Farmer & The Owl festival set to go on despite NSW licencing laws

With only four days until the festival goes underway at Woolongong’s McCabe Park on Saturday 2 March, the organisers of the event have reassured punters that the festival, which features the likes of Beach House, Hockey Dad, Deafheaven, J Mascis, Snail Mail, Stella Donnelly and more, will not be significantly impacted by the policies of the NSW Government, which has caused significant uproar from Australia’s wider music community in the past few weeks.

However, it appears that getting the festival to go forward wasn’t an easy task for the event team at Farmer & The Owl, with details of the State Government’s perplexingly inconsistent approach to festival safety regulations being pinpointed in a sassed-out tongue-in-cheek statement released today.

According to Farmer & The Owl, the festival was informed only three weeks out from the event that their current licence approval was no longer valid and they would have to apply for a new one – only to be told last Friday (at 10pm, nonetheless) that their original licence approval had been reinstated. Furthermore, the festival claims that the Government also classified Farmer & The Owl that the festival would be classified as a High Risk event under their new licencing policies; however, they would not reveal why or how it would effect the event and its operating budget.

Bizzarely, the High Risk classification was also retracted by the State Government last week, which goes to show that these guys have absolutely no idea about anything that they’re doing in cabinet.

Farmer & The Owl have also hinted that this year may be their last while operating in NSW, stating “If you want to get a taste of Farmer and The Owl Festival and this incredible line up, make your way to Wollongong this Saturday…. If you snooze on this one, you may find yourself having to plan a road trip to VIC or QLD to partake next year…. viva la nanny state!“

Oooft. Take that one, NSW. Check out the lineup for Farmer & The Owl, and make sure to grab last release tickets before the festival kicks off on Saturday here.