News
14 January, 2025
Festival fights for its future
Organisers of the iconic Woodford Folk Festival say they were thrilled to have staged the biggest festival in Australia last year, despite a slight fall in attendance on the previous event.
Festival director Amanda Jackes told The Sentinel that patron numbers were down 2 per cent in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24, with 96,000 attending across the five days.
Poor patron numbers in the prior year resulted in a significant financial hole for organisers, who put out a rally cry late last year following continued slow ticket sales.
Despite the lower patronage, the 2024/25 festival was still the largest music festival in Australia, Ms Jackes said.
Ms Jackes emphasised Woodfordia, the not-for-profit owner of the folk festival, was still “close to meeting financial goals,” having been able to meet all expenses and begin to rebuild reserves.
“When you consider the recent challenges of the festival sector, with almost half of all festivals cancelling and the half that go ahead making a loss, we are very pleased with the support of our community and the success of the festival this year,” Ms Jackes said.
“Importantly, through the infrastructure funding, we will be able to utilise the land assets more and reduce annual hire expenses.”
This comes as Woodfordia has launched a bold $5.7 million fundraising campaign, called Forest of Goodwill, to reclaim its historic festival site from the City of Moreton Bay by July 2026.
Festival organisers are rallying public support, offering donors of $1,000 or more the chance to become founding patrons of the newly envisioned Woodfordia Foundation, having already raised over $800,000.
Following the 2010/11 floods, City of Moreton Bay purchased the “land only” value of the property, with a buy-back clause set to expire in 2036.
The lease agreement is for the unimproved land value only, not the $20 million plus assets and improvements on the land.
According to Ms Jackes, to protect both the land and the assets, they both need to be secured in a trust.
“Securing the land and improvements in trust would contribute to the sustainability of Woodfordia, with Woodfordia secure and debt free for all future generations,” she said.
“The partnership with Council enabled Woodfordia to use the funds from the sale of the land only to Council to undertake the repairs to the site and outstanding event invoices from the 2010/11 flood-affected Woodford Folk Festival.
“The weather in December 2010 saw our attendance decrease by a staggering 22 per cent. This was unprecedented for us, as previously weather-impacted events had only decreased in attendance by up to 6 per cent.”
Council benefited from the buy by ensuring the Woodford Folk Festival could continue, delivering over $20 million annually to the region. Since 2011, over $200 million in economic impact has been delivered.
According to Ms Jackes, the pandemic in 2020 interrupted Woodfordia’s plans of launching the fundraiser sooner, with them now being past the halfway mark of the 25-year buyback clause, making the launch now an “appropriate time.”
“Securing Woodfordia in a trust will contribute to the sustainability of Woodfordia and enable us to focus on new low-risk business opportunities that would have different income streams to high-risk event incomes,” she said.
Examples of this include hiring the site to external events and the development of a renewable energy business.
“At the heart of the Woodford Folk Festival and The Planting is a celebration of community, creativity, nature, and connection,” she said.
“It’s about creating moments of joy, understanding, and mutual support—planting seeds for stronger, more connected communities long after the festivities have ended.”
A Council spokesperson said Council “wishes Woodfordia well in their fundraising endeavours” and supports their decision to explore options within the lease arrangement.
“We’re proud to have been heavily involved with that history by investing in both the Woodfordia site and the Folk Festival,” they said.
