After a heart stopping moment of fear, fans of Farmer & the Owl can relax, it’s still going ahead.
In a nightmarish blink of the eye, many thought another beloved festival was going down with the festival licensing registration implanted by NSW premier Gladys Berjiklian and the state government.
Farmer & the Owl Festival is still going ahead after a scare from the NSW State Government’s festival classification scheme.
Over the past few weeks Farmer & the Owl has been hanging in the balance after various festivals were classified as “high risk” and thus subject to licensing fees. The Australian Festival Assosiation said that well-run festivals with excellent safety records are already being negatively impacted.
Other festivals that were classified as high risk by the NSW state government include Ultra, This That, Defqon. 1, and Laneway Festival. In fact the Laneway organisers have said that cancelling the Sydney leg of the tour is a high possibility.
As it happens, three weeks out from the event, the organisers were told their originally approved license was no longer valid and they were now considered a high risk event. Having no further information given to them about what this entailed, or the ramifications, the festival organisers were understandably concerned as to the whether or not Farmer & the Owl would go ahead.
However at 10pm on Friday night they received an email stating they were no longer classified as a high risk event and their license was approved. Thus is the tale of another beloved NSW festival narrowly escaping the tirade currently being waged by the NSW Premier.
Thankfully, Farmer & the Owl is going ahead this Saturday the 2nd of March, and you can find all related info here.
