While Australia bustles with a variety of arts and cultural events, stunning music festivals, and live music shows, the burgeoning challenges of keeping up with rapid climate change have threatened the very core of the live music scene in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This comes a few shy years after bearing the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to the partial or permanent cancellation of a number of music festivals and the closure of venues. In addition to this, the cost of living crisis, rise in transport and supply costs, insurance premiums, and more are leading to higher ticket prices. Small and medium licensed venues have already seen closures, with a whopping 1,300<\/a> of them being shut since 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The inveterate and looming consequences of climate change take a toll on venues, artists, and the live music scene in Australia, affecting outdoor music festivals and threatening the sustainability of artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Due to climate change, Australia has been experiencing more extreme weather events such as heat waves, intense rainfalls, droughts, floods, and more. There has also been a shift in weather patterns, with changing rainfall trends resulting in heavy short-term rainfall. A survey was conducted wherein 1155 live music gig attendees were interviewed for Green Music Australia\u2019s report ‘Rain, Heat, Repeat: How Music Fans Are Experiencing Extreme Weather,’ co-authored by Associate Professor Catherine Strong, Dr. Todd Denham, Dr. Lauren Rickards, and Dr. Ben Green. The study found<\/a> \u201c85% of festival-goers have experienced what they considered to be extreme weather at a music festival in the past 12 months, rising to 88% in NSW & ACT and 87% in QLD.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nClimate Change in Australia <\/h2>\n\n\n\n