EXCLUSIVE
St Jerome's Laneway Festival, which has approval to increase capacity in seven of the eight cities it will visit in 2014, faces its only refusal at the hands of Leichhardt Council.
Another day, another drama for the besieged music festival sector.
One of Australia's few expanding music festivals, the hipster-focused St Jerome's Laneway event, could find its ambitions thwarted in Sydney by conservation group Friends of Callan Park, despite having the nod from the NSW Police.
The festival, which has approval to increase capacity in seven of the eight cities (in three countries) it will visit in 2014, faces its only refusal at the hands of Leichhardt Council on Tuesday over the existing site, in the grounds of the Sydney College of the Arts.
Organisers have lodged a development application to increase its maximum attendance from 8000 to 12,500 fans for the Sunday February 2, 2014 event. Headline acts confirmed include Kiwi pop sensation Lorde, the rising American sister act Haim, rapper Earl Sweatshirt and Jamie from The xx, alongside Australian bands The Jezabels and Jagwar Ma.
Four of Leichhardt Council's 12 councillors are believed to be members of Friends of Callan Park, although the group's spokesman Hall Greenland says it does not instruct members on how to vote.
Mr Greenland says he has no problem with the festival staying in the park, with an audience capped at 8000 – otherwise it should find a new home.
"The key is the size of the event, it's growing and it's obviously very popular so good luck to the musicians and the promoters but there has to be a question as to whether Callan Park is a suitable venue for 12,500 people. There are other music venues around that are not considered heritage landscapes that are probably more suitable."
"Parts [of the park] like the Sunken Gardens are very fragile... that in particular is something that 12,500 fans would put at risk. That is the size of [a crowd in the] Entertainment Centre."
But Danny Rogers, St Jerome's Laneway Festival co-promoter, says he's taken all the same steps as those that were successful in Detroit, Singapore, Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Fremantle. Melbourne's Footscray Community Arts Centre has the largest Laneway attendance and will grow from 12,000 this year to 15,000 in 2014.
"I don't really know what all the commotion is about [in Sydney]," Mr Rogers told Fairfax Media.
"We've had an independent assessment commissioned [for the increase], we've got the approval of the NSW Police and the Sydney College of the Arts [whose grounds host the festival] and a lot of support from its Dean, Colin Rhodes. To suddenly have a small minority of people say you need a smaller capacity makes zero sense.
"I have no interest in being oversubscribed – that would work against us and compromise the festival's integrity."
The main changes on site would involve pushing the main stage back towards Balmain Road and increasing the numbers of food stalls, bars and toilets.
Mr Rogers says if the capacity increase is knocked back by Leichhardt Council, Laneway would probably still go ahead in Callan Park, at least in 2014.
"That would be tremendously disappointing and a shame because people have fallen in love with the space [but] we'd have to consider our options for future events."
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