In what will be regarded as an incredible act of bravery Bluesfest has announced Early Bird tickets to its 2021 festival will go on sale today. This announcement comes one week ahead of what is said to be an historical First Artist Announcement next week on July 8th.
“Right now the only constant is change, and we are ready for it“, says Festival Director, Peter Noble OAM. “We believe in music and we are coming back for Bluesfest 2021, not just for us, but because the industry needs us to come back. Our industry, the music business has its back against the wall. COVID has shut us down. Since the middle of March, almost everyone in our industry has received no income. As the Festival Director of Bluesfest and a music industry veteran I strongly feel that we must make positive steps to move forward and show the thousands of people that depend on us that there is a future coming – our industry and events will come back. We know there will be more challenges, however, we also know that we are a resilient industry that loves and wants to get back to the business of entertaining. As those challenges present we will meet and rise to every single one of them to deliver Bluesfest. We call on our industry to get behind us at this time because we are leading the charge. If we find that the internationals can’t come, we will add more Aussies. If we find the internationals can come, we might add more internationals. What our team is dedicated to doing is everything it takes to present Bluesfest Easter 2021 in a manner where it will be our most legendary festival yet.”
At this point in time the government will allow Bluesfest the capacity to host 7500 people seated onsite. It is envisaged this figure will increase as restrictions are gradually lifted between now and next April. Bluesfest has made it clear to its patrons that there is no risk in buying tickets as all monies will be securely held in a locked account should the unlikely need to refund become a necessity. “When purchasing tickets you can feel proud that not only are you supporting Bluesfest, you are supporting the greater music industry get back up on its feet and that’s something to sing about“.
In response to the announcement regarding the $250 million bail out offered to the Arts Sector by the Prime Minister Peter Noble says “This funding is desperately required by independent Australian music operators who have their backs against the COVID wall. Government should support the independents and recognise that the multi-nationals have the monetary reserves to ride this crisis through.”
Annually Bluesfest employs approximately 1000 employees and contractors – not including the artists and their crews. “When you factor in the full artist crews, their managers, the agents, publicists, drivers, security teams, and everybody else – that’s thousands of people we are responsible for and therefore we know that we have no choice but to get back to business and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing since Bluesfest 2020 was banned in March. We decided the week we were shut down by government order that Bluesfest 2021 was on, and that is why we are at the point where we are in a position to go on sale with our Early Bird tickets today and announce our first artist announcement next week. “We invite our industry to move forward with us to a future we can all celebrate the live performing arts again. Bluesfest is an all-independent Australian company. Please join us to invest into the live industry’s future.”
Bluesfest is are committed to presenting Bluesfest 2021 and are working on different plans for the different scenarios that the government will roll out between now and then. Due to the fluid nature of this situation Bluesfest will create a new space on its website where it will host its full Mission Statement for 2021 along with updated information as it comes in hot from the PMs office. This along with a FAQ section will help answer all the questions as they arise so fans and ticketholders can remain fully updated. Get your Early Bird tickets now.
“What I can say is whilst we don’t know what the future holds for the greater music industry you can be assured we here at Bluesfest are fully committed to presenting an outstanding event in accordance with government regulations“. Festival Director, Peter Noble OAM.
