Guns N’ Roses Tour, Major Aus Festivals Among Latest RISE Grant Recipients

The latest round of RISE Fund grant recipients have been unveiled, with a number of major events making the list and one international tour stirring up controversy.

The Federal Government's RISE Fund is intended to “reactivate” the arts and entertainment sector as it navigates its way out of COVID, and while the sixth funding announcement features a wealth of different projects from across the country, it’s the $600,000 allocated to promoters TEG Dainty that’s raising some eyebrows.

The six-figure sum is to assist with rescheduling Guns N’ Roses massive Australian tour, which was pushed back from this past November to late 2022 due to the Delta outbreak in the country.

Shadow Minister For The Arts Tony Burke took to Twitter following the announcement to slam the Federal Government:

Yesterday the Govt announced who gets taxpayers’ money for the Arts RISE grants. $600k for the Guns N’ Roses tour.
And still not a dollar to support a COVID insurance scheme for Australian artists.
Does Mr Morrison know what’s happening to the sector?#arts #auspol

— Tony Burke (@Tony_Burke) December 21, 2021

The music industry has been calling on the Morrison Government for months to urgently deliver a nationwide insurance scheme that is essential for the industry’s recovery as new COVID variants, such as Omicron, continue to wreak havoc on the live sector.

Despite Guns N’ Roses casting somewhat of a shadow on the latest RISE announcement, the new funding does expand a lot further than just TEG.

The Rubens’ music festival, Valleyways Festival, has received $227,600 in support, with next February’s Camden-based event set to feature the local favourites alongside Middle Kids, Skegss, Slowly Slowly and more.

Touring festival Wine Machine has claimed $824,000 funding for its next six-state run, while Blue Mountains Music Festival ($150,000), Out On The Weekend Festival ($25,000), Birdsville Big Red Bash and Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash ($860,000) and others from NSW also make the cut.

Around the country, other major events listed include Spilt Milk Festival Tour ($498,402), Gympie Music Muster Revival ($1 million), Red Hot Summer Tour ($490,000), Adelaide Guitar Festival ($310,000), Dark Mofo ($400,000), Land Of Plenty and Goulburn Valley Country Music Festival ($398,727).

Entertainment company Wonderlick has received $327,667 to tour beloved local acts around regional Australia, Midnight, an Australian musical with lyrics co-written by Kate Miller-Heidke, is awarded $500,000 for rescheduling, All Our Exes Live in Texas’ Georgia Mooney gets $42,000 for live concert series Supergroup, Harvey Sutherland scores $55,600 for a 2022 national tour and more.

You can check out the full list of recipients here.