Saturday, 23 February 2019

Don't Kill Live Music

#DontKillLiveMusic

If the festivals shut down in New South Wales it will directly affect South Australia and all of our sister states and territories. A dead NSW Festival circuit due to government legislation will devastate the Australian festival circuit and music scene.

National festivals such as Laneway Festivals and Under The Southern Star Festivals  may not be able to sustain their national touring festivals without NSW at the helm.

Secondly, festivals such as Bluesfest Byron Bay in NSW, finance and nationally tour international artists such as Bob Dylan, Grace Jones, Robert Cray, Iggy Pop, Ben Harper and so forth. So if an event like Bluesfest Byron Bay is financially crippled to appease the government policing policies, then the likely-hood of these artists and many many more touring to SA and our sister states will be severely affected.

This in turn will bring lower attendances to music venues across Australia financially affecting music venues across Australia. Off storey but to make a point of the lopsided decision making for the 'peoples own good' form consecutive governments, how many lives have poker machines destroyed? How many families have separated due to poker machines? How many suicides could be linked to poker machine debt? But these greedy governments grab the money from poker machines in one hand ignoring their affects and shut down mind and sensor stimulating real world music events that are good for the soul and society in general. This government does not have the foresight to admit prohibition has not worked and refuse to allow pill testing at festivals as a safety-net for our youth.

Shutting down festivals will not fix the 'drug problem' and neither will arresting individuals for doing what young people are going to do regardless. Understanding and education, particularly by the police,  would have a far reaching affects and what better place to open dialog with the youth of Australia than at music festivals. Shutting down these music festivals by financially crippling the organisers will just send the problem further underground and into the family homes and suburban streets. The national Ice epidemic is testament to this.

As a younger man, I attended countless music festivals Australia wide along with hundreds of events and concerts that shaped my entire being. I am far happier person for their influence, social value and memories than if I had not have shared these experiences with the thousands of others and I look forward to countless more.

As a local national music promoter I urge all Australian's to join the 121,000 music lovers as of 23rd February 2019, who are already standing ground against this draconic government and against this crime against the arts and our freedoms.

Governments have no rights to stop music festivals with ridiculous demands. A dead NSW music industry is a dead Australian music industry.

SIGN NOW - https://www.change.org/p/don-t-kill-live-music-2

These views are that of my own. The events and artists mentioned above are named as examples for my prediction of the domino effect that I believe will happen should the current NSW government continue with its draconic policies against music festivals in that state. I lived and worked in the live music scene in Sydney and NSW for 12 years and still work with musicians and dancers from that state.