Easterfest: Difference between revisions
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==Community Concerns== |
==Community Concerns== |
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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 and other Queen's Park events to prevent continued 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 and other Queen's Park events to prevent continued illegal parking which caused damage. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toowoomba/message/1286) |
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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 community 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 community 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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Then there are the concerns with locals of the abuse of power when those raising concerns about the Festival have been privately and (on one case) publically humiliated. October 04 there was a public meeting about the usage of Queens Park. A (then) local Alderman admitted that the Organisers had re-classified traffic and noise concerns so maintain their claim the there had been no complaints. Strange how several weeks afterward the meeting one main Protestor ended up on the front page of the local Chronicle after the Alderman got up in Council Chambers claiming the protestor's home was the "worst in Toowoomba" (Chronicle Dec 04). The personal result of this caused the death or the Protestor's father as a driect result of the News Story. |
Then there are the concerns with locals of the abuse of power when those raising concerns about the Festival have been privately (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toowoomba/message/1299) and (on one case) publically humiliated. October 04 there was a public meeting about the usage of Queens Park. A (then) local Alderman admitted that the Organisers had re-classified traffic and noise concerns so maintain their claim the there had been no complaints. Strange how several weeks afterward the meeting one main Protestor ended up on the front page of the local Chronicle after the Alderman got up in Council Chambers claiming the protestor's home was the "worst in Toowoomba" (Chronicle Dec 04). The personal result of this caused the death or the Protestor's father as a driect result of the News Story. |
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==Community Benefits== |
==Community Benefits== |
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Revision as of 10:09, 17 January 2008
Claimed by the organisers to be Australia's most popular[citation needed] Christian pop music event, and Australia’s largest drug and alcohol free event[1], Easterfest (previously known as AGMF) is held in Toowoomba, Queensland at Easter each year.
Festival History
The Festival was first run in 1999[2] at multiple venues around Toowoomba: in 2001 most events were held in Queen’s Park[3]. The organisers claim that over 40,000 people overall attended the 3-day music festival in 2005[4]. 20,000 tickets were sold in 2006[1]. The Tamworth Country Music Festival only claimed 50,000 visitors in 2007.
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 well attended Festival is now 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) to the Woodford Folk Festival due to a similar long period of highly successful steady growth which those organisers experienced, prompting a decision to move to dedicated grounds to avoid similar problems and expenses.
Name Change
In mid-2007 the organisers announced a name change to "Easterfest"[2], to reflect the current diverse musical styles of the festival, which no longer resembles Traditional Acoustic Gospel Music. To some 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"[5]; because of ongoing local issues and attitudes. The organisers say the name change to "Easterfest" is to take some of the confusion out of the many broad styles of music and entertainment on offer to paying customers, and help to define the event as a Festival celebrating 'the true message of Easter'[2]: how promised events for 2008 of Snowboarding, Kids Island, and past attractions such as Rodeo Events, and past carnival sideshows contribute to 'the true message of Easter' (spreading the Joy of God and celebrating Him) the organisers have not stated.
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 and other Queen's Park events to prevent continued illegal parking which caused damage. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toowoomba/message/1286)
There are local concerns over the large number of people camping in areas with poor facilities. It is alleged that some attending any "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.
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[6] used. Proceedings have been started to eventually correct in the long term 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.
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 community 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.
Then there are the concerns with locals of the abuse of power when those raising concerns about the Festival have been privately (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toowoomba/message/1299) and (on one case) publically humiliated. October 04 there was a public meeting about the usage of Queens Park. A (then) local Alderman admitted that the Organisers had re-classified traffic and noise concerns so maintain their claim the there had been no complaints. Strange how several weeks afterward the meeting one main Protestor ended up on the front page of the local Chronicle after the Alderman got up in Council Chambers claiming the protestor's home was the "worst in Toowoomba" (Chronicle Dec 04). The personal result of this caused the death or the Protestor's father as a driect result of the News Story.
Community Benefits
A claimed economic impact study based on a survey of over 1,000 attendees claimed to be produced by Dr Rod St Hill from the University of Southern Queensland[citation needed] 2005 said the Festival injected a $6.9 million value added economic input into Toowoomba. An article (apparently sourced largely from Festival organisers' claims) by The Queensland Uniting Church[1], and according to Cr Schneider of the Toowoomba City Council[7], both refer to this.
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
- AGMF 1998[3]: The Festival was officially launched in 1998 at The Empire Theatre with a sold out James Morrison concert.
- AGMF 1999-2004: No information is available.
- AGMF 2005[citation needed]: included Soulframe, Alabaster Box, Brooke Fraser, Delirious?, Nathan Tasker, Simeon, and SONICFLOOd.
- GMF 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 2008
- Advertised for 2008[8]: Jars of Clay, Newsboys, The Lads, MxPx, Project 86, Alabaster Box, and Antiskeptic.
References
- ^ a b c Mullan, Catherine (2006-04-19). "'AGMF- it's the vibe - Journey'" (html). Queensland Uniting Church. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c linda (2007-09-07). "Easterfest 08 » NEW NAME SAME FESTIVAL" (html, richmedia). Easterfest 2008 ABN 22081680275. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Photiou, Marie (2007-10-19). "'Brisbane Media Map - Easterfest'" (html). Queensland University of Technology. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Smith, Phil (2005-03-29). "'Australian Gospel Music Festival - ABC Queensland'" (html, Realmedia). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ The Chronicle: Letters To The Editor - various dates
- ^ Peters, Cathy (2007-11-24). "RN Into The Music 24 November 2007 - The Bottom End" (html). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Baker, Daniel (2006-04-04). "Toowoomba City Council Home - Queens Park being watered for AGMF" (html, Javascript). Toowoomba City Council. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Easterfest 2008 ABN 22081680275 (undated). "Easterfest 08 » Artists - AGMF, Australian Music, Music Festival, Easter 2008, Toowoomba, Gospel Music, Easterfest, Christian Music" (html, Javascript, Flashmedia). Easterfest 2008 ABN 22081680275. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)