Claremont Showgrounds music festival days may be over after Claremont council moved to ban festivals like Soundwave and Big Day Out despite the Royal Agricultural Society, who lease the grounds, pushing to bring BDO back after its move to Victoria Park this year.
According to the WA Times, Mayor Jock Barker and the council declared Big Day Out “not welcome” and have sought legal advice on how to stop festivals being held at the grounds.
The argument comes from local residents being upset by the amount of anti-social behaviour and excessive volume restrictions breaches, with Mr Barker from the Royal Agricultural Society saying:
“It’s not just about the noise, it’s about the trashing of the town. We all like music; I grew up with rock and roll, but if people behaved themselves, and noise conditions weren’t breached, you wouldn’t hear a peep out of anybody.”
“We get consistently ignored in terms of what we require by Big Day Out and Soundwave.”
“When we approve it we apply conditions…and they seem to get ignored. So we had a discussion with the liquor licensing people recently, and there does appear to be some new grounds under which we can make sure that the event is conditioned in such a way that it doesn’t exceed the level.”
The Big Day Out has been at the grounds for more than 20 years, while Soundwave, which is held on a public holiday long weekend in March, attracts around 30,000 metal fans.
