Laneway Festival Hits 100k Attendance
Laneway Festival has stormed back after a three-year hiatus.
After a strong start with 46,000 on its first weekend in Brisbane and Sydney, it tallied up a total of over 100,000 after also staging in Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth.
Danny Rogers and Jerome Borazio, who started the event in a Melbourne bar in 2005, said it had been an excellent run.
“We’re immensely proud to finish this year’s Laneway with another remarkable weekend across Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth,” they said.
“The sun was shining, the artists were flying and the fan energy was exhilarating.
“From the moment we announced the line-up we knew we had something really special, and to see so many amazing music fans enjoying their fave artists after three years was sheer joy.”
Laneway’s Auckland show on Jan. 30 had also set a new attendance record before being cancelled due to wild weather.
When tickets went on sale last spring for Albert Park, all 13,000 were snapped up in 90 minutes.
It moved to Western Springs where the crowd was set to hit between 26,000 and 30,000.
In Tasmania, Party in the Paddock also returned after three years to 12,000 arriving for a bill that included Gang of Youths, Benee and DMAs.
Promoter Vibestown posted: “What an amazing weekend… we couldn’t be prouder of the class, presence, colour, fun, attitude and the diversity of our official return to the Australian music festival industry.
“This Tasmanian, independent music and arts festival is home and is here to stay.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing though with four hour traffic queues, police complaints about drink driving, while a post on Instagram claimed, “5 hours in the line with only one toilet (which was out of order) and no access to water … Paid for VIP to get quick entry but were directed into the GA line and wasted three hours.”
EDM festival Transmission’s Feb. 11 triumphant return with its biggest production and lineup (including a two-hour set from Armin van Buuren) drew 18,000 to Sydney Showgrounds.
However it was hit with bad press after the fatal overdose of a 26-year old man, a dozen others hospitalised, six charged with drug supply, and complaints free water should have been available given the high temperature inside.
In other live music news, the 11,000-capacity Adelaide Entertainment Centre’s newly appointed general manager Kate Russo told the Adelaide Advertiser that it’s “on track for a record number of bookings this year”.
“Events are selling out, they’re doing really well. It was something we were all a bit nervous about coming out of COVID but we’ve all been really pleasantly surprised,’’ Russo said.
These included Sting, Lorde and Snoop Dogg, while sporting events were also hitting capacity.
Festivals are also using their attendances for betterment of the wider community.
Queensland’s Gympie Muster, which had 40,000 visitations last year, announced donations of $355,000 to local community groups.
Festival chairman Greg Cavanagh explained that 10 years ago when the Muster had a “devastating” financial year, 11 groups helped with a combined discount of $19,500.
“We have not forgotten this act of goodwill, so now, we have returned the value of that discount back to those community groups but with 100% ‘interest’, an additional total of $39,100.”
Darwin’s BASSINTHEGRASS, heading for a 16,000 sell-out (along with an online following of 40,000), made anti-bullying organisation Dolly’s Dream its charity partner to raise awareness about the devastating effects of bullying.
Tamworth Country Music Festival raised $50,123.22 for charity partner Lifeline, through the sale of Toyota straw Stetson-style hats.