AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE HAILED ANOTHER SUCCESS

Around 150 people travelled to Rivershed, Brisbane last week to attend the fourth annual Australian Festival Industry Conference (AFIC).

Held across 8-9 September, AFIC is the only conference in Australia dedicated exclusively to servicing the thousands of festival industry professionals that produce quality music, arts and culture, food and drink, “intellectual and ideas” and sporting festivals.

The event pulled delegates from across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, representing a range of public, private and not-for-profit festival producers, as well as suppliers, educational institutions and government grant administrators.

Over two full days, AFIC featured:

• two keynotes;
• 20+ presentations from industry-leading professionals;
• four panel discussions;
• a special Q&A chat;
• trade exhibition; and,
• two networking events.

Founder and event director, Carlina Ericson, said that she couldn’t have asked for a better result.

“The feedback throughout the conference was overwhelmingly positive and I was inundated with people expressing how useful they found the content and the abundance of networking opportunities.”

“We were especially fortunate to present two keynotes from the internationally-recognised brands of Burning Man (USA) and the Association of Independent Festivals (UK)”, says Carlina.

John Rostron, CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF, UK) opened day one with his keynote. The AIF is made up of 152 festival members. John discussed the challenges that the UK industry is facing and outlined how the association is working with the UK Government to ensure festivals remain viable. In summary:

• The UK festival sector is worth around £1.7bn, up 1.9% on the previous year
• The sector has also been facing costs, which is why so many have folded in recent years

Key initiatives that were discussed included:

• Working hard with the Government to “break up” big multi-national players who are taking “ownership” of the industry and putting downward pressure on smaller, independent festivals.
• Introducing a one pound ticket levy on tickets from large events. This goes into a fund that supports grassroots and regional festivals.
• Licensing reform: the UK government simplified red tape through a “licensing sprint”.
• Developing a sustainability blueprint for festivals that are wanting to reduce their environmental impact.

A second keynote was delivered by Christopher Breedlove, Director of Civic Activation, Burning Man Project. Drawing upon his 10 years’ experience with the festival, he provided an overview of the festival’s delivery model and how they are working to remain viable into the future, particularly in response to the recent climate change impacts:

• 2021: record wildfires
• 2022: record heat
• 2023: hurricane rains
• 2025: 96K per hour winds and rain

In summary, Burning Man has adopted a number of sustainably-focussed initiatives and tech advancements to enhance its operations and better respond to adverse weather. For example:

1. Adopting a sustainability roadmap, with the aim of achieving the following by 2030 –

• becoming zero waste
• being carbon negative
• becoming regenerative

2. Investing in solar-powered infrastructure and renewable propane toilets

Delegates were also treated to a special update by The Hon. John Graham, MLC – NSW Minister for the Arts; Minister for Music and the Night-time Economy; Minister for Jobs and Tourism. Minister Graham talked about the changes the NSW Government is in the process of making, to reduce the costs associated with running festivals for organisers, and simplify processes for artists and suppliers. Examples included:

• investing in outdoor electricity to negate the need for festivals to hire generators
• Councils will soon be able to create pre-approved development applications and traffic management plans, cutting average costs by up to 40%
• adopting a streamlined approvals process for buskers and food van operators, etc – one approval for multiple local government areas

AFIC’s program featured presentations and panels from some of the country’s top festival management personnel who discussed timely topics such as preparations for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, sustainable energy production, advances in accessibility tech, and much more!

A special Q&A was also held with Greg Cavanagh, CEO of Gympie Music Muster, covering the festival’s 42-year reign and how it has continued to survive and thrive, particularly post-covid.

The full list of AFIC 2025 speakers included:

• John Rostron, Association for Independent Festivals (UK)
• Christopher Breedlove, Burning Man Project (USA)
• Stephen Wray, Office of the Arts
• Christen Cornell, Creative Australia
• The Hon. John Graham MLC, NSW Minister for Music, the Night-Time Economy and the Arts
• Richard Clarke, Tourism & Events Queensland
• Lauren Penny, Major Events Business Group – Queensland (MEBG-Q)
• Greg Cavanagh, Gympie Music Muster
• Charlie Cush, Brisbane Festival
• Vicky Lowry, Deni Ute Muster
• Sam Pearce, Pacific Air Show and Crafted Beer Festival
• Louise Bezzina, Brisbane Festival
• Katie James, experienced events professional
• Sylvie Maclean, Tixel
• Chris Woods, Flicket
• Heidi Lenffer, FEAT
• Aimee Davies, Hey Mate Project
• Paul Rosenberg, Party Higher
• Travis Anderson, Aggreko Event Services
• Alana Hay, Milestone Creative Australia
• Jason Holmes, H2 Insurance Solutions
• Badi Noble, Casual Hands
• Lars Brandle, AFIC MC

To be kept informed of future event updates, visit www.australianfestivalconference.com.au

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Main Pic: John-Rostron-CEO-AIF-UK