Image: yoursandowlsfestival/Instagram
The NSW Labor government is currently under pressure to repay $3 million allocated to aid Australian local and regional music festivals after the Greens raised concerns about foreign companies withholding ties in other festivals.
The Greens are calling for the money to be returned to Australian taxpayers immediately.
The Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund was established in 2024 which works in combination with reforms to the Music Festivals Act, which is designed to reduce costs, accessibility, and festival planning.
The fund stands as a stepping stone to help Australian grassroots music festivals thrive in an uncertain economy, where ticket sales surge and the music industry declines.
Supporting festivals with full or part Australian Ownership, the fund aims to limit the pressure placed amongst the Australian music industry.
The last round of the funding supported five festivals, and three out of five of those funding recipients were 100 per cent Australian owned.
Listen Out and Field Day were awarded up to $500,000 by the Minns government last year, but now the Australian operator Fuzzy is a part of a British global empire that is now owned by the private equity firm KKR.
The firm now “holds a portfolio of over 85 festivals worldwide,” Greens’ music spokesperson Cate Faehrmann told the NSW parliament last week.
“The fund needs to be better targeted towards independent and Australian-owned music festivals and the requirement that it only apply to festivals catering to 15,000 or more people must also be scrapped.”
The Greens say that the government is releasing taxpayer dollars to a multinational conglomerate that is consuming Australia’s local festivals as subjects to their international enterprises.
Head of Sound NSW Emily Collins said, “The funding is providing critical support to iconic festivals and helping ease the burden of a rapidly changing landscape and supporting businesses while they adapt.”
But to what limit does the funding go?
The Waverly Council recently awarded Fuzzy a licence to produce a New Years Eve event over 15,000 people this year at Bondi, but Faehrmann calls for Fuzzy to return $1 Million awarded under the fund.
The globalisation of all parts of the music industry are making Australian run festivals struggle from streaming services, ticketing platforms and artists to compete with at other festivals.
The Greens ideology stem from the thought that only 100% Australian owned festivals should be eligible to receive the funding, as the whole direction for the support was to boost local and regional industry support.
Arts and Music Minister John Graham says that Fuzzy had acted entirely within the funding rules, as Listen Out and Field Day were 49 per cent and 62.4 per cent Australian-owned at the time their events were staged.
The Greens believe that the funding should strictly focus on supporting national festivals
Listen Out has decided to not host a festival in 2025, but with their current standing of 26.25% Australian ownership, they would still be eligible to qualify for the grant.
Fuzzy has not addressed the calls for a repayment but says, “We remain committed to supporting the local music scene by investing in festivals that generate millions for the NSW economy and provide essential income and jobs for hundreds of local artists and suppliers.”
The upcoming funding will continue into 2026 and the eligibility requirements have not changed.
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