Rising prices have left many festivals with no alternative however to cancel this 12 months, and one main Australian EDM pageant is the newest domino to fall.

The organizers of Australia’s Return to Rio pageant have cancelled this 12 months’s occasion as a consequence of a staggering 529% value improve, based on the Sydney Morning Herald. In New South Wales, a authorities mandate referred to as the Music Festivals Act permits state administration to completely management the costs of police presence, medical requirements and extra.

Digital music festivals in New South Wales have reportedly been deemed too “excessive threat,” requiring their organizers to pay for “hurt minimisation” techniques, together with riot squads, strip search amenities, CCTV, police boats and interrogation areas. Return to Rio’s promoters highlighted their decade-long observe report of internet hosting protected and well-coordinated occasions, however nonetheless confronted the astonishing fee hike.

“This, mixed with the additional guidelines and rules we’ve got to stick to, meant final 12 months we incurred greater than $300K in additional prices,” reads an announcement launched by Return to Rio. “For a small family-run enterprise, this makes it nearly unimaginable to not run at a loss.”

“The unhappy actuality is that in NSW, digital music is unfairly focused,” the assertion continued. “And if this continues, we’ll solely be left with beige government-run occasions and industrial mega-corp festivals, whereas the smaller numerous and boutique occasions die out.”

The Aussie occasion joins a slew of American festivals, together with Backwoods, Think about and Firefly, that won’t happen in 2024. 

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