‘How has that happened?' Labor challenged over $1m funding to global music festival giant
Listen Out and Field Day were among five festivals awarded up to $500,000 each by the Minns government last year to stem a wave of festival cancellations.
Parliament heard Fuzzy, the Australian operator of Listen Out and Field Day, is now part of British global empire of Superstruct Entertainment, which is in turn, owned by private equity firm KKR, now subject to a growing artist boycott over the nature of its investment portfolio.
'Superstruct holds a portfolio of over 85 festivals worldwide,' Greens' music spokesperson Cate Faehrmann told the NSW parliament last week.
'At a time when our beloved grassroots music festivals are folding because of lack of financial viability, with no indication yet that government user-pays charges have eased, the government is handing taxpayer dollars to a multinational conglomerate that is acquiring our local festivals as part of its international expansion. How has that happened?'
In KKR's investment portfolio, Faehrmann said, was a German media company that has reportedly advertised Israel's illegal settlements in the West Bank, and a real estate software company said to have facilitated the rental of properties on occupied land.
'The eligibility criteria for this fund must be reviewed in light of these revelations,' she said outside parliament. 'The fund needs to be better targeted towards independent and Australian-owned music festivals and the requirement that it only apply to festivals catering to 15,000 or more people must also be scrapped.'
The latest controversy points to growing sensitivities around the globalisation of all parts of the music industry from streaming services to ticketing platforms and the ability of homegrown promoters, festivals and artists to compete.
Waverley Council recently awarded Fuzzy, which was established in Australia in the 1990s and goes by the mantra 'good times done properly', a licence to produce a New Year's Eve event at Bondi Beach for 15,000 people this year.
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