Easterfest: Difference between revisions
The organisers of AGMF are not Nazis..... edited name change paragraph to omit the 'how these fit in' easter is about spreading joy the joy of God and celebrating him and these fit that |
→Community Concerns: - neutrality means stating the facts and taking out emotive language such as "aggresive noise range" which I doubt is very gramatically correct anyway. |
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The festival is currently held in the middle of Toowoomba's city centre and is closely surrounded on several sides by residential housing, located not far from the original [[Toowoomba]] Show Grounds which were closed some years ago for allegedly being too loud for local residential housing{{Fact|date=December 2007}}. The Toowoomba Chronicle {{Fact|date=December 2007}} has acknowledged long term noise and illegal parking complaints. The Mother's Memorial surrounding grassy area has now been blocked off during the Festival to prevent some illegal parking which caused damage. |
The festival is currently held in the middle of Toowoomba's city centre and is closely surrounded on several sides by residential housing, located not far from the original [[Toowoomba]] Show Grounds which were closed some years ago for allegedly being too loud for local residential housing{{Fact|date=December 2007}}. The Toowoomba Chronicle {{Fact|date=December 2007}} has acknowledged long term noise and illegal parking complaints. The Mother's Memorial surrounding grassy area has now been blocked off during the Festival to prevent some illegal parking which caused damage. |
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There are local concerns over the large number of people camping in areas with poor facilities. It alleged that a |
There are local concerns over the large number of people camping in areas with poor facilities. It alleged that a number of those attending a "Drug and Alcohol free" event will leave the grounds to obtain contraband. Locals have expressed concerns to the Toowoomba Council Aldermen about the number of drunk Teenagers in nearby parks. |
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An argument for the re-location of the whole Festival to the Tooowoomba Show Grounds is the issue of large areas of Public lands (Queens Park) being appropriated for a Commercial event which conflicts with Public School holidays; a large percentage of the park is fenced off and/or used for parking at a time when more families might be interested in using it. |
An argument for the re-location of the whole Festival to the Tooowoomba Show Grounds is the issue of large areas of Public lands (Queens Park) being appropriated for a Commercial event which conflicts with Public School holidays; a large percentage of the park is fenced off and/or used for parking at a time when more families might be interested in using it. |
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The [[Toowoomba]] Mayor, City Council and Queensland State Government are well aware of documented measured excessive 90+ dB(C) noise levels at nearby housing; but the relevant Queensland Noise Laws only specify annoyance noise levels in the musically irrelevant dB(A): the dB(A) scale discounts both low and high frequencies strongly. The noise annoyance footprint has been regularly reported to range |
The [[Toowoomba]] Mayor, City Council and Queensland State Government are well aware of documented measured excessive 90+ dB(C) noise levels at nearby housing; but the relevant Queensland Noise Laws only specify annoyance noise levels in the musically irrelevant dB(A): the dB(A) scale discounts both low and high frequencies strongly. The noise annoyance footprint has been regularly reported to range over 5 Km from Queens Park; the immediate locals experience house rattling and other severe long term annoyances because of the large amount of [[Compression]] and Bass Boost used. Proceedings have been started to correct the scientific inadequacies of the appropriate Queensland legislation (which will eventually affect all Queensland Music Events), as the organisers allegedly do not wish{{Fact|date=December 2007}} to perform a suggested move to the New [[Toowoomba]] Show Grounds, currently located outside residential areas. |
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==Community Benefits== |
==Community Benefits== |
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Revision as of 18:43, 3 January 2008
Easterfest (previously known as AGMF) is held in Toowoomba, Queensland at Easter each year. The organisers claim it to be Australia's most popular Christian pop music event[citation needed], akin to the International Creation Festival or Cornerstone Festival. [citation needed].
The festival was first run in 1999[1], at multiple venues around Toowomba, as opposed to 2001, where most events were held in Queen’s Park [2].
The organisers claim that over 40,000 people overall attended the 3-day music festival in 2005 [3], which the organisers claim to be Australia’s largest drug and alcohol free event [4].
In mid-2007 the organisers announced a name change to "Easterfest"[5], to reflect the current diverse musical styles of the festival, which had long ago left any generally understood resemblance of Traditional Acoustic Gospel Music. To others this was alleged as just an attempt at re-marketing the Festival in order to counter the growing negative local nickname of "Fundy Fest"; because of ongoing issues with anyone within earshot.
The organisers say the change of name to "Easterfest" was to take some of the confusion out of the many broad styles of music and entertainment on offer such as snowboarding, wine tasting and a "Kids Island." The name change is also to help define the event as a festival celebrating the true message of Easter[http://www.easterfest.com.au/2007/09/03/new-name-same-festival/.
The ticket price includes the massive expenses incurred in regularly providing and removing temporary facilities in Queens Park, some of which are already in situ at The New Showgrounds: some of the current temporary facilities are imported from as far away as Wagga Wagga.
The highly popular Festival appears to now be undergoing many similar problems (lack of future expansion space, rising expenses of temporary hire and transport, and potential loss of goodwill among the surrounding nearby locals) due to a long period of highly successful steady growth similar to that which the organisers of the Woodford Folk Festival had, which prompted a decision to move to dedicated grounds in order to avoid their similar problems and expenses.
Community Concerns
The festival is currently held in the middle of Toowoomba's city centre and is closely surrounded on several sides by residential housing, located not far from the original Toowoomba Show Grounds which were closed some years ago for allegedly being too loud for local residential housing[citation needed]. The Toowoomba Chronicle [citation needed] has acknowledged long term noise and illegal parking complaints. The Mother's Memorial surrounding grassy area has now been blocked off during the Festival to prevent some illegal parking which caused damage.
There are local concerns over the large number of people camping in areas with poor facilities. It alleged that a number of those attending a "Drug and Alcohol free" event will leave the grounds to obtain contraband. Locals have expressed concerns to the Toowoomba Council Aldermen about the number of drunk Teenagers in nearby parks.
An argument for the re-location of the whole Festival to the Tooowoomba Show Grounds is the issue of large areas of Public lands (Queens Park) being appropriated for a Commercial event which conflicts with Public School holidays; a large percentage of the park is fenced off and/or used for parking at a time when more families might be interested in using it.
The Toowoomba Mayor, City Council and Queensland State Government are well aware of documented measured excessive 90+ dB(C) noise levels at nearby housing; but the relevant Queensland Noise Laws only specify annoyance noise levels in the musically irrelevant dB(A): the dB(A) scale discounts both low and high frequencies strongly. The noise annoyance footprint has been regularly reported to range over 5 Km from Queens Park; the immediate locals experience house rattling and other severe long term annoyances because of the large amount of Compression and Bass Boost used. Proceedings have been started to correct the scientific inadequacies of the appropriate Queensland legislation (which will eventually affect all Queensland Music Events), as the organisers allegedly do not wish[citation needed] to perform a suggested move to the New Toowoomba Show Grounds, currently located outside residential areas.
Community Benefits
According to an article (which was apparently sourced largely from claims by the Festival organisers) by The Queensland Uniting Church[6], in 2005 the Festival allegedly brought an estimated $6.9 million to the local economy.
According to Cr Schneider of the Toowoomba City Council[7], in 2005 the Festival allegedly brought an estimated $6.9 million to the local economy.
The original alleged research[citation needed] of the alleged $6.9 million finanicial benefit claim is unsourced.
There was allegedly a subsequent report[citation needed] which questioned the validity of the 2005 claimed $6.9 million financial benefit to locals: it claimed to have traced large money flows for equipment and food supplies to many entities which were located outside of Toowoomba.
Since expensive temporary equipment is regularly trucked large distances to the Festival, it is clearly apparent that the regular hiring of some of such temporary facilities provides little financial benefit to the local community, not considering the inherent obvious ecological negativity.
With the upcoming amalgamation of Toowoomba and some of the surrounding Councils, claims that moving the event from the City Centre to the New Showgrounds will 'move it out of Toowoomba' are now negated.
AGMF Past Artists
No information is available for 1999-2004.
AGMF 2005 [citation needed]: included Soulframe, Alabaster Box, Brooke Fraser, Delirious?, Nathan Tasker, Simeon, and SONICFLOOd.
AGMF 2006 [citation needed]: God's Little Rocker, Naarah (singer) from Alabaster Box, Roma Waterman, and the girls from Maverick, the Newsboys, Pillar (band) and Rebecca St. James and others.
AGMF 2007 [citation needed]: Barlow Girl, Blindside, Day of Fire, James Morrison, Jimmy Needham, Michelle Tumes, PlanetShakers, and Superchick. Stacie Orrico was originally scheduled, but canceled her Australian trip. The Lads (replaced by Soulframe) were scheduled, but canceled due to immigration problems.
Projected Artists for 2008
Currently, the advertised artist line-up for 2008 [8] includes Jars of Clay, Newsboys, The Lads, MxPx, Project 86, Alabaster Box, and Antiskeptic.