UPDATE: Laneway Festival Announces New Melbourne Venue For 2019
ORIGINAL STORY: It looks like the Melbourne leg of Laneway Festival could be shunted to a new location as of next year.
Fairfax is reporting that organisers of the summer bash are “quietly hatching” plans to relocate the festival further north from its current coordinates at the Footscray Community Arts Centre, due to mounting pressure from a neighbouring apartment development and the construction of nearby truck ramps as part of a $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel project.
The plan would see the festival shimmying up-river to Footscray Park, opposite Flemington Racecourse, and Maribyrnong Council has apparently already given it the thumbs up.
A council report notes that “The surrounding development places the festival under increasing pressure to ensure impacts on residents and businesses are minimised and a world-class festival for attendees is delivered. Relocation would address impacts from the West Gate Tunnel project on the existing site” (via triple J).
The five-year West Gate Bridge construction project is gunning to reduce congestion on the bridge by re-routing container trucks through the city’s inner-west towards a new elevated road above Footscray Road, including on-ramps constructed near Laneway’s current site.
The J‘s also report that the festival now reportedly offers around $100,000 worth of free tickets to appease 700 nearby residents following the construction of a bunch of new apartment blocks since Laneway set up shop back in 2010.
Altogether, it amounts to a pretty compelling reason to move house, but Laneway organisers have yet to offer official comment.
We’ll keep you looped, though.
This year’s lineup featured the likes of Mac DeMarco, Anderson .Paak, Billie Eilish, Wolf Alice and loads more.
