Bluesfest gets second tourism hall of fame induction, first epic announcement for 2019 set for this week

Bluesfest Byron Bay has been inducted into a NSW tourism hall of fame for the second time in nine months.

This comes as it prepares to drop an epic first round of 30 artists for its 2019 event, which will mark a celebration of its 30th anniversary.

At least three of the major names at the top of the audience’s wishlist are returning.

The latest honour was the North Coast Regional Tourism Award, which was held on July 25 in Port Macquarie before 200 tourism executives.

The festival was one of nine inducted on the night.

Bluesfest also just discovered that it has also been inducted into the hall of fame of the NSW Tourism Awards.

The event actually took place in Sydney last October – but Bluesfest didn’t realise until this month that three wins in the major festivals and events category automatically gave it an induction.

“They forgot to tell us on the night!” festival director Peter Noble told TMN.

“We just found out lately quite by chance.

“We haven’t got a plaque or acknowledgement in the mail yet so I guess I’ll have to pick it up at this year’s Awards.”

Recent figures compiled by Lawrence Consulting on behalf of Bluesfest confirmed the continued economic impact of the event held over the Easter long weekend.

This year’s aggregated audience was 99,000, slightly down from the 105,000 from the year before.

It generated $88.6 million for Byron Shire, $147.7 million for Northern Rivers and $243,2 million for the state of NSW.

It also created 422 full-time jobs for the shire, 848 for Northern Rivers and 1,281 for NSW.

“This does not include the 600 people who work on Blueesfest, and the extra 600 volunteers,” Noble points out.

“It’s gratifying for all the negative stories about the entertainment industry, it’s still out there creating jobs.”

Noble says that an induction into two tourism halls of fame indicates two things:

“We at Bluesfest always provided not just a musical experience for our audience but a full life experience.

“So they come not just to the site but enjoy the beaches, the hinterland trails, the food, the drinks, everything.

“They bring their money and spend it on our region.”

The awards also means an increased recognition from agents and artist managers around the world to do business with Bluesfest.

“I was just offered a deal by a North American agent where if I could pay x amount of dollars, a major band would play Bluesfest and not the New Orleans Jazz Festival which draws 150,000 and one of the biggest of its kind in the world.”