Caloundra Music Festival permanently cancelled as Sunshine Coast Council halts funding

With this year’s edition of the Caloundra Music Festival having been cancelled in April, the event has now been permanently wrapped up following Sunshine Coast Council having yesterday confirmed that it had discontinued funding for the event.

On Tuesday, Sunshine Coast Council confirmed they had discontinued funding for the event, which had faced the familiar issues of rising costs and falling ticket sales affecting major music festivals across the country.

In a statement, the Council advised "following the adoption of the 2024/25 Council Budget on June 20, the Caloundra Music Festival will no longer be funded by Council.”

One of the Sunshine Coast's biggest live music events, the long-running, family-friendly festival was established in 2007 and drew tens of thousands of people to King's Beach each year.

However, attendances had fallen over the years, with the festival never getting back to its pre-COVID size. According to Council documents, just over 13,000 people attended the festival's 2022 event, compared to the almost 33,000 who ventured out in 2019.

Noting the problems that it faced, Sunshine Coast Mayor, Rosanna Natoli advised "rising costs, falling ticket sales and uncertainty in the music festival industry were felt to be too great a risk in the current climate.

"We recognise that music events are important for our community and Council will continue to deliver smaller events and programs."

Over the years the festival has hosted a broad array of local and international stars, from chart toppers like Powderfinger, Missy Higgins and Jimmy Barnes to cult favourites like Parliament-Funkadelic, Galactic and Old Crow Medicine Show.

The loss of the festival is a significant blow for the Sunshine Coast's arts and music communities, leading Sunshine Coast Councillor Terry Landsberg to implore people to support similar events in the area.

Councillor Landsberg was quoted by the ABC as saying "I urge you to support other events, like the upcoming Big Pineapple Music Festival and Council's 10-day multi-arts Horizon Festival which will be held May 2-11 next year, coinciding with the 2025 Labour Day Public Holiday.

"I know the artists and patrons will be greatly disappointed and I encourage festival fans to support other festivals, venues and artists by purchasing tickets often and early."

In April, a report from Creative Australia found that just 56% of music festivals reported a profit in the 2022-23 financial year, with more than one-third of festivals reporting a deficit and 8% breaking even.

Image: The crowd at the Caloundra Music Festival's Soul Stage in 2023. Credit: Richard Musumeci/Sunshine Coast Council.

Updated 1st July 2024. A technical issue prevented this article from being show in full when first posted.