Comprehensive Event Critique: Big Day Out Music Festival Report

This report provides a comprehensive critique of the Big Day Out music festival held in Sydney in 2014. It examines the event's background, history, and overall success, including its operational overview, activities, and safety measures. The report analyzes ticketing, venue, and problem areas, as well as the sponsorship structure and recommendations for improvement. It also delves into participant profiles, demographics, and the promotion of achievements, alongside the event's impact on culture, identity, and the environment. The media analysis covers coverage and value, with a focus on marketing and promotion. Key recommendations for the festival's future are provided, emphasizing the need for enhanced sponsorship and operational efficiency to maintain its status as a significant music event. The report also highlights the event's contributions to the local music scene and its ability to provide a world-class experience for the audience.

Running head: EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
Name of the Student
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Author Note

1EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
Executive Summary
The report considers the Big Day Out music festival 2014 held in Sydney and evaluates the
significant areas of the event. The report is focused towards the understanding of the functional
establishment of the event and its significance towards engaging the target audience. The
background of the event has been given and moving forward the essential aspects that are
concerned with the event have been discussed. The event needs to incorporate more funds
through better sponsorship structure and build effective cooperation with various organizations
in order to develop as a significantly large music event in the country. The social, economic,
cultural and international significance of the event have been discussed.

2EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction and background...........................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................3
Event history................................................................................................................................3
Overview......................................................................................................................................3
Overall success............................................................................................................................3
Overall growth.............................................................................................................................4
Operational Overview......................................................................................................................4
Operational Success.....................................................................................................................4
Activities and timeline.................................................................................................................4
Safety issues.................................................................................................................................4
Ticketing and registration............................................................................................................5
Venue analysis.............................................................................................................................5
Problem areas...............................................................................................................................5
Sponsorship and Funding................................................................................................................5
Current sponsorship structure......................................................................................................5
Sponsorship recommendations....................................................................................................6
Participation.....................................................................................................................................6
Participant profile........................................................................................................................6

3EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
Nature of participation.................................................................................................................7
Demographics..............................................................................................................................7
Promotion of Achievement..............................................................................................................7
Local achievements.....................................................................................................................7
Promotion of high achievement...................................................................................................8
Experience as a world class event...................................................................................................8
Opportunities to the audience......................................................................................................8
Level of interest and Support.......................................................................................................9
Benefits............................................................................................................................................9
Contribution to culture.................................................................................................................9
Celebration of cultural diversity..................................................................................................9
Sense of identity........................................................................................................................10
Job creation................................................................................................................................10
Political benefits........................................................................................................................10
Environmental impact................................................................................................................10
Stakeholder’s impact.................................................................................................................10
Media Analysis..............................................................................................................................11
Media coverage and value.........................................................................................................11
Outcomes of media exposure.....................................................................................................11
Marketing and promotion..............................................................................................................12

4EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
Promotional Activities...............................................................................................................12
Advertising................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion and recommendations.................................................................................................12
Key Recommendation...............................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction and background
Background
The event being considered for the report is Big Day Out music festival 2014 in Sydney.
Big Day Out is an annual festival that is celebrated across Australia since 1992. The festival
brings together popular artists and bands from contemporary music genres of rock, electronic,
international mainstream and local. The festival was founded by Ken West and Vivian Lees.
Event history
The event has been held every year from 1992 to 1997 and then again from 1999 to 2014.
Hence it has been held for a total of around 21 years. The event will be held again after the gap
of few years in 2014.
Overview
The event is run currently by AJ Maddah and an American music festival promoter
known as C3 Presents. The event however was founded by Ken West and Vivian lees in 1992.
The event is managed privately with many other co-hosts. It has been held across many cities
across Australia and New Zealand. The major cities included Sydney, Auckland, Melbourne,
Adelaide, Gold Coast and Perth (22 years of the Big Day Out 2018).
Overall success
The event have been largely successful in the initial years. Moreover, the success of the
event grew much between 1999 and 2014. The organizers have been able to showcase bands like
Nirvana, Red hot Chili peppers, Violent Femmes, The Ramones, Limp Bizkit, Metallica and
others over the years (Sydney, Australia Music Events | Eventbrite 2018). The average crowd

6EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
attendance have been significantly large over the years. The festival has been able to pull crowds
of 30 to 40 thousand in the past. It is a greatly recognized festival in Australia and New Zealand.
Overall growth
The overall growth of the festival have been fluctuating to some extent. The festival had
witnessed steady growth from 1992 to 1997 but diminished in popularity from then onwards. It
was revived in 1999 and have enjoyed good growth till 2014. The number of music acts
significantly increased from 2007 to 2014.
Operational Overview
Operational Success
The event operations have been successful for the large part. However, there have been to
instances of death at the festival in 2001 and 2009 for which the festival organizers had lawsuits
filed against them. Despite these issues the general management of the event have been effective.
The city authorities have cooperated with the organizers.
Activities and timeline
The Sydney event of Big Day Out 2014 was held on January 24. The event was held in a
systematic acts order. The first act was from Nicky Romero followed by the band, Bloody
Beetroots, Band of Horses and Vampire weekend. The Next act was the Killers and the final act
was Red Hot Chili Peppers. There were 15-20 minutes gap between the various performances.

7EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
Activity By Who When Weeks Dec
6
Dec
13
Dec
20
Dec
27
Jan
3
Jan
10
Jan
17
Weeks
to go
6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Confirmation
of date
Event
Management
Team
1st
December
Confirmation
of event with
city
authorities
Event
Management
Team
4th
December
Confirmation
of date with
stakeholders
Event
Management
Team
8th
December
Research and
agree upon
venue
Event
Management
Team
Confirmation
of maps
venues and
other
Event
Management
Team

8EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
essentials
Online
briefing and
event
reconfirmatio
n
Event
Management
Team
Identification
of VIP guests
Event Heads
Co-ordination
of
personalized
letter
Event Heads
Confirmation
of Day of
event
Event Heads
Safety issues
The organizers had arranged a tight security system taking into consideration the past
issues that had occurred. ID proofs were required to enter the venue. The visitors were pre-
requested not to bring expensive jewellery. The venue was sufficiently barricaded in order to
secure the venue area.

9EVENT CRITIQUE: BIG DAY OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
Ticketing and registration
The tickets were available online as well as offline counters across the city. The ticket
masters and BDO operators for ticketing were given the responsibilities for ticket sales and
distribution. The highest price for an all-inclusive ticket was 165 Australian Dollars. Tickets
were divided into high priced, middle priced and lower priced.
Venue analysis
The venue was Sydney showground at the Sydney Olympic Park. The venue was within
reach of an average city crowd with regular trains and buses and other forms of public transport
readily available. The venue is within half an hour drive from the main city. Hence, the venue
was very convenient.
Problem areas
The main problem area that was identified was the lack of required security personnel.
On the basis of the venue being visited by an estimated 35, 000 people there were much less
amount of security personnel or volunteers who were available.
Sponsorship and Funding
Current sponsorship structure
The sponsorship of the event was important as the organizers themselves were not
sufficient to cater to the financial requirement for holding the festival. The chief organizers were
AJ Maddah and American promoter C3 Presents. The rest of the sponsorship was done from
various other smaller organizers. Around 50% of the sponsorship was done by the chief
organizers. Moving forward the sponsors were other small scale event organizers from Sydney
that were responsible for financing most of the rest of the event. The rest of the sponsorship was

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done by small and medium music companies in the city. The remaining financing was gathered
through advertisers and other sources. The sponsorship structure was complicated but effective
as the Big Day out was a large music festival. The sponsors however, were not large in number
and amounted to only around 20 significant sponsors.
Sponsorship recommendations
It is recommended that the organizers take into consideration a more fluid sponsorship
structure in the future. This will enable them to get far more sponsors and raise more money for
the event. The popularity of the event needs to grow further. For this to happen the organizers
need to rope in more sponsorships. This will also enable the better media presentation of the
event. The large sponsorship would help in the presentation of far more events. Another
important aspect is getting the city authorities involved in the sponsorship process. Along with
increasing the audience reach this can help to give the festival a new level of acceptability among
the people of Sydney. This way the event can truly grow as a significant music festival in and
around Australia. Hence, finding new sponsorship is important.
Participation
Participant profile
The event has seen participation of a large number of music groups, musicians and bands
from Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world. The participants included bands such
as the Killers, Hunting grounds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Bloody Beetroots, Band of Horses and
Vampire Weekend. Nicky Romero, famous Dutch DJ was a special attraction along with the
American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Along with the same the event featured some of the
most prominent and imminent Australian musicians and music bands. The main individual

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musicians and bands were prominent names in the international music industry with both
contemporary and past accolades in music.
Nature of participation
Since the event was held in Australia, the predominant participants were musicians and
music bands from Australia. There were a few emerging musicians from New Zealand that
participated in the event. The main attraction was the European and American artists. Nicky
Romero was the significant presence among the European artist. The most important American
band was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In comparison to the Australian and world artists the New
Zealander music artists were less in number. However, they had significant exposure through the
event.
Demographics
Around 14% of the audiences were regular Australian festival goers that attend more than
four or five such festivals in a year. Around 44% of the recorded festival goes were moderate
public that attend 2 to 3 festivals in a year. In all the participants were mostly bands and music
artists from in and around Australia. The foreign music artists and bands were 20-30%. The
festival had audiences that were mostly from Australia and New Zealand. The people from
Sydney were the main audience but many were from across other cities and other parts of the
world as well.
Promotion of Achievement
Local achievements
Local achievements were showcased in the form of budding Australian musicians. This
helped them to get significant audience exposure. Many of the Australian artists performed in