Analyzing the Queensland Music Festival: Event Management Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Queensland Music Festival from an event management perspective. It justifies the festival as a major event, distinguishing it from mega, hallmark, or local events, and details its context, scope, and purpose. The report describes the festival's characteristics, including its size, content, timing, and key stakeholders, such as sponsors, local businesses, and the government. Furthermore, it examines the role of the government in the festival's organization and impact, its tourism and economic benefits, and its environmental impacts, proposing sustainability measures. The report also emphasizes the crucial role of community partnership in the festival's success, highlighting the benefits of community involvement and offering recommendations to enhance the festival's overall management and sustainability.

Running head: QUEENSLAND MUSIC FESTIVAL: EVENT MANAGEMENT
Queensland Music Festival: Event management
Name of the student:
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Executive summary
The aim of this paper is to analyze the Queensland Music Festival from a managerial
perspective. The chosen festival can be termed a major festival; a major festival may be
defined as one which attracts the attention of the media, tourists and individuals by the sheer
force of its magnitude and economic benefits. Such events are internationally renowned and
garner a lot of interest across the world. The Queensland Music Festival is one such major
event that people of Australia wait for all year round. The festival takes place every two years
and involves musical performances in different parts of Queensland. The festival has
generated a lot of media interest because it ensures that even the suburban communities are
involved in the gala celebration of music. The following paper studies the role of the
government and the community with respect to the chosen event.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
An overview of the festival..........................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................4
Role of the government in the Queensland Music Festival.........................................................4
Tourism and economic impact of Queensland Music Festival....................................................5
Environmental impacts of Queensland Music Festival...............................................................6
The importance of community partnership at Queensland Music Festival.................................7
Benefits of community partnership at Queensland Music Festival.............................................7
Recommendation to counter these issues at the Queensland Music Festival..............................8
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................10
References:....................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction:
An overview of the festival
The Queensland Music Festival, originally known as the Brisbane Biennial Festival of
Music, was established in 1991 by Anthony Steel, an artistic director; he served as the
director for both the 1991 and the 1993 festival (Queensland Music Festival 2018). The event
usually occurs in the second half of July every two years. A wide array of artists, belonging
to varying genres, is invited to perform at the festival. The festival takes place in a number of
locations in and around Queensland, Australia. The festival has the support of the Queensland
government, in accordance with the Australian Council, the Council of Brisbane and other
partners (Arts Queensland 2018). The festival has garnered international fame owing to its
gala celebration of musical excellence and an all encompassing geographic reach. From the
Gold Coast to the Torres Strait, the festival has a wide reach. The government of Brisbane
along with the event management team ensures that the best of regional, national and
international talents are present at the festival. The Queensland Music Festival has retained its
traditional values and leaves an everlasting legacy each time; it inculcates a sense of artistic
potential and also ensures that all members of the community are engaged in the fiesta
(Stadler, Reid and Fullagar 2013). More than 35,000 people turn up at the festival to enjoy
the live and electronic musical performances. The purpose of the festival is not simply to
cater to the musical tastes of people across Queensland, but also a sense of belonging and
togetherness within the community. It seeks to transform the lives of people through music
and community participation (Gibson and Connell 2016). As far as the stakeholders are
concerned, the festival requires the participation and involvement of the members of the
community, volunteers willing to work for the festival, the government of Queensland and
the Brisbane Council as well.

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The chosen event classifies as a major event, and not a mega, hallmark or a local
event. A mega event would be one that is massive in terms of volume and size and attracts
global attention. Similarly, the Queensland Music Festival is not a hallmark one because it is
not associated with a specific ethos or culture (Müller 2015). It is not a local event either
because the target audience for the event is not the local community at Queensland; instead, it
attracts attendees from all over the world.
Discussion:
Role of the government in the Queensland Music Festival
At a festival of any kind, the support of the government is mandatory if the event is to
go off without a glitch. As a matter of fact, the Queensland government has a stringent policy
in place which provides detailed guidelines to the organizers of a music festival. These
guidelines take into account the rights and duties of the organizers so as to ensure the welfare
of the community as a whole. For instance, the guidelines highlight the probability of
cancellation, the course of action in case an event is cancelled, the impact of advertising, the
effect of false promotion and advertising on customer loyalty and funding (Qld.gov.au 2018).
In fact, the government policies and regulations of Australia have certainly played a crucial
role in determining audience perception and consequently their turnout at the music festival
in the past (Art Queensland 2018).
Music festivals are often associated with the term “social equity” or “merit goods”.
The phrase, merit goods, refers to the fact that such music festivals are deemed to be
beneficial for the audience, irrespective of the financial benefits involved. Social equity, on
the other hand, refers to the way governments usually subsidize such cultural activities. In
these cases, the intervention and involvement of the government in music festivals is usually

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acceptable. However, government involvement in such music festivals is not without prior
motive; the fact that the Queensland Music Festival generates revenues for the tourism
department and also promotes a sense of culture can be observed in the votes of the citizens
during elections (Cudny 2013). Both locals and the tourists affect local and upper level
governments. To take it further, there are a number of downfalls of large scale music festivals
like these and the Queensland Music Festival is no exception – for instance, illegal activities
(including drugs), pollution, and environmental hazards are rampant at the Queensland Music
Festival every year (Hughes et al. 2017). In such cases, the government would have to get
involved to ensure that security and a code of decorum is maintained.
Tourism and economic impact of Queensland Music Festival
Musical festivals are held in countries around the world, and most of them tend to
include all kinds of music like jazz, rock, opera, folk or even pop. The Queensland Music
Festival, as mentioned above, invites talent from all over the world to perform at the festival.
Naturally, the target market for such a festival would be diverse; as a matter of fact, the
Queensland Music Festival brings in audiences from all over Australia and from across the
globe, thus having an impact on local economy and tourism. In the last twenty years, a study
of the psychological and sociological impacts of music festivals on attendees has shown that
festival tourism has indeed emerged as a flourishing field (Ballantyne, Ballantyne and Packer
2014). This enhances tourism and adds to the economic benefits as reaped by the
government. Safe to say, this music festival has had an impact on the host community and the
tourism and leisure economy of the area.
Environmental impacts of Queensland Music Festival
There is a growing concern regarding the impact of music festivals on environment
and how ecologically sustainable it is; however, as research shows, it is not just the

6QUEENSLAND MUSIC FESTIVAL: EVENT MANAGEMENT
Queensland Music Festival that adversely affects the environment but the attendee behavior
(Jiang et al. 2014). It is estimated that an average 23,000 tonnes of waste is produced at the
Queensland Music Festival, leaving behind a huge pile of garbage (without effective waste
management procedures) after each show (Lai et al. 2013). The environmental impacts of the
music festival include the following:
 Waste of fossil fuels caused by energy production and transport at the festival
 Harmful emissions which pollute and contaminate air. Bonfires are common at
outdoor festivals like the Queensland Music Festival. These can lead to air pollution.
 Excessive and injudicious use of water
 Attendees tend to dump their waste into nearby waterbodies in the Queensland area
thus contaminating it.
 Exploitation of non-renewable sources
 Generation and disposal of solid waste which would include plastics and other non-
biodegradable waste by the attendees at Queensland Music Festival
 The Queensland Music Festival, like any other music festival, entails loud music and
light shows for the entertainment of the audience. Thus, it also contributes to light and
noise pollution.
 During the elongated period of the festival, impacts on the ecosystem and biodiversity
of Australia are felt.
Sustainability at the Queensland Music Festival
However, it must also be emphasized that such waste generation is mainly due to
callousness on part of the attendees at the Queensland Music Festival, as shown above.
Responsible citizens of the nation need to pay heed to the environmental factors so as to
make the event sustainable on a long term basis. For instance, if facilities were available at

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the music festival that encouraged people to segregate their waste, they would be less
inclined to dump their solid waste on site itself. Similarly, banning plastic products at the
festival would be another step towards sustainability.
The importance of community partnership at Queensland Music Festival
The very purpose of the Queensland Music Festival is to bind people and bring
communities closer through music. The operations of a music festival on such a massive
scale would be impossible without the participation of all the members of a community. It is
imperative for everyone to join hands and come together in the form of a community
partnership to help make the event a success (Laing and Mair 2015). A healthy community
partnership would entail a sense of belonging, the unique personality of the community and a
spirit of participation. There has to be a kind of shared vision, where the individuals of the
community are willing to work together towards the accomplishment of a common goal. It
must be remembered that no event can take place in isolation. The organizers of the
Queensland Music Festival would require the commitment and support of the government of
Australia, the council of Brisbane and the individual community members to ensure that the
event is a success. For instance, organizing a music festival requires interactions and
functional working relationships between various departments like energy and information;
the cooperation between the community members and the organizers of the festival would
guarantee a level of protection and stability.
Benefits of community partnership at Queensland Music Festival
Community partnership at the Queensland Music Festival would harness a sense of
the community’s collective vision; this would ensure an overall cultural development.
Including the community in the event would win the goodwill of the locals and also provide a
direction for them. Collaboration with the different sectors of the community would inspire

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opportunities, bridge connections and nurture an artistic and creative community as well
(Robinson 2016). It also creates the impression that the music festival takes into account the
community and cares about its overall well being; this generates newer leads and results in
word of mouth promotion for the event (Tkaczynski and Rundle-Thiele 2013). One of the
commonly known benefits of a community partnership is volunteering, new recruitment and
also retention. By getting the community involved, the organizers of the music festival would
be attracting talented candidates who would be willing to volunteer or work on a full time
basis (Bachman et al. 2016). Moreover, a music festival is much more personal than a live
music concert which allows for no interaction between the artists and the audience. The
attendees need to feel a sense of inclusion if the festival is to retain loyal customers (Smith et
al. 2014). The communication in this case is bi-directional and facilitates engagement. A
festival like the Queensland Music Festival boosts the local economy as well; such a music
festival attracts music lovers from across the globe, people coming to the festival would be
more inclined to spend money, which adds to the financial benefits of a festival. The on site
expenses would include food, beverages, parking fees, admission fees and accommodation.
Off site expenditure would include souvenir shops, restaurants et cetera. Also, this generates
a lot of scope for local advertisers and marketing companies who can use such projects to
develop branding (Hudson and Hudson 2013).
By ensuring community partnerships and engagement, the Queensland Music Festival
would also foster community pride amidst the people of Queensland. During the planning
phase of the festival, bonds and relationships between the different sectors of the community
can be strengthened. This also paves the way for smoother relationships between the private
organizations and government and between neighboring groups.

9QUEENSLAND MUSIC FESTIVAL: EVENT MANAGEMENT
Recommendation to counter these issues at the Queensland Music Festival
To ensure that the music festival is a sustainable one and continues to bind
communities through music, the following recommendations can be made to the organizers
keeping in mind the issues discussed earlier:
 First and foremost, the environmental impacts must be taken into account. The music
festival takes a toll on the environment by generating waste and by inadequate waste
management methods (Mair and Laing 2013). One way of countering this could be
through creating awareness campaigns which would ensure that the attendees take
home their own equipment (tents, food packages and so on). Another way would be
by imposing strict regulations to ensure that only biodegradable products are used to
reduce waste (Anderson, Jutbring and Lundberg 2013).
 To ensure community participation, volunteering opportunities may be introduced.
This would generate employment for the people of Queensland and would also
actively involve them in the festival (Rodell 2013). The main aim of festival
management is to maximize sales, minimize damage and optimize financial benefits.
This can be enhanced through training programs for the volunteers and the
employees.
 Safety standards should be adhered to; the organizers at Queensland Music Festival
need to ensure that various resources for safety and security are in place. This would
refer to the availability of EMTs, security measures and signage. Also, drug abuse is
common at the music festival and measures must be taken to avoid it (Dilkes-Frayne
2016). Such preventive methods would create a protected and secured environment
for people attending the event.

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Conclusion:
To conclude, it can be said that the Queensland Music Festival is one of the major
events in Australia. It seeks to bind the communities in and around Queensland through
music. Apart from that, the Queensland Music Festival also inculcates a sense of community
and belonging amongst the attendees and the locals. It encourages participation from all
sectors and relies on cooperation between the government and private organizations. Also,
the occurrence of such a festival boosts the overall economy of the state by generating
revenues for all those involved. In addition, this event has a positive impact on the tourism
industry as well, with people flying in from across the world. However, the environmental
impacts must be taken into account and measures should be incorporated to minimize the
same.

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Hughes, C.E., Moxham-Hall, V., Ritter, A., Weatherburn, D. and MacCoun, R., 2017. The
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