Easterfest
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].
The organisers announced in mid-2007 that the name would 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 seen 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 on offer, and help to define the event as a festival celebrating the true message of Easter[6], but it is unclear how promised events for 2008 of Snowboarding, Kids Island, and past attractions such as Rodeo Events, a $10 a head Flower and Wine Festival, and carnival sideshows contribute to 'the true message of Easter'.
The ticket price includes the massive expenses incurred in regularly providing and removing temporary facilities in Queens Park, many of which are already in situ at The New Showgrounds: some of the temporary facilities are imported from as far away as Wagga Wagga.
The 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 residental 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 is a common fact that a number of those attending most "Drug and Alcohol free" events 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.
Another 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. This issue increases when one realises that the event conflicts with Public School holidays. Meaning a large percentage of the park is fenced - or used for parking - at a time were 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 agressively over 5 Km from Queens Park; the immediate locals regularly experience house rattling and other severe long term annoyances because of the excessive amount of Compression and Bass Boost used. Proceedings have been started to correct the scientific inadequacies of the appropriate legislation (which will eventually affect all Queensland Music Events), as the organisers have been apparently unwilling for financial and other reasons[citation needed] to perform a suggested move to the New Toowoomba Show Grounds currently located outside residental areas.
Community Benefits
According to an article (which was apparently sourced largely from claims by the Festival organisers) by The Queensland Uniting Church[7], in 2005 the Festival allegedly brought an estimated $6.9 million to the local economy: the original source[citation needed] and validity of the alleged $6.9 million finanical benefit claim is unclear.
According to Cr Schneider of the Toowoomba City Council[8], in 2005 the Festival allegedly brought an estimated $6.9 million to the local economy: the original source[citation needed] and validity of the alleged $6.9 million finanical benefit claim is unclear.
There was a 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 equpiment 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 such temporary facilities provides little financial benefit to the local community, not considering the inherent obvious ecological negativity.
1999 - 2004
No information available.
2005
In 2005, there were acts [citation needed] including Soulframe, Alabaster Box, Brooke Fraser, Delirious?, Nathan Tasker, Simeon, and SONICFLOOd.
2006
AGMF 2006 [citation needed] partnered with God's Little Rocker to provide a girls' only party featuring Rebecca St. James, Naarah (singer) from Alabaster Box, Roma Waterman, and the girls from Maverick. Performances from major artists at the 2006 AGMF included the Newsboys, Pillar (band) and Rebecca St. James along with many others.
2007
Headline artists for 2007 included: [citation needed] Barlow Girl, Blindside, Day of Fire, James Morrison, Jimmy Needham, Michelle Tumes, PlanetShakers, Superchick, and Soulframe. Stacie Orrico was originally set to perform, but she later cancelled her trip to Australia. The Lads were also scheduled to perform, but had to cancel their show due to immigration problems, Soulframe took their place.
2008
So far, the artist line-up for 2008 [9] includes Jars of Clay, Newsboys, The Lads, MxPx, Project 86, Alabaster Box, and Antiskeptic among many others.