Splendour in the Grass Festival organisers forced to pay $100,000 over traffic chaos

The organisers of Byron Bay’s Splendour in the Grass are to be required to pay $100,000 after causing traffic disruption on roads surrounding the festival site in July.

Billinudgel Property has been sanctioned for failing to comply with the festival’s traffic management plan.

After a surplus of tickets were sold by Splendour, attendees were forced to queue for over 12 hours in their vehicles but were then turned away from the flooded campgrounds.

The flow-on effect resulted in significant delays to local traffic, including school buses.

The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment said the $100,000 enforceable undertaking would be paid by Billinudgel Property and would be split between 10 primary and secondary schools within a 10-kilometre radius of the venue.

It will be up to each individual school to decide how the money is distributed.

A statement from the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment advised “we place strict conditions on events such as Splendour in the Grass for a reason, and organisers need to abide by them

“Traffic queuing resulted in short term, but significant traffic delays to the community, including schoolchildren travelling home from school on Thursday, July 21st 2022.

“After considering all of the options available to us, we have decided that the best outcome for the community is for the company to contribute financially to improvements to nearby schools through an enforceable undertaking.”

Secret Sounds joint Chief Executive, Jessica Ducrou apologised in a statement, noting “residents and schoolchildren were frustrated by unusually long queues, made worse by the weather, as Splendour festival goers tried to access their camping accommodation.”

“We had a rigorous planning process in place through the Department of Planning which included council involvement and local committees such as the Local Traffic Committee, Local Emergency Management Committee and a Regulatory Working Group.

“However, we faced an unprecedented weather event, unlike anything we have seen in our 30 years of presenting festivals.”

Ducrou said the organisation had "taken all these learnings onboard to enhance and improve future festivals" and would "gladly comply" with the $100,000 payout undertaking.

She went on to say “we want to do everything possible to ensure this does not happen again because we know from previous economic impact studies that an event like this provides an economic stimulus of $87 million to the Byron Bay and Northern Rivers area, and the gross value of the festival alone is $42m," she said.

The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment will also require the festival to carry out its mandatory triannual audit one year early.

The independent audit will help determine whether other conditions were breached at this year's event, which could result in further penalties or action.

Image credit Shutterstock.