Features
‘Are we an industry that’s not worth saving?’: Bluesfest promoter blasts government as festival faces final event
Peter Noble won the Order of Australia for his services to the country. Yet as his beloved Bluesfest is forced to close in 2025 due to a collision of factors – all of which could be solved with government support – he asks, what else does the 35-year-old festival have to do to prove its worth?
This week, Tamara Smith, NSW member for Ballina launched an online petition calling for a NSW Government rescue package for Bluesfest.
“If 20,000 signatures from NSW residents are gathered, the NSW Parliament must hold a debate on the future of Bluesfest,” Smith explained.
While Peter Noble, the festival’s founder, isn’t behind the petition, he welcomes the attention it will bring to the cause.
“Anything to get our government looking at the plight of the music industry, that will cause media attention, is something that I think is fundamental – and it’s my duty,” Noble tells Mumbrella.
“It’s obvious that the music industry is suffering right now. I wanted to prove, by saying it’s the last Bluesfest – giving people a real reason to spend their money by this scarcity – that there is still interest in festivals, but we have been beaten down as a nation by the actions of the Reserve Bank in Australia, and their complete policy is to stop discretionary spending.
“I’ve proven it with Bluesfest, because we’re about half sold out and that’s all happened in a two or three-week period. People are prepared to go out spend money on Australian talent, and that is the issue that I really want to bring up.”
Selling half the available tickets is no minor boast for a five-day festival.
Bluesfest sold over 105,000 tickets in 2019, the final event before the pandemic struck. When it returned in 2022, with a mostly Australian lineup including Crowded House, Paul Kelly, Midnight Oil, Amy Shark, Baker Boy, and The Living End, it pumped $272 million into Australia’s gross regional product – $224.6 million of which was spent in the Northern Rivers region.
The final Bluesfest will boast Crowded House, Vance Joy, Ocean Alley, Gary Clark Jr, and Tones and I – who was discovered at Bluesfest’s busking competition.
“What do we have to do after 35 years of being a hallmark event?” Noble asks. “An event that won the NSW Tourism Award for a major event more than any other event, including Vivid.
“Vivid gets an obscene amount of money — of government feeding government in government venues — and we go cap in hand every year to the powers that be.
“I’m not saying we get nothing, but it’s a pittance, and it has no corresponding relationship to the $1.1 billion dollars we’ve brought into this state — take the two COVID years out — in the last 10 years, across borders and in international tourism.
“Why, when we’re doing it tough, are people in positions of government — such as the response by the Arts Minister, federally, — saying that he comes to Bluesfest every year, and he saw that crowds dropped last year – and he’s really sorry to see us go?
“Is that the act of a politician whose brief is to take care and prosper our industry? Or the act of one that’s just gone, ‘Well, the budget cuts mean that the arts are to be sacrificed’?
“We all know that’s what it’s about: it’s about government not allocating funds in an emergency situation for the arts. Right across the arts – not only Bluesfest.”
The past few years have seen a number of huge festivals collapse, including Splendour In The Grass, which has operated in and around Byron Bay since 2001, and the six-region Groovin The Moo, which packed up a year shy of its 20th birthday.
Noble points to the South by Southwest festival, launched in Sydney last year, as a case of misallocated government spend. He questions the value of “putting a large amount of money into buying the rights, for a number of years, to put on something like South by Southwest, an import from Austin, Texas, put on by a company that’s — well, let’s call them what they are – they’re part of a multinational.”
He points to Tamworth Country Music Festival as a heritage arts event in trouble. “You’ve got to support your hallmark events guys, that should be a no-brainer. You may not be able to support every event, but there’s there’s some very, very major events in the state of New South Wales who have delivered for decades.”
Outside of the outsized artistic value of Bluesfest, there are also clear fiscal, and employment benefits to the state.
“At every Bluesfest, we employ about 2,500 arts professionals. Every year, in the last 10 years. That’s more than 25,000 people working on our festival over 10 years.”
It’s an entire industry unto itself.
“It is an industry,” Noble agrees. “That’s my point. We provide culture, and we then bring money into this state, and the statistics we’ve got have all been audited by Tourism NSW – that’s why we we win the awards, because we bat very highly: we’ve won six golds and three silver for best major event – the only event in the Hall of Fame for winning three years in a row.”
Then there is the money Bluesfest brings directly into the Byron Shire, some $775 million over the past decade.
“From festival attendees going to restaurants, buying accommodation, going to the dry cleaners, whatever they do over those years. We have created full-time equivalent job positions on the northern rivers in the last ten years: 7,182 jobs.
“If you look at all that, I don’t understand why I see politicians running to Norco up here — it was saying they’re having problems keeping their doors open — and the strong statements, from the Prime Minister on down, about Rex.”
Ah yes, Anthony Albanese, the rock and roll PM.
“The Prime Minister goes to shows, and shows his solidarity with the music industry – and yes, when he was on the hustings for the last election, he came to Bluesfest to get votes. So did Tony Burke, he’s been there every year, and I like Tony Burke and I’d like these people – but in the end when we’re in need, where are they?”
This political hypocrisy particularly irks Noble.
“That Labor ran on a Support Live Music platform, and I personally went to at least a half a dozen meetings, two of which Chris Minns showed up at, and yet now it’s almost like, is it all too hard? Are we an industry that’s not worth saving? What do we want our industry to look like in five or ten years time?”
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
Linkedin
topics
Anthony AlbaneseBluesfestBluesfest 2025festival crisismusic festivalsPeter NoblePeter Noble Bluesfest
Have your say