“Just being nominated alone makes the difference”: Bluesfest’s Peter Noble
The team at Bluesfest Byron Bay must have been popping the champagne corks after an international nomination, an international win and a NSW tourism accolade all within a week.
The latest was being nominated in Pollstar magazine’s annual awards in the International Music Festival of the Year category.
It’s the sixth consecutive nomination for Bluesfest, which is the only Australian event.
It is up against UK’s Glastonbury, Lollapalooza Brazil in Sao Paulo, Primavera Sound in Barcelona, Spain, London’s Barclaycard British Summer Time, C2C: Country to Country (London, Glasgow, Dublin).
“Just being nominated alone makes the difference”, Executive Director Peter Noble told TMN.
“The last time we were nominated, I walked the next day after the announcement into one of the biggest agencies in North America and they all knew. It is that big a deal.
“And of course, being up against those fantastic festivals in the category is very gratifying.”
The Pollstar awards are held in Los Angeles in early February.
The Byron Bay festival was also lauded as a crucial blues hub in the world by America’s Blues Foundation.
It listed it as one of 12 individuals or events in its 2018 Keeping the Blues Alive Awards as part of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis on January 16.
Aside from the European Blues Union, the others on the list were American.
Closer to home, at the NSW Tourism Award, Bluesfest took out Best Major Festival & Event for the third year in a row.
This achievement automatically puts Bluesfest in NSW Tourism’s Hall of Fame – a first for a music festival.
It acknowledged how it brought 32,000 visitors to the Northern Rivers region (its total audience was over 100,000) and generated $107 million to the region.
Of the third win and Hall of Fame kudos, Noble makes the point, “We’re the most awarded of the festival, and we’ve achieved all this with no Government funding whatsoever.
“We’ve applied but they always figured we were doing OK.
“But all these other festivals in NSW, including mine, work so hard and the profit is not as huge as some people think, and it’d be nice to get some recognition for that.
“The festival business is cyclical. Some years it works well, other years we might need some extra marketing to bring some folks in from over the border.”
Noble challenges the NSW Minister in charge of tourism to bother to attend the festival next year for the first time, get to know the team and its problems, and sit down and have a discussion on which ways Destination NSW could lend Bluesfest a helping hand.
Other finalists in the tourism category were Vivid Sydney whose total costs are underwritten by the NSW Government with funding of $21.6 million over three years starting in 2012/3, while the Tamworth Country Music Festival and The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras have long had major sponsors.
The 29th Bluesfest Byron Bay runs 29 March to 2 April with stars including Robert Plant, Lionel Richie, John Butler Trio, Eric Gales, Youssou Ndour, Tash Sultana, Seal, Jackson Browne, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Gomez, The New Power Generation, Rag N’Bone Man, Govt Mule, José Gonzalez, Jimmy Cliff, Chic featuring Nile Rodger, Walter Trout and Canned Heat among others.
A number of other artists are expected to be announced in coming weeks.
For more informationvisit: www.bluesfest.com.au for details.