Add another nail in the coffin of NSW music and culture, why don’t you. Following the cancellation of this years Mountain Sounds event the company has gone into liquidation. According to documents, the company owe over $1.5 million to hundreds of creditors.
After issuing full refunds to all ticket holders, the event organisers only have just over $130,000 in assets. They allegedly owe external ticketing company Eventbrite close to $900,000. They also owe the ATO and artists who are out of pocket. As such, the festival has chosen to liquidate in order to settle their mounting debts.
This year’s festival was set to kick off over February 15th and 16th. However, due to a sudden increase in costs, was cancelled just a week before. This cost increase included $200,000 for extra police presence on a 24 hour roster during the event. They were allegedly quoted a quarter of that sum earlier this year.
In a statement released by organisers, they said, “In 2018, Mountain Sounds ran smoothly, with an attendance of 16,000 people over two days, 11 user pay police and no major drug-related incidents.”
After cancelling 21 acts to cover the $200,000 cost, the event was finally cancelled on the 9th of February.
This whole ordeal comes just a few days before the Berejiklian government is set to put their changes in motion. These will further restrict festivals and impose unnecessarily high costs. If these changes are allowed to go through unchecked, we may as well kiss NSW festivals goodbye.
We have a chance to stop this, with the NSW State election coming up. Vote the Liberals and Gladys Berejiklian out, so music and culture have a future in NSW.
Image source: Jack Toohey
