With major sporting events opening up, Splendour In The Grass co-founder Jessica Ducrou has called on the Government for equal support of the live music industry.
In a statement Jessica said:
“While state governments have relaxed restrictions to allow 40,000 people to gather at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium for football finals and 11,000 at Royal Randwick for the races in the interest of economic recovery, there has been no such assistance for our Australian music festivals, which employed 9,176 FTE workers and injected over $2.7B into the Australian economy in 2019. An 86% loss (economic and jobs) is projected for 2020.**
“Not $1 of the federal funding for arts and entertainment businesses has reached the industry as yet and it wont until January 2021.
“The live music and events industry needs assistance now!
“We need the government to support the industry with a Business Interruption Fund, Event Cancellation Fund or Insurance, led by the industry and underwritten by Government, as has been provided to the film industry.
“We need the continuation of JobKeeper support for employees in our industry until live entertainment returns to normal operation and without the constraints of major restrictions.
“We need a moratorium on GST on live event tickets, following the precedent set in the UK.
“We need a significant expansion of the RISE grant funding program, with a particular focus on assisting commercial, non-subsidised live entertainment operators to deliver live events in COVID-safe formats.
“We need a level playing field. Allowances and relaxations afforded to the racing and sporting industries should also apply to the live entertainment industry.”
With next to no action for major live music events in Australia right now, Splendour In The Grass has still managed to score two trophies at the Australian Event Awards picking up Best Tourism Event and Event Producer of the Year for Splendour’s Co-founder and Co-CEO of Secret Sounds Group, Jessica Ducrou.
Splendour In The Grass 2021 is on July 2021 at Byron Bay. Gorillaz, The Strokes and Tyler, The Creator are still listed as headliners (pending international travel restrictions being lifted by then).
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