Experts believe music festivals in Australia won’t return for two years amid coronavirus crisis

Experts have warned music festivals may not be up and running again in Australia until the 2022/2023 summer as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

Such a delay in restarting the industry could result in a cull of smaller, boutique festivals, which won’t survive the two years without any income.

Last Wednesday, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said he would not consider allowing large-scale gatherings until the nation has a vaccine for the deadly respiratory virus.

Current forecasts predict that vaccine won’t be available until mid-2021, at the earliest.

But most music festivals, particularly the larger events, require months of planning, booking and government approvals well in advance.

Music festivals are likely to be two of the last types of public gatherings to be permitted as Australia gradually loosens the coronavirus lockdown. Pictured is a reveller at the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in Brisbane in February (left) and another reveller at the Secret Garden festival (right)

Concerts like this Elton John gig in Napier, New Zealand, in February would also be off the cards for quite some time

The timing means it is unlikely festival organisers will get approval to host anything during the 2021/2022 season, delaying them again until the following summer.

Additionally, medical authorities have not indicated when they would consider lifting travel bans, meaning international acts would likely struggle to enter the country – particularly if they’re arriving from coronavirus-hit nations like the United States or UK. 

Haydn Johnston, co-founder of Architects of Entertainment, known for producing Splendour In The Grass and Lost Paradise, told Hack there was no chance a festival could be pulled together in under six months, given the hoops organisers had to jump through.

Mr Johnston, who has been part of the industry for more than two decades, said the COVID-19 crisis may signal the end of his career.

Professor Murphy said larger gatherings such concerts and festivals – as well as international travel – were out of the question. Pictured: Sydney’s Laneway Festival on 2 February

Mosh pits like this at Bluesfest in Byron Bay will definitely not return for some time as they are breeding grounds for coronavirus

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‘I have to provide for my family,’ he said. ‘Will the toilet installer survive, will the grunt crew survive, will the site crew, the fencing companies, the forklift driver? If they don’t survive, we don’t survive.’

The longer the hiatus, the less likely it is the industry will bounce back to its former grandeur, he said.

While larger festivals with financial backers would likely scrape through to 2023, smaller or up-and-coming ones would struggle to stay afloat for such a prolonged period without any income. 

One potential positive outcome could come if Australia continues to flatten the curve and make progress while other nations struggle to get the virus under control. 

If Australia does manage to bring festivals back ahead of other countries, there is a remote possibility that international acts will flock here to play.

They would be required to quarantine for 14 days – and the government would have to agree to bend the international travel laws to accommodate them – but it could bring new acts to Australia that otherwise wouldn’t consider the local festival scene.

Falls Festival may not go ahead over New Year’s as mass gathering could still be banned even eight months from now

Festival goers watch Wolfmother perform on the Amphitheatre stage during Splendour In The Grass in Byron Bay – a coronavirus hotspot

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 6,822

New South Wales: 3,033

Victoria: 1,406

Queensland: 1,038

Western Australia: 551

South Australia: 438

Tasmania: 221

Australian Capital Territory: 106

Northern Territory: 29

TOTAL CASES:  6,822

RECOVERED: 5,845

DEAD: 95

But Mr Johnston said international acts aren’t taking bookings for at least the rest of 2020, and most festival organisers in Australia are considering lineups in the near future comprised of only local artists.  

But professor Murphy said even if the curve continues to flatten, music festivals and indoor concerts would likely be two of the final restrictions to be lifted.

The national cabinet will meet this Friday to begin discussions surrounding gradually easing the current lockdown. 

Queensland and Western Australia have already began to wind back restrictions, though state authorities were disappointed on Sunday when large crowds defied social distancing measures to gather on Burleigh Hill in the Gold Coast to watch the sunset.

The Sunshine State’s Chief Police Commissioner, Katarina Carroll, said restrictions could be imposed again if residents continued to flout restrictions.   

‘We certainly would not be contemplating large-scale gatherings,’ Professor Murphy previously told the senate about the way out of lockdown, the ABC reported.

‘It’s hard for me to envisage reopening of nightclubs and big music festivals in the foreseeable future.’ 

‘Unless you’re absolutely, completely confident about your borders, your testing, your surveillance, you can’t relax a measure of distancing.’

Professor Murphy said the role of the national cabinet was to ‘weigh up the public health risk versus the benefit to society and the economy.’ 

There are 6,799 known cases of coronavirus in Australia, including 5,814 which are still active and 95 deaths

Widespread social distancing measures will have to be implemented at pubs, public transport, cinemas and local sporting ovals before they can re-open once Australia begins to ease its coronavirus lockdown measures. 

Pub bosses are discussing a raft of rules to minimise social contact – including bans on communal items like pub buzzers, water jugs and plastic laminated menus.

Professor Murphy said the national cabinet has now asked experts to provide ‘recommendations for gently, carefully, cautiously relaxing distancing measures’. 

This could involve relaxing restrictions on the number of people allowed to gather in public, he said.

Professor Murphy also announced every state and territory now has the capacity to test everyone who has coronavirus symptoms. 

‘We’re putting in place the world’s best testing and public health and surveillance regime before we relax any measures,’ he said when asked if he feared a second wave of the virus erupting in Australia.

‘No Australian wants to see hundreds of people dying a day from coronavirus. 

‘We are not prepared to see that, and that’s why we are being so cautious and we are putting in these extraordinary surveillance measures. 

‘We want to be testing 40,000, 50,000 Australians a day if necessary.’ 

The new norm: Service at Australian bars and pubs could look very different when venues come out of coronavirus restrictions – including a ban on pub buzzers 

Mass gatherings are not expected to be allowed until next year – putting Australia’s summer festival season in severe doubt. Pictured is St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in Brisbane in February

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