Tasmanian music festivals crunched by coronavirus at crowd-size disadvantage for future events - ABC News

For 17 years, Marion Bay's Falls Festival has welcomed the New Year with one hell of a party.

Key points:

• The Marion Bay leg of Falls Festival, an annual music festival across several locations, has been scrapped for 2020
• Other mainland legs of the Falls Festival are set to continue, organisers said
• The reliance on interstate visitors to make Tasmanian events viable could prove problematic with lingering pandemic concerns

Then, like almost everything else in the social calendar, 2020's pandemic put an end to that run.

"I was so sad. I cried," said 17-year-old Lizzie Jackson.

"I just got my new car and it was an SUV so I could sleep in the back of it.

"I was going to go with some friends so it was just going to be a good time. My first one being 18," she said.

But just when it seemed like 2020 had won, the boys of Party in the Paddock (PITP) stepped up, posting a sly "Hey Tassie … so, what's our plan for NYE??" on social media.

The crowd at the Marion Bay Falls Festival in 2017.(Facebook: Viridian Photos)

PITP founder Jesse Higgs, said whilst the popular Launceston festival — founded in 2012 — had well and truly wrapped up, they were looking at filling the void left by Falls with a different festival.

"With Tasmania having lost its two biggest festivals for the youth culture demographic, we're really feeling for the people of Tasmania. If we can do something we'll try," he said.

"We're looking at a New Year's event and we're currently just talking to all the people we can to work out what's possible, obviously COVID and pandemic depending."

Jesse Higgs, 29, started the Party in the Paddock festival for his 22nd birthday.(ABC Northern Tasmania: Manika Champ)

PITP's eighth and final year went out with a bang and a sell-out crowd, with the organisers choosing to end the event on a high note.

"We felt like we actually mastered the beautiful event and we didn't want to expand it anymore," he said.

"We were happy with the size. It was doing really well at about 8,500 [people] for three years running.

"We really loved our festival but we just had an intuitive feeling that it was time to call it."

The crowd at the final Party in the Paddock festival last year.(Supplied: Party in the Paddock)

It is a different story for the annual Marion Bay's Falls Festival.

At the same time organisers announced they would be cancelling Marion Bay, they said they intended to go ahead with the events in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia.

"Falls has always been a pretty marginal event for the organisers to have in Tasmania," Tourism Industry Council chief executive Luke Martin said.

"But they love having it here in Tasmania and it's such an important part of their brand and it's also such an important part of our brand.

"Our challenge and our hope, and certainly what we want to work towards, is making sure they're back in the following year."

Tasmanian musician Asta says she loves the opportunity to perform on festival stages.(Instagram: Astaworld)

With little else going on at New Year's, Falls has become a staple for Tassie's festival fans, but it hasn't always been easy.

In 2011 millionaire philanthropist Graeme Wood saved the Marion Bay leg from collapse.

And unlike its mainland cousins, the festival rarely sells out and relies on a huge influx of interstate visitors and Tasmanian expats.

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Government Minister Michael Ferguson said he understood that was part of the reason this year's event was canned.

"One of the key issues is that the Falls event in Tasmania has heavily relied on patrons coming from interstate to make that event a success," Mr Ferguson said.

"With other states with larger populations in more dense city areas, they're actually able to provide the local patronage."

Mr Higgs said, in the current climate, "independent smaller ventures" — like PITP or Panama — were more viable, pulling local crowds and regularly selling out.

"It's a really tough business and I don't think the general public understands that festivals are very fickle," he said.

"It's very important that we stay local and stay as independent as possible and we really generate a positive [festival] culture in Tasmania."

Festivals like Falls are a place where people can go and have fun, Tasmanian musician Asta says.(Supplied: Damien Peck Photography)

But it's not just the punters and organisers that are invested in Tasmania's festival scene.

"Festivals are just a place where people can go and have fun. To discover new music and it's a really important thing in our community to have these festivals going," Tasmanian musician Asta said.

"I love performing on big stages and some people don't have the opportunity to do that doing their own shows.

"It is really awesome to be able to perform on such a big stage to a big audience that may not have heard your music before so it's such a good exposure for many artists."

Aside from a potential New Year's event, Mr Higgs and the other members of Vibestown productions are working out what they can offer Tasmania next.

"We're certainly not out of the festival game. We're well positioned to put on a festival in the near future," he said.

Something that will please festival lovers and musicians alike

In its cancellation statement, Falls Festival's organisers said they "remain hopeful that we will be in a position to come back to Marion Bay in the future".

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2020-07-16 20:54:00Z
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