News August 27, 2020

Aussie music festivals up for major gongs at next Event Awards

Facebook / Splendour In The Grass

Some of Australia’s best-known festivals are acknowledged for their crowd numbers, boosts to tourism and their brand power.

They are among the near 120 national and state/territory finalists for the 2020 Australian Event Awards.

These are held in Adelaide on October 21.

National Finalists

Splendour in the Grass 2019, which generated a record attendance of 42,500 and a record number of brand partners while campers numbers hit 18,500.

Groundwater Country Music Festival 2019 in Queensland reinforced its status as the country’s fastest-growing country music festival with a new record attendance last year, with 70,000 attendees which was up 20% from 2018.

Buskers by the Creek 2019 had a leap forward last year. Founded by brother-sister duo Cindy and Joel Jensen, a grant from the Sunshine Coast Council allowed the event to book more than 300 local and international performers ranging from music to dance, comedy to theatre and contortion to unicycling and it drew crowds in excess of 20,000.

Nightcliff Seabreeze Festival @ Home 2020 marked the free community festival held on the Darwin foreshow going virtual, broadcast on TV, radio and online.

State And Territory Finalists

Adelaide Fringe. In 2019 the Fringe drew 2.3 million, sold 828,563 tickets and generated $95 million in expenditure for the SA economy. It also posted a huge increase in tourist attendance from the previous year by a whopping 72% with 35,000 interstate and international visitors.

Bandwidth presented by Blues on Broadbeach 2020 saw promoter Major Events Gold Coast shift the free festival online. Blues on Broadbeach attracts 50,000 each day, generated 4,000 new jobs on the Coast each year, and 169,000 visitor nights for local tourism.

Bandwidth marked the first time it was streamed to the US where it drew six-digit viewing for the likes of Tommy Emmanuel and The Black Sorrows and archival sets from Robert Cray.

Home But Not Alone 2020 was supported by the City of Gosnells (WA) in the wake of pandemic restrictions and organised by the Home But Not Alone group “dedicated to boosting community kindness and connection, built in the spirit of bringing people together through online experiences, interactive activities and shared resources.”

National Achievements

Australian Festival Consulting Pty Ltd for their Australian Festival Industry Conference.

Deni Play on the Plains Festival for their work on Deni Ute Muster 2019.

Event & Sports Projects Australia Pty Ltd for their work in Group Ticketing & Transport Operations and Communications Service.

National Events

Gold Coast Music Awards 2020 went virtual in its sixth year, drawing thousands with guests including Amy Shark, Tommy Emmanuel, Tones and I, Sophie Monk and Michael Chugg.

Highway to Hell, the closing event of Perth Festival 2020 where a number of acts performed AC/DC songs on trucks along the Canning Highway as a tribute to Bon Scott and drew 150,000.