The Mullum Music Festival (MMF) is taking a year off in 2020 and will be coming back stronger than ever in 2021.
Festival director Glenn Wright says when he started the festival it was a really passionate small team and they all really want to keep it going.
‘After 12 years I feel it is best to take a year off. I want to take my wife and kids to do some travelling and we are planning to visit a music expo in Canada.’
MMF reps currently talking to Byron Shire Council to set a new date for the festival in 2021 and are looking at the possibility of moving it closer to winter than spring because of the changing climate.
‘The weather has become more random in spring than when we first started. Now in spring it heats up quickly and we get a lot more winds,’ said Glenn.
‘Three years ago we had 250ml of rain and major flooding. Two years ago we lost power on the Saturday night for two hours with wind and storms and last year it was the bushfires.’
Tweaking the 2021 event
When they are back in 2021 they might tweak the event as over the years they have added plenty of new aspects to the festival including the annual tree planting (that will go ahead this year), the street parade and the youth mentorship program that have all been a great success.
‘We first moved here to the north coast 20 years ago and the music scene was really happening but it was not as diverse as it is now,’ said Glenn.
‘Over the time of the festival we’ve brought jazz, reggae, old country and other stuff that you would see at a concert venue, clubs and pubs. We definitely helped broaden the music offerings in the area.
‘I really like the collaborations that happen between the artists. The artists are embedded in the festival for the four days. Also working with the patrons, like Mama Kim and Harry Angus, who, joins in the street parade when he’s around, are highlights because artists get to do something with the local community. These are the things that make it really special because they rarely happen at mega-festivals but they regularly happen at Mullum Music Festival.
A small but dedicated team
‘It is a small but dedicated team. We don’t make a huge amount of money from it and we could all use a break.’
The team also run the Bello Winter Music Festival in Bellingen which will be going ahead this year but then that will also have a years break.
‘The Bellingen festival will run in July then we’ll take a year off from that,’ Glenn explained. ‘Then we’ll be back in 2021 for the Mullum Music Festival and 2022 for the Bello Winter Festival. We want to come back with renewed passion and to come back better than ever. This is a chance to reschedule and re-charge.’
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