The cost of living has begun to bite the Woodford Folk Festival, with ticket sales for this year’s event down 15 per cent with a month to go.
While the six-day music and cultural festival is certain to go ahead this year, festival director Amanda Jackes said the ticket trend threatened the event’s future viability.
Organisers have now put out a call to the festival’s 54,000 supporters hoping to boost the sluggish ticket sales for what they describe as a very strong program.
“We know people think that Woodford has just always been there and people think it always will be, and when you need help people don’t know. You need to ask,” Ms Jackes said.
“We’re a bit down a month out from the festival. We are 15 per cent down from last year from where we were last year and we really need to get sales up this month.
“If people are thinking about coming to the festival, if they’ve never been or it’s something they haven’t quite committed to, this is the year they should do it.”
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The pandemic wiped out two Woodford Folk Festivals, in 2020 and 2021, and costs soared by 40 per cent in its wake, but a successful comeback festival followed.
“The return festival in 2022-23 proved to be our most successful ever but it gave us perhaps a false confidence that we were through the worst and bound for a bright future,” Ms Jackes said.
She said ticket price increases had been kept to a minimum but people were feeling the pinch.
“The feedback we’re getting on this year’s program is that it’s really good,” she said.
“It’s the cost of living. People are struggling and that’s why we’ve tried to keep ticket prices down as much as we could.”
Ms Jackes said a season pass had gone up only 4 per cent in six years (from $647 to $672) and the day tickets had gone up only 8 per cent ($130 to $140) in the same period.
She said the current rainy weather had not helped ticket sales but the outlook was for near-perfect conditions for this year’s festival, which she hoped would attract 110,000 people.
The 450 acts playing this year include Australian talents Dan Sultan, Yothu Yindi, Baker Boy, King Stingray, Beccy Cole, Yolngu, Ash Grunwald and Josh Pyke, while Peace Run Records has put together a Sunshine Coast special featuring 12 hand-picked artists.
The festival has its biggest ever international line-up, including New Zealand pop singer-songwriter Bic Runga; South Africa’s acapella group The Joy, who played at Glastonbury and Coachella; French author, composer and performer Yse; and Scottish trad-funk-electronic outfit Elephant Sessions.
Beyond the music is a speaker’s program, workshops and classes.
