Splendour gets capacity increase

View our video of last year’s Splendour in the Grass at North Byron Parklands.

Chris Dobney

The department of planning has agreed to a request by the organisers of Splendour in the Grass to top up patron numbers to 27,500 this year, an increase of 10 per cent from last year’s 25,000.

The move comes despite concerns that some elements of last year’s festival were not adequately managed.

Splendour management and venue operators North Byron Parklands (NBP) approached the department after what they say was a ‘record number’ of disappointed punters when tickets went on sale earlier this year.

The world-renowned event always sells out in minutes but this year, organisers say, ‘When the clock struck 9am, more people were online, hand on mouse, than any time in the event’s history. Many thousands of people missed out.’

‘Teething problems’

The department has granted a 10-year trial licence to NBP to run festivals at the site with annually increasing numbers, provided conditions including noise and traffic movement are met.

But while last year’s festival was largely voted a success, it did have its problems.

Punters complained about lack of toilets and fresh drinking water, problems with the premium camping and insufficient shuttle buses, while neighbours claimed they were kept awake with noise, held up by traffic jams and worried over festival-goers ‘escaping’ into the adjacent nature reserve.

Even the organisers admitted that logistically Splendour was less than splendid.

‘There were a few teething problems with the new site including some external issues with the bus services’, organisers Jessica Ducrou and Paul Pittico said in a statement.

A spokesperson for local community group CONOS, which has consistently opposed the development of the NBP site, said the approval was ‘unconscionable… considering the developers have not met a number of important consent conditions set out by the Planning and Assessment Commission’.

‘In particular, ecological and residential noise monitoring were both inadequate and incomplete during Splendour 2013, and in some cases were not carried out at all during the 2013 Falls Festival,’  CONOS president Bob Oehlman told Echonetdaily.

‘It is interesting to learn that a number of local residents undertook their own independent noise monitoring during Splendour 2013, yet despite results showing the noise criteria was breached, the department of planning are still not policing these festivals nor are they enforcing their own consent conditions,’ he added.

‘Considering the festival site is located in a state significant wildlife corridor and adjoins the Billinudgel Nature Reserve, little consideration is afforded to the numerous fauna species that inhabit the surrounding area.

‘Members of the Regulatory Working Group recommended that no increase in patron numbers should be granted until the developers have shown they can meet these and other conditions.

‘The department has inexplicably chosen to ignore those recommendations and the conditions that were breached over the past two events,’ Mr Oehlman said.

Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson has also expressed disappointment that NBP was granted an increase in crowd numbers while issues from last year’s festival remain unresolved.

He said he would have rather seen crowd numbers stay the same this year, so that systems could be bedded down.

‘I guess now the impetus is with the organisers to ensure that they have learned from what didn’t work as well,’ he told ABC radio this morning.

‘I know that the organisers are putting things into place to try to rectify those situations,’ he added.

Sale times

The additional tickets will be released for sale at 9am sharp on Thursday 12 June through Moshtix and will be a mixture of three day, single day and camping tickets.

For those who purchased tickets and can no longer attend the show, an official ‘re-sale’ facility will be provided via Moshtix from 9am Monday 16 June.