Australia News: Music Festivals Bill, Auckland, Bluesfest & More

An Oct. 18 draft of the Music Festivals Bill 2019 sets up a replacement legal framework echoing recently overturned New South Wales festival legislation passed in March. 

According to the legislation, the promoter of a “high risk” event would have to send a safety management team for an approval process from the Liquor and Gaming Authority or face up to 12 months in prison.

NSW festival promoters breathed a sigh of relief when the Legislative Council overturned a March legislation which initiated harsh requirements and penalties for festivals deemed “high risk” due to drug overdose deaths. A parliamentary inquiry earlier found the law was rushed before a state election and criticized the lack of consultation with the festival sector.

The music industry has issued a call to premier Gladys Berejiklian for a roundtable and criticized “the total lack of respect for the live music industry.” 

It deemed the draft bill “unworkable” and noted, “without serious consultation with our industry this proposed legislation will not work and we do not support it.” 

That call was signed Live Performance Australia, Australian Festival Association, Music NSW, Live Music Office and rights group APRA AMCOS.

Auckland can expect a NZ$53 million (US$33.8 million) boost to its economy from music, musicals, festivals, exhibitions, family entertainment and sports events over the summer. The estimate, reported in the NZ Herald, was from Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA). 

It expects to draw 394,000 to its venues including the 47,000-seat Mt Smart Stadium, 20,000-capacity Western Springs Stadium and 2,378-seat The Civic between mid-October and end of March. About 168,000 will be out-of-towners who will have a further spend on travel, accommodation and hospitality. 

U2 shows at Mt. Smart (Nov. 8—9) kick off the season with major draws for Elton John, Queen + Adam Lambert, Laneway festival and NZ bands Six60 and Fat Freddy’s Drop. Chief executive Chris Brooks said that in the past eight years RFA focused on Auckland as a summer destination “and this is our biggest summer yet.”

Ticketmaster and Eventbrite customers in Australia can now buy concert tickets after watching videos on YouTube’s artist channels, effective Oct. 17. 

Josh McNicol, acting GM, Eventbrite Asia Pacific, said, “Australia is home to so many exciting live music venues, festivals and artists, which is why we’re thrilled to be one of the first markets outside North America to benefit from this partnerships.”

The second round of artists for Bluesfest Byron Bay (April 9—13) included Lenny Kravitz with exclusives by Jimmie Vaughan, The Waterboys, Italy’s Zucchero, percussionist Joachim Coode and bluegrass outfit Steve’N’Seagulls.

Dave Matthew Band is slated to play April 13, marking the third time the group has participated in the event. DMB also has headline shows booked at First State Super Theatre in Sydney April 15 and Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne April 17.

Also on the bill are Eagles of Death Metal, Ani DiFranco, Patti Smith, George Benson, Dickey Betts Band, Africa’s Amadou & Mariam, organ virtuoso Cory Henry & The Apostles,  Americana act Yola and Aussie bassist to the stars, Tal Wickenfeld.

Bluesfest earlier announced an exclusive with Crowded House’s first set in five years, along with Dave Matthews Band, Patti Smith and band, George Benson and John Prine.

In 1986 Laurie Anderson performed at the first New Zealand Festival of the Arts. 

She returns to the Wellington event (Feb. 21— March 15) as artist-in-residence, as well as a guest curator with Flight Of The Conchords’ Bret McKenzie and internationally recognised choreographer Lemi Ponifasio

The program will be unveiled in mid-November. But in a media call, Anderson teased an oceanic-themed tribute to her late husband Lou Reed titled Here Comes the Ocean (“Both Lou and I wrote a lot about the ocean, not just the physical ocean but also metaphorical ocean and the things it represents”) and an installation work Lou Reed Drones featuring Reed’s guitars placed on amplified to create feedback loops. 

To the Moon has Anderson’s long-time collaborator and multimedia  artist Hsin-Chien Huang providing a VR trip to the moon.

“Mystify,” the documentary on the life and death of INXS singer Michael Hutchence by Richard Lowenstein, finally gets a US release. 

Shout! Factory and Fathom Events screen it for one night only Jan. 7, 2020, on 600 screens.

In the meantime, Live Baby Live the 4K Ultra HD restored film of INXS’s landmark 1991 London Wembley Stadium show before 72,000 gets a North and South American release from Dec. 9. 

A project by INXS’s global strategist Christopher Murphy, it opens Australia and New Zealand Nov. 14 and other territories Nov. 27.

U.S. literary academic Scott Calhoun’s U2 Conference – held in the US 2009 and 2013, and in Dublin 2018 –makes its Australian debut while the Irish band swings through on its Joshua Tree Tour in November. 

Organised by Australian National University music academic Naomi Dinnen, it takes places at Sydney’s Studio 301 Nov. 21 looking at the band’s impact on everything from culture to tattoos (Dinnen’s research is on the influence of the Hebrew Bible in U2’s music) and the screening of the 1989 documentary Lovetown by Australian director Richard Lowestein.