The funding comes as multiple festivals cancel their events on short notice and one of Australia’s most iconic festivals, Byron Bay Bluesfest, calls it quits for good.
The NSW Government is launching the Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund to support music festivals with over 15,000 attendees, acknowledging that these events are struggling with a variety of financial challenges from inflation to rising costs and even currency exchange.
Managed by Sound NSW, applications for the fund, which has an initial $3 million allocation, opened this month and close at the end of June 2026, with festivals able to apply at any time.
“NSW has had a strong music festival sector, but it has been under intense pressure,” said the NSW minister for music and the night-time economy, John Graham.
“We have seen the chickens come home to roost after years of pressure, with major festivals failing.
“Festivals are facing challenges across the globe and around Australia with the increased price of doing business, the costs of living crisis and changing audience behaviours. We know these challenges have been felt acutely in NSW thanks to overlapping and confusing regulations.”
Alongside the fund, the state government has also reviewed the Music Festivals Act and made several changes, including giving festival organisers the ability to appeal decisions on costs and conditions applied to their event by government agencies. Appeals will be made to a cross-government panel.
As part of reforms to the act, all festivals will be required to have a health and medical plan, with festivals that have experienced incidents in the past required to agree their plan with the Department of Health.
Meanwhile, further north, the Queensland Government has given Woodford Folk Festival $2 million to “support the ongoing viability of the festival”.
Of the $2 million, $1.6 million will be invested into the festival site and $400,000 will go towards programming Australian artists at the festival.
“We know that artists, arts workers and arts organisations are experiencing the impacts of national cost of living pressures, which is why we’re taking action to support the live music industry and festival sector,” said Queensland’s minister for the arts, Leeanne Enoch.
“It supports more artists to feature in the festival program and will boost Queensland’s creative economy with the festival supporting opportunities for 1,800 artists and presenters and welcoming audiences of more than 100,000 each year, driving cultural tourism outcomes in the region.”
Woodford Folk Festival has an estimated $29 million economic impact on Queensland each year.
