Organisers of Meredith Music Festival say they are cracking down on illegal activity including scammers, scalpers and trespassers leading up to next week’s festival.
A recent letter from Aunty Meredith herself outlining the festival’s famed ‘No Dickhead Policy’ introduces this year’s Aunty’s Waitlist service which refunds tickets to people who can no longer attend and allocates them to someone on the waitlist as a means to prevent inflated tickets being sold illegally.
“We know how angry Meredith-goers get when they see thieves and scalpers trying to rob and scam people for tickets through sites like eBay and Gumtree (recently one of these scammers received a three-month jail sentence),” the letter reads.
Member for Western Victoria David O’Brien has also jumped on the “No Dickhead” bandwagon, yesterday calling for an investigation into possible legal actions against scalpers targeting the upcoming Festival.
“This is a great regional event and is consciously planned by the organisers to ensure a quality experience,” Mr O’Brian said. “New South Wales have proposed laws to combat music event scalping and I would like to see these examined in Victoria.”
He is referring to a bill introduced in NSW parliament a few weeks ago by Anthony Roberts, Minister of Fair Trading that was aimed at cracking down on ticket scalping. The Fair Trade Amendment (Ticket Reselling) Bill 2013, endeavours to set clear guidelines for people when selling or buying tickets on the secondary market.
Mr O’Brian said current Victorian legislation in Victoria only protected sporting events such as the AFL Grand Final from scalpers and requested in Parliament that the state Minister for Consumer Affairs examine further possible safeguards.
Just last month 18 people were due to appear in court charged with trespass in relation to the festival. A stern Aunty Meredith emphasised the festival’s zero tolerance approach to trespassing, using the support of the local community, Victoria Police other festival-goers and the Meredith security team.
As well as a lack of Dickheads, Meredith Music Festival 2013 also boasts a killer linuep, starring Chic featuring Nile Rodgers, The Melvins, and Brian Jonestown Massacre. The 3-day festival kicks off next Friday, 13th December.
