Olly Arkins To Step Down From AFA CEO Role

Olly Arkins will step down as Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Festival Association (AFA) at the end of August.

AFA Chair Adelle Robinson announced on Tuesday that Arkins will depart after four years in the role, a period the group describes as one of the most consequential in the festival industry's history.

Arkins took on the advocacy brief as festivals grappled with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising production costs, workforce shortages, shifting audience behaviour, extreme weather and the loss of major events, including Splendour in the Grass.

Under her leadership, the AFA secured a string of policy and funding wins. These include successfully pushing for the pill testing and drug-checking trials rolled out at festivals in New South Wales and Victoria, work that built on Arkins' framing of drug-checking services as harm reduction tools that provide lifesaving information rather than encouraging drug use.

"Olly arrived at a time when festivals were still trying to work out whether we had a future. She leaves the AFA with governments listening to our industry and festivals firmly at the table in music industry-wide advocacy," Robinson said.

“She has taken the needs and aspirations of festival promoters directly to decision-makers and turned advocacy into increased funding, legislative reform and stronger working relationships with the agencies that regulate festivals.”

Arkins said the role had been the experience of a lifetime.

"I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity the AFA Board gave me to advocate for our members and this remarkable industry.

“Together, we all made the case that festivals are major employers and tourism drivers. Importantly for me, they also give Australian artists some of their first opportunities to perform on a major stage and allow more fans to discover them.”

“I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the past four years. Our association is stronger, the industry has an influential voice with government and in the media, and there is now a much deeper understanding of the cultural and economic value of festivals.”

The AFA Board said it would provide further details on the organisation's leadership transition shortly.