up is “amazing”, but that no one's saying that; there seems to be a perception there should be another major act on the bill. But he questioned why someone with the stature of an act such as Eminem would consider playing a festival when they could sell 30,000 tickets to their own shows and pocket all the ticket sales themselves.

Noble believes his festival is still headliner-reliant, saying Bob Dylan's presence on last year's Bluesfest sold 50 to 60 percent of the festival's tickets in 48 hours.

The panel - which also included Penny Drop's Emily York, Sprung Festival's Anthony Edwards, Glastonbury/The Great Escape's Martin Elbourne, Primavera's David Jimenez-Zumalacarregui and Music Glue's Joe Porn - agreed it is vital for bands these days to have a strong digital presence, and that it almost impossible for a young act to be booked on a festival without a large and demonstrable fanbase.