While ticket sales are brisk for what is presumed to be the final edition Bluesfest forever in 2025, the festival's founder is making a late play for government funding that may see him extend the festival beyond next year.
An August 14 Bluesfest press release announced that 2025 would be the final festival. Bluesfest founder and director Peter Noble was quoted, "as much as it pains me to say this, it's time to close this chapter".
But this week a new campaign to save the festival was ignited by a petition from NSW Greens MP Tamara Smith, the member for Ballina (which includes Byron Bay), which calls for "immediate government Intervention", including "a comprehensive rescue package to ensure the survival of Bluesfest" with financial assistance, policy support, and collaboration with stakeholders to secure the festival's future.
While noting that ticket sales for the 2025 Bluesfest event, April 17-20, had reached the halfway mark off the back of the first bands announced including Crowded House, Vance Joy, Ocean Alley, Kingfish Ingram, brad Cox, Fanny Lumsden and The California Honeydrops, in an interview this week Mr Noble backed off the notion of the festival coming to an end.
"I'm not going to say never," he said.
Mr Noble said his budget for the event runs around the $12million to $15million figure, which includes about 700 musicians and 1800 staff.
On the flipside, he said festival had generated more than $1billion in tourism expenditure in the last 10 years, including $400million in Byron shire for accommodation, transport and food, and generated 7500 jobs in the Northern Rivers region.
"I would have thought we could have set down with government and worked out something to keep Bluesfest going," he said. "We are not looking for a handout. We want a hand up in these economic times, and we've got the runs on the board.
"Our event is the most highly awarded event in Australian entertainment. You would think if we were a football team, or a new sports franchise, or a milk coop, or a struggling regional airline, we would get a chair at the table and they would go, 'how can we help you'."
Refusing to name a dollar figure he was seeking, Mr Noble said, "We're not asking for a lot of money, just enough money to help us, to assure us, that when the interest rates drop, that we're still there."
Again, walking back the statement the festival would come to end in 2025 with the 36th event, Mr Noble said, "We've never said we don't want to do another one. We just said, we can't pull the event back to a point where we are just a shadow of what we once were, just to get through this. That's not fair.
"As soon as you do that, people come and go, 'This used to be a great festival'. I don't do that, Nor should we have to."
The abrupt cancellation of the 2021 festival by government order in 2021 dealt a severe blow to the festival. Mr Noble said the last two festivals have been break-even propositions.
On the positive side, Mr Noble said ticker buyers for the 2025 were coming from the NSW North Coast (locals), south-east Queensland, and Newcastle-Lake Macquarie. Ticket sales in Sydney were sparse, he said.
"I think that tells you something," he said. "People from Sydney, they haven't got any money."
The four-day festival over the Easter weekend draws a total crowd estimated at 100,000.
Mr Noble said the second line-up announcement will be within two weeks and will include a major international act.
