The organisers of Mountain Sounds Festival are devasted to confirm the festival will not proceed this year.
With just one week prior to what was to be the event's sixth incarnation, the festival has issued a lengthy statement decrying the NSW state government's policies towards festivals and drugs. Mountain Sounds said 2018's event attracted 16,000 people from which 49 drug detections were made, representing 0.3% of attendees.
Just a week prior to the event, organisers say they were hit with an ultimatum to pay $200,000 in advance to pay for 45 user-pay police on a 24-hour cycle which they said "blindsided" them as they had been quoted for only 11 user-pay police only three weeks ago.
Despite a "positive relationship with Police", the organisers feel they were never going to receive the go-ahead for this year's festival. "Our submissions were consistent with last year’s operation, yet this year authorities seemed adamant to penalise us on technicalities and clerical errors. It was strongly indicated to us that we were not going to be granted the necessary approvals required for the 2019 event to proceed next weekend. The combination of excessive costs, additional licensing conditions and the enforcement of a stricter timeline left us no option but to cancel the event."
The Central Coast event was to have witnessed peformances from Angus & Julia Stone, Courtney Barnett, What So Not, Thundamentals and Nothing But Thieves over 2 days on 15th and 16th February. The statement reads:
We, like many of you, have seen the festival climate continue to diminish in Australia. NSW in particular is in dire straits. This is yet another example of the government’s war on festivals.
Safety has always been of the utmost importance to us, and it was for this reason that we agreed to downsize our festival site, cancelling over 20 acts, to ensure we met newly imposed safety, licensing and security costs, in order to maintain the wellbeing of our patrons and still put on the show.
A mere 7 days out from the event, further conditions and financial obligations were imposed on the festival, which were impossible to meet.
Our friends in the music industry will understand on a personal level how soul-destroying this is. For music lovers around the country, we know this will deeply resonate with you too. This impacts each and every one of you. NSW residents, please keep this at the forefront of your mind as the next election nears in 6 weeks’ time.
The Liberal party’s war on festivals in NSW is real and it’s robbing you of your freedom and culture. Who would’ve known that lock-out laws were just the beginning of the death of live entertainment in NSW. This has now spread to larger-scale and multi-day regional events and it’s only getting worse.
