The sponsorship deal between coal-seam gas (CSG) mining company Santos and Woodford folk festival has continued to draw strong public criticism  despite a bouyant festival line-up and attendance at this year’s event.

Santos’s $75,000 sponsorship was directed specifically to the Dreaming festival, an indigenous cultural and music event usually held over the June long weekend, but this year it combined with the Folk Festival in the aftermath of the 2010 floods.

The sponsorship was accepted in the context of dire financial straits for both festivals, and prior to widespread awareness of the dangers of CSG.

‘At the time we accepted the sponsorship, the conventional thinking was that coal-seam gas was a better fossil fuel than coal or oil,’ says festival director Bill Hauritz. ‘There was no-one else to go to,’ says Rhoda Roberts, founding director of the Dreaming.

However, the deal become the target of a powerful Facebook protest, calling for a boycott of the festival and the return of the funds to Santos.

Performers were also lobbied. Festival management reacted by freezing, rather than returning, the Santos funds.

Task force appointed

A task force was then appointed, chaired by ethicist Wendy Sarkassian. Other members  include Ian Lowe of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), Noel Blair of the Jinaburra Nation and Drew Hutton of Lock the Gate.

An open forum, held on the first day of the festival, attracted an estimated 250 passionately vocal participants.

‘The irony is that the Lock The Gate alliance started in Woodford’ says Mr Hauritz, who believes the protest was misinformed and misdirected.

‘The real damage here is to the festival, and to all indigenous cultural organisations.

‘Attack the companies, attack the government for issuing the licences, but don’t make a music festival collateral damage.’

Ironically, Mr Hauritz believes that the protest has cost the festival well over $75,000 in ticket sales. Nevertheless, with ‘an aggregate attendance in excess of 100,000,’ the festival has broken budget this year he said. The task force will deliver a recommendation by June 2012.

– Simeon Michaels