Sweeping reforms in New South Wales aim to make it easier for venues to host music festivals and gigs for teenagers.<\/p>\n
Venues like Sydney’s Metro Theatre would regularly host events for under 18s before the COVID pandemic dealt the music industry a crippling blow.<\/p>\n
The NSW scene has faced a number of other challenges over the years, including now-repealed venue lockout laws which made it unattractive for acts to perform in the state.<\/p>\n
The state government has now introduced what it has described as a “world first” bill to support the live music scene.<\/p>\n
Under the legislation, the approach to measuring event noise would be changed to stop one-off spikes triggering fines for venues.<\/p>\n The new legislation includes changes to the way noise is measured at events like music festivals. (Image by\u00a0Mike Wall<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a><\/span>)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n There would also be a tailored support system for live venues, and protections to prevent unfair fees or bias against certain types of music.<\/p>\n It is hoped the changes will rejuvenise the all-ages live music scene, with a $500,000 dedicated fund offering grants of up to $100,000.<\/p>\n It is proposed the funding will help venues cover the cost of booking, staging and presenting a minimum of three all-ages live music experiences each year.<\/p>\n The lockout laws in NSW significantly impacted the live music scene when introduced in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n It aimed to tackle alcohol-fuelled violence, by requiring venues in certain areas to implement a 1:30am lockout and stop serving drinks by 3am.<\/p>\n According to data collected by music body APRA ACMOS in 2016, the laws led to a 40 per cent decline in live music revenue within the lockout zones.\u00a0<\/p>\n The laws were also blamed for the closure of numerous live music venues, further disrupting the music scene until they were eventually repealed in January.<\/p>\n Metro Theatre chief executive Sam Nardo welcomed the changes.<\/p>\n “It’s a really encouraging time to be a live music operator in New South Wales,” he said.<\/p>\n “In the past we were running programs specifically for under 18s\u2026 COVID put an end to that, and we’ve had to focus our efforts on that 18 to 25-year-old cohort,” he said.<\/p>\n Sam Nardo says the Metre Theatre all but stopped its program for under 18s after COVID. (ABC News: Greg Bigelow<\/span>)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n “This announcement today potentially provides us that opportunity to fast-track those sorts of programs.”<\/p>\n Mr Nardo said difficulties faced by the live music industry had in the past meant losing out on great talent to Melbourne and Brisbane.<\/p>\n “We’ve never really seen that level of recognition before, so we’re excited to see what comes next,” he said.<\/p>\n “Hopefully, that means that we’re a scene of choice for musicians and bands.“<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Minister for Music and the Night-time Economy, John Graham, said the state government was committed to improving NSW’s poor reputation within the live music industry.<\/p>\n “We nearly lost it all together with the lockouts and then the COVID lockdowns, and this legislation is really about backing it for the long term,” he said.<\/p>\n “New South Wales has had a reputation of being the worst when it comes to all-ages gigs across the country.”<\/p>\n For musicians, the changes were important not only to be provided with more performance opportunities, but to make events accessible to all ages.<\/p>\n Dave Symes and John Hart, who play together in the band Boy and Bear, said they tried to cater their shows for everyone.<\/p>\n Boy and Bear’s John Hart and Dave Symes want their music to be enjoyed by people of all ages. (ABC News: Greg Bigelow<\/span>)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n “There’s something very special about it and I think it’s amazing for the next generation to have those experiences and there might be musicians in the crowd,” Mr Symes said.<\/p>\n “When you see parents and kids enjoying the same music together. I think it’s pretty special,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mr Hart added.<\/span><\/div>\n “I had that with my parents. I went and saw Elton John and Billy Joel at the Sydney Cricket Ground sometime in the 90s.”<\/p>\n Mr Graham said the live music legislation also promised to provide better protection for festivals when it came to noise restrictions.<\/p>\n He said previous noise regulations could mean a “festival has to shut down or is penalised” if a gust of wind causes sound to carry.<\/p>\n John Graham says NSW has a poor reputation within the live music industry. (ABC News: Greg Bigelow<\/span>)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n “We’re moving to an average way of measuring. It just gives them a little bit more flexibility\u2026 and the good news is that’ll allow them to cut their costs,” he said.<\/p>\n “This doesn’t affect the loudness itself, that’s a separate measurement, but what it does is give certainty for a lot of these festivals in big outdoor places.”<\/p>\n Mr Graham said he hoped the changes would drive ticket prices down for fans.<\/p>\n Adele Robinson says festival-goers can expect to enjoy improved sound quality. (ABC News: Greg Bigelow<\/span>)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The Australian Festivals Association chair Adele Robinson said people could expect to have better sound quality at shows.<\/p>\n “It’ll improve the way that it’s measured while also obviously protecting residents for disturbances as well,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.abc.net.au \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sweeping reforms in New South Wales aim to make it easier for venues to host music festivals and gigs for teenagers. Venues like Sydney’s Metro Theatre would regularly host events for under 18s before the COVID pandemic dealt the music industry a crippling blow. The NSW scene has faced a number of other challenges over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2279996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[441540,25098,22477,441541,328448,432166,362559,441542,435391],"class_list":["post-2279995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-all-ages-music","tag-australian-music","tag-live-music","tag-live-music-industry","tag-live-music-venues","tag-nsw-news","tag-sydney-live-music","tag-sydney-metro-theatre","tag-sydney-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Support-for-all-ages-performances-among-changes-proposed-for-NSWs-live.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2279995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2279997,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279995\/revisions\/2279997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2279995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2279995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2279995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Encouraging time’ for live music<\/h2>\n
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Bringing generations together<\/h2>\n
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Changes for the festival scene<\/h2>\n
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