Farmer & The Owl‘s 2019 event was temporarily held in limbo over the past couple of weeks, after organisers revealed that they were in doubt over whether the festival would be able to go ahead after the new festival licensing regulations that were implemented by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the state government.
However, punters needn’t fret because the festival has confirmed that the 2019 event will be going ahead as planned.
As reported by the Illawarra Mercury, the festival organisers said that under the initial risk matrix, Farmer & The Owl said that they would be considered “high risk” and expressed doubts over whether they would be able to pay the safety bill – which was predicted to be potentially tens of thousands of dollars.
But now, in a statement, the festival has confirmed it is still going ahead – after a bit of a stuff around. The statement pokes a bit of fun at the clusterf*ck the festival has been put through, giving a how-to guide to “stress out and rapidly age your festival team”, as well a basic timeline of what’s happened.
“Three weeks out from their event (that has taken months of meticulous planning) tell them their current license approval is no longer valid and they need to re-apply for a new license,” it reads.
“Classify them under the new license as a High-Risk event but do not explain why or how this will impact their event.”
“One and a half weeks out from their event continue to not reveal what their High-Risk classifications means or how it is going to affect them or their operating budget.”
“One week out from their event send them an email at 10pm on a Friday night to tell them they are no longer classified as a High-Risk event and that their original license approval has been reinstated.”
Festivals that were considered “high risk” officially by the government include This That, Ultra, Defqon.1 and, surprisingly, Laneway Festival. In fact, Laneway organiser has said that cancelling the Sydney leg of the festival is a definite possibility.
Farmer & The Owl 2019 is taking place this Saturday, 2nd March, and is headlined by Beach House, Hockey Dad and Deafheaven. Check out all the deets for the (thankfully) not-cancelled festival here.
