News September 11, 2024

Bluesfest Is Now a Member of the Australian Festivals Association (EXCLUSIVE)

Head of Content

As Bluesfest sets the table for its final show, it does so as a member of the Australian Festivals Association (AFA) for the very first time.

The peak body for music festivals launched in December 2018 with a mission to make its members’ events safer for patrons, and “reduce friction” between festival promoters and regulatory bodies by “aligning evidence based practices and decades of combined industry experience with the requirements of government policy.”

More than five years on, Bluesfest has joined the AFA’s membership, alongside Cedar Mill Events, CMC Rocks QLD, Good Things, Fuzzy Operations and many others.

Led by managing director Mitch Wilson, AFA membership comprises of stakeholders from multiple sectors, including promoters, producers, cultural organisations, councils and operators.

“We are so pleased to have Bluesfest come on board as our newest member,” Wilson writes in a statement to The Music Network.

“It is such an iconic Aussie festival, and sought after to play by so many local and international artists. Festivals help grow audiences and can be some of the first opportunities to play in front of a big crowd and Bluesfest is definitely one of those events.”

Wilson continues, “as an association we are stronger together and as we grow we can be an even stronger advocate for a reducing the regulatory burden and increasing the support for festivals from governments across the country.”

Bluesfest joins at a time of crisis for the festivals industry. Speaking at the Variety Live Business Breakfast in June, where Bluesfest won the inaugural music festival of the year award, the show’s director Peter Noble likened the situation to an “extinction event” – not everyone will survive, but life will go on and evolve.

“People are doing it tough in Australia right now. And they’re not going out as much as they did,” he remarked.

There’s strength in numbers. “We’ve really got to be as one as an industry. We need to speak to government,” he continued. “We need to say this is the time you support our industry because we are facing an extinction event and that event can be looked at during the times of COVID, government delivered a lot of funding…come on government. Give us a hand up, we don’t want a handout. We can get through this because our industry is worth it.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Sept. 11, Bluesfest unveiled the all-Australian artist announcement for next year’s 36th and final edition, a bill that features Hilltop Hoods, Xavier Rudd, John Butler, The Cat Empire, Kasey Chambers and more.

A separate announcement is “coming soon with some big-name international headliners and even more incredible acts,” Noble says in a statement.

The door isn’t firmly shut on the popular Easter holiday fest. Tamara Smith, the local state MP for Ballina, which includes Byron Bay, has launched an e-petition calling on the NSW government to provide a rescue package for Bluesfest.

In roughly three weeks, the campaign has accumulated 6,000 signatures. The target — 20,000 signatures, which would trigger a debate on the future of Bluesfest in parliament.

That figure is a fraction of numbers that Bluesfest would welcome in a regular year. In its heyday, Bluesfest averaged 85,000, hosted 102,000 in 2022, and this year reported over 60,000 attendees.

The countdown is now on for the final Bluesfest, set for April 17-20 2025 at the 300-acre Byron Events Farm.

The first wave of artists announced for Bluesfest 2025 included Rolling Stone AU/NZ cover stars Crowded House, Vance Joy, Ocean Alley, Tones and I, and Brad Cox.