The NSW Government will provide more than $2.25 million in emergency funding to help support five music festivals held across the state under the first round of payments from the Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund.  

Byron Bay-based Bluesfest, which previously said this year would be its last, will be one of the events awarded up to $500,000 alongside Lost Paradise on the Central Coast, Your and Owls in Wollongong, and Sydney’s Listen Out and Field Day.  

The fund, which was established last September, comes as live music events continue to face significant financial strains, including rising insurance costs, with several high-profile festivals having already been cancelled.  

Earlier this year, a federal inquiry into live music recommended that the federal government explore the viability of a self-insurance or mutual model to help ease costs for event organisers.  

The NSW government says the investment can serve as a “financial lifeline” for the industry to prevent further job losses.  

“The post covid era has been a financial nightmare for music festivals in NSW,” NSW Music and the Night-time Economy Minister John Graham said.  

“The government needed to step in to save the furniture, and the feedback is that this fund has helped some of these festivals survive. 

“The festival circuit a vital part of the live music industry which employs almost 15,000 people. It’s too important to lose, that’s why we’re backing festivals with emergency funding and reforms that bring down their costs.”  

The funding package coincides with a series of recent reforms to the Music Festivals Act, which the government says works to reduce costs and ensure health considerations are considered in festival planning.  

Under these reforms, festival organisers will be required to set up a health and medical plan and will be allowed to hold internal reviews of proposed government costs and appeal to relevant agencies or the newly created Music Festivals Panel.  

Applications for the second round of funding will be available ahead of next summer’s festival season from May 1. Click here for more information.