Lorne, in Victoria, was regularly in Melbourne’s newspapers for all the wrong reasons: a small seaside town renowned for the drunken revelry that took place there each New Years Eve.
Sound familiar?
Fast forward 20 years and Lorne is now known for celebrations of another kind around New Year: the annual Falls Music & Arts Festival.
And Falls is bringing its vibe to North Byron Parklands for the first time on New Years Eve 2013.
Originally proposed as a January event, the Falls Festival was asked by Byron mayor Simon Richardson to hold the festival over the New Years Eve period, as a component of Byron Shire Council’s new Safe Summer and Cultural Activities strategy.
‘This event is a crucial piece in the community safety and cultural program jigsaw, currently being developed for Byron,’ mayor Richardson said yesterday.
‘The event will be produced in close collaboration with the Byron Shire Council and its newly formed Summer Safety and Cultural Committee and will form part of a broader shire-wide risk management strategy; effectively providing a professionally and responsibly controlled licensed venue for the 18- to 30-year-old demographic.’
For more on Falls Festival see our story in Entertainment.
Taking the pressure off? By adding another trashy doof and drugs rave to our shire? Or is it just the town of Byron that the mayor cares about and Hell take the rest of the shire? Only people looking to make a quick buck at the expense of young people’s health want these events. Even Byron town doesn’t want it in their back yard. But Byron Council, you are responsible for ALL the shire – start behaving like it.
By moving thousands of festival goers in and out of Byron (most still stay in the bay) adding to holiday traffic and annual visitors, plus flooding the North Ocean, South Golden Beach, New Brighton holiday accom market with festival crew will be a very stressful exercise. Annual Christmas/New Year visitors to the Ocean Shores/New Brighton area (yes we get tourists too) are likely to miss out on their usual accomodation. Either that, or festival revellers definately will! Maybe we should see how Splendour goes and then re-assess the traffic flow/accom needs of the northern end of the shire? I can see the vision the council has, by spreading the load but balance is the key- imagine if it was a tropical wet January?
hey this may be a good idea ..not sure yet ..have to see how splendour pans out….I personally gain employment from such festivals and no doubt hundreds of other locals do too..Im not saying there isnt a downside.. there always is ..maybe some funds can be allocated towards koalas etc.to recognise the greener side of byron culture and perhaps respect all of the animals here including humans…not sure yet have to wait on splendour for the litmus test.