Southbound bushfire relief concert raises over $150k
West Australia’s Southbound festival, which was cancelled due to devastating Southwest bushfires, raised $150,000 from a hastily assembled relief concert last Sunday (January 10) at the HBF Stadium in Perth.
Southbound’s promoter Sunset Events and HBF Stadium operator VenuesWest, pulled the show together in 48 hours with some of the acts that had already arrived to play the festival, which was to have been held before 15,000 at Busselton’s Sir Stewart Bovell Park between January 8 and 10.
Over 3500 attended the Perth show, to see a DJ set by Disclosure, Bloc Party, Birds of Tokyo (whose guitarist Adam Spark has family from the completely destroyed town of Yarloop and flashed footage of fire damage on screen during their song Lanterns), Django Django, San Cisco, Koi Child, Oh Wonder and the JumpClimb Djs.
Sunset Events Director David Chitty said, “We were utterly overwhelmed at the willingness of local businesses, suppliers, staff and our local and international artists who dropped everything to make this event happen.
“The people of West Australia wasted no time throwing their support and money behind this event to help out our friends in the South West through this devastating time.”
VenuesWest Chairman Richard Muirhead added, “To put together a concert for 3,500 people in under two days is an amazing achievement. I commend everyone involved.”
“Staff at VenuesWest were overwhelmed with offers of support from businesses across a range of industries, without their support this event would not have been so successful”.
Companies offering their services at short notice were AEG Ogden, Audio Technic, Coca Cola Amatil, Concert and Corporate Productions, Direct Brand Distributors, Go West Tours, HOBAN Recruitment, Lounge Backline, Perth Ice Works, Quayclean, Radlink, St John Ambulance, Sea Containers Perth, Spotless, Ticketmaster and Ultimo Catering.
Ticketing agency Moshtix is also setting up a dedicated bushfire appeal on its website.
Southbound earlier revealed that many of the ticket-holders – they paid between $565 for VIP camping tickets to $215 happy camper tickets – donated all or some of their refunds. The festival also donated all the food on site to victims and fire fighters. A silent auction of signed merchandise will be announced shortly.
Other Southbound acts were also involved in other benefits held in WA over the weekend. Jack Rabbit Slim’s raised $16,000 for a gig with Young Fathers and Koi Child. Metro City’s benefit had seven acts including Mac Demarco and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
The Beer Farm pulled together a fundraiser with Boston Switch, Palace and other local DJs.
Meantime, Falls Festival in Lorne, Victoria, raised almost $120,000 in 24 hours from a special $99 New Year’s Eve ticket it introduced for bushfire victims along the surf coast of Victoria. More initiatives will be announced, promoters said.
Falls itself had to move from its farm site of 22 years after Lorne was evacuated on Christmas Day. It staged to 16,000 patrons at the nearby Mount Duneed Estate in Geelong, which hosts A Day On The Green winery shows. ADOTG promoter Roundhouse Entertainment got them the alternate site within 24 hours.
The Victorian Government provided financial support and dealt with Surf Coast Shire. The City of Greater Geelong worked through the local planning and logistical considerations to ensure the necessary permits were in place.
Image: Bloc Party with David Chitty (director), Jessie Miller (Communications Manager), Simon Hunt (production manager), Tahlia Fasciani Allen (Communications coordinator), Daniel Joinbee (artist liaison manager) + St. John’s ambulance crew, volunteers & more crew
Photo credit: Courtney McAllister