New regulatory and financial support for music festivals struggling under the pressure of increasing costs has been announced by the NSW Labor government.
The statement says a review of the NSW Music Festivals Act 2019 found the ‘regulatory framework would benefit from a closer focus on harm reduction, industry sustainability, and ensuring costs for festivals in NSW are at a level comparable to other states’.
From the new Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund, the government says, ‘music festivals across NSW will receive two years of emergency funding assistance, with an initial $3 million allocated, and benefit from sector-wide reforms as they weather headwinds that have led to numerous cancelled events’.
Amendments to the NSW Music Festivals Act 2019 will be introduced to parliament, says the media release, and includes, ‘Decisions on costs and conditions will now be able to be appealed internally within agencies… if a festival’s economic viability is under threat’.
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