The founders of the Splendour in the Grass festival in Australia have reiterated their commitment to fair and affordable ticketing following their acquisition by Ticketmaster and GetMeIn! owner Live Nation.
TickTechNews reported yesterday that the international entertainment giant had bought a 51 per cent stake in Australian firm Secret Sounds, which also runs the Falls Festival, for an estimated A$30m (£17.6m/$22.3m/€21.2m).
Splendour, the Byron Bay event which attracts around 30,000 spectators each year, has for years offered a ticket resale facility to reduce opportunities for scalpers to profiteer.
The involvement of Live Nation has led some – including the chief executive of OzTix, which has held the ticketing contract for Falls for seven years – to question whether ticketing operations for the events will be switched to Ticketmaster, with Live Nation’s resale sites such as Ticketmaster Resale (TM ), GetMeIn! and Seatwave also taking a role.
However, Jessica Ducrou, co-founder and managing director of Secret Sounds, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) national public broadcaster that the Splendour resale facility will remain and Ticketmaster will not be doing the ticketing.
“The resale facility of Splendour will 100 per cent continue,” Ducrou said. “That’s incredibly important.
“Ticketmaster per se is not going to be the company selling tickets for Splendour or Falls Festival for that matter. It will be through an arm of their business – a different ticketing platform.”
Concerns have also been raised about Live Nation’s huge resources leading to local promoters and contractors no longer being required. There are fears that the Secret Sounds festivals could be forced to book Live Nation-backed artists as opposed to the acts they have chosen independently in the past.
However, Ducrou said they have been able to negotiate creative control of Splendour and Falls, despite no longer having a controlling stake in their business.
“Paul Piticco and I will be booking the line-up like we always book the line-up – there’s no pressure to put on more commercial artists because of their touring arm,” she told ABC. “They’re partnering with us to do what we do.
“We feel confident we will be able to maintain the integrity of Splendour and Falls.”
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