City of Sydney to fast-track live music action plan

More good news for Sydney, the country, and culture in general, with the announcement that the City of Sydney are making Council-owned properties available as rehearsal spaces, and gig venues, as well as trialling special loading zones outside venues.

These fast-tracked initiatives are all outlined in the recently-revealed Live Music Matters action plan. The report was assembled early last month by the 11-person NSW’s Live Music and Performance Taskforce, which was set up last December by the City of Sydney.

“We’ve already received positive feedback from the community on our taskforce’s action plan, with people telling us it has the potential to breathe new life into the sector and transform the cultural life of our city”, Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

“While the taskforce will come back to us with a final set of recommendations early next year, these are great ideas that will make a real difference to both aspiring and established musicians that we can get started on right away – including turning our own community building into live music venues.”

The points of action to be fast-tracked are outlined below, and received the unanimous support of Council.

• Making City of Sydney-owned properties including the Ron Williams Centre in Redfern, Harry Jensen Activity Centre in Millers Point and Green Square Community Hall available to school-aged musicians for after-school and weekend rehearsals at no cost;
• Investigating improvements needed, including possible provision of pianos, to make several of the City’s local town halls more suitable for hosting small-scale live music events and performances;
• Increasing the capacity of the City of Sydney to understand and respond to the needs of live music and performance;
• Piloting a live music performance series for young people, coordinated by the City’s youth services team, which teaches skills in planning, promoting, delivering and evaluating live music events;
• Establishing a free, independent and confidential mediation service and formal mediation policy for resolving complaints about live music in the City;
• Developing a permit system to allow musicians, performers and technical staff to load and unload equipment in existing loading zones outside music and performance venues without getting a ticket;
• Inviting the National Live Music Office to develop a data collection program to monitor the health of Sydney’s live music sector, including audience and participation data; and
• Exploring ways the City can provide financial support for staging all-ages live music and performance events in established music venues.

“It’s incredibly exciting to see a city that is really serious about its commitment to supporting live music and performance,” Taskforce Chair, and co-Director of the National Live Music Office, John Wardle said of the initiatives. “I think these policies will make a big difference to the future cultural life of the city.”