A music festival in NSW has been canned, with event organisers blaming sky high increases to cover compliance costs from the police and health departments.
Return to Rio was pitched as the ultimate weekend away, but event organisers said “after a lot of thought and with a heavy heart” they were sad to announce that the music festival would not be going ahead this year.
They said in a social media post that additional costs imposed by NSW Police and Health to comply with regulations meant it was no longer sustainable to hold the event without increasing the price of tickets.
“Return to Rio has an excellent record as a safe and well-run festival, and has operated successfully for over a decade without any major incidents,” event organisers said.
“But last year it was decided that our police and medical costs should increase by a whopping 529 per cent.
“This, combined with the extra rules and regulations we have to adhere to, meant last year we incurred more than $300,000 in extra costs.
“For a small, family-run business, this makes it almost impossible not to run at a loss.”
“Just to cover all these exorbitant extra costs we’d have to add at least $100 per ticket.
“With so many people struggling financially right now, passing these crazy-high fees onto you is not something we’re prepared to do.”
The event organisers said they believed events in NSW were being unfairly targeted by authorities and hoped they could return next year.
“If this continues, we’ll only be left with beige government-run events and commercial mega-corp festivals, while the smaller, diverse and boutique events die out,” they said.
“The community, connection and sense of belonging people report after attending a festival is more important now than ever.
“We believe we all have the right to enjoy festivals as the rest of the world manages to do safely without this heavy-handedness.
“But sadly, it’s becoming impossible to keep doing what we do here in NSW.
“So, we’re stepping out of the game this year, in the hope that this madness stops and common sense prevails.”
Multiple high-profile festivals have been cancelled recently, including major festival Splendour in the Grass.
Last year, the state government commissioned a review of the Music Festivals Act.
But there is still no indication where that review is going and any legislative changes will take time.
There have been criticisms that organisers in NSW have to deal with higher costs of doing business and have a heavier regulatory burden compared to other states.