A Toowoomba Councillor has weighed in on the cost of running events locally in the wake of Park Waves Festival’s cancellation.
Toowoomba Councillor Tim McMahon has shared the costs of holding an event locally to address concerns that Park Waves’ cancellation may have been due to Council procedures or costs.
In a post made to Facebook, Cr McMahon said he was “devo” about Park Waves being cancelled across Australia and was “looking forward” to the event, which he had a ticket for despite not being a “huge metal head.”
He went on to address the costs associated with holding a large event at Queens Park in Toowoomba, saying that “some eyes are on Council making sure it wasn’t Council procedures that made it hard to do business here.” Park Waves was meant to hit the park on March 12 prior to the entire festival run being cancelled earlier this month.
After looking into the costs, he laid out exactly what event organisers could expect to shell out to dispel any concerns.
According to Cr McMahon, running large scale events at Queens Park costs $8,912 per week or $1,580 per day, with a $10k bond which is returned after the event (provided the venue and infrastructure is “look[ed] after.” Keys are $150, while any electricity used for the event is charged after the fact, presumably based on usage. He says this shakes out to roughly two thousand dollars for a day event, plus the bond.
Cr McMahon noted that at $250 per Park Waves ticket, eight tickets would entirely cover the council fees. “Our prices are in line with, or below most public venues in SEQ (South East Queensland),” he added. He also noted that Red Hot Summer “was a huge success,” and Sunburnt Country “is looking to be awesome in February” – both events will be held at Queens Park.
“Big gigs – stop here please! – but it’s a tough market,” he added, before saying he’d “love to see us [Toowoomba] as a national hotspot for live music. Once I get that stadium built….. (need to dream right).”
Multiple commenters noted that while council event hire and other associated costs (at least in Toowoomba) weren’t astronomical, other expenses like insurance, amenities hire, transport, and various other fees all added up and were likely to be more of a contributing cause to Park Waves not going ahead. Cr McMahon agreed that plenty of other expenses add up to make putting on festivals an expensive, but noted he was concerned with the Council’s role (or lack thereof) in the festival being unable to go ahead, hence wanting to clear up any concerns.
In the event organisers’ statement about the cancellation in early December, they noted that it was due to a “combination of challenges” and “the numbers no longer stack up.” Parkway Drive themselves called the situation a “kick in the guts,” and mourned “another festival being crushed by the rising costs across our entertainment industry.”
Regardless of what part (or multiple parts) of putting on Park Waves led to Parkway Drive’s first Aussie run of their festival not going ahead, it’s clear something’s got to give to ensure festivals can continue to survive in the current economic climate.
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