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Australian festival bosses went head to head yesterday in an affectionate show-down on the “Booms, Busts and Bidding Wars” panel at the Electronic Music Conference in Sydney, sharing some interesting insight into somewhat contentious issues within the festival market.
Big Day Out CEO Adam Zammit provided much of the comic fodder for the panel, conceding that “our industry can be fucking retarded when it comes to the way we co-ordinate,” but admits with some price collusion, “we’d all be better off”.
However when the issue of ticket pricing re-surfaced, the panellists seemed unable to agree. While Simon Coffey of Q-Dance Australia predicted further inflation due to a drop in the Australian dollar, Future Entertainment Director Jason Ayoubi said that festivals are “probably guilty of pushing that limit” when it comes to ticket pricing.
However it was Adam Zammit who disagreed with both Coffey and Ayoubi; “…the market tells you what (they) want to pay. This industry is not guilty of profiteering through ticket prices.”
Constantly increasing artist fees were also raised, which Zammit said takes up on average 80 per cent of a festival’s budget, with Australia’s isolation as a contributing factor, something which is often played on by overseas agents.
“(Agents) know we’re a feverent, competitive bunch of arseholes down here and God knows they prey on it,” said Zammit.
While Australia is often criticised as having too much government interference when it comes to festival regulation, SFX Totem CEO Richie McNeill commented that upon attending Electric Zoo in New York earlier this year, where a punter unfortunately passed away, “the US is 10 years behind us in safety standards”.
The panellists all agreed that their 10-15 years of experience in an “over-regulated market” should be shared with new overseas festival markets in the US.
What do you think? Do you agree with Australia's festival honchos?
