splendour in the grass
Splendour In The Grass 2017 / Photo: Bianca Holderness

Australia’s Music Festival Attendance Figures Just Took A Massive Drop

Attendance figures at Australian music festivals have suffered a huge drop, a new survey has found.

Live Performance Australia’s just-released 2016 Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey shows that festival attendance was down almost 50 per cent between 2016 and 2015, after a number of increases in previous years.

Festivals saw a 25.2 per cent drop in revenue in 2016, and that revenue has fallen a total of 38.2 per cent since its peak back in 2014.

South Australia and Western Australia have been hit particularly hard, with their festival revenue dropping by 74.6 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.

Here’s what all of that bad news looks like:

Australian Festivals — Contemporary Music

(Click to expand)

Image: Live Performance Australia

Revenue from live music events (excluding festivals) also continues to drop, but attendance increased by one per cent in 2016.

The survey also found that Aussies are paying less for concert tickets than they used to, but more for festival passes.

The average price of a concert ticket has dropped by 22.8 per cent since 2013, to an average of $85.35 in 2016.

Meanwhile, tickets to Aussie festivals have become slightly more expensive, increasing by 6.7 per cent in 2016 to an average of $85.35.

Live Performance Australia has attributed the higher prices and lower attendance to the cancellation of major touring festivals like Future Music Festival, Stereosonic and Soundwave in 2016.

Live Performance Australia’s Chief Executive Evelyn Richardson says the survey results highlight “the need for increased investment in the performing arts”.

“The last few years have seen funding cuts, our small to medium sector massively impacted, and very little indication that Government is prepared to deliver on its vision for innovation and jobs growth in our sector,” she says.

“We strongly believe that the Government needs to step up and support greater investment in our industry which creates jobs, employs more than 34,000 people, generates significant economic activity and enriches the cultural lives of millions of Australians.”

Last year’s Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey found a huge decline in Australia’s overall live music attendance.

The good news is that the 2016 survey found that contemporary music is still the largest contributor to Australia’s live performance market, holding 30.8 per cent of all revenue.

Live Performance Australia’s 2016 Ticket Attendance and Revenue Survey can be read in full right here.

Gallery: Splendour In The Grass 2017 – The Best Of You / Photos: Maria Boyadgis

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