The Australian Blues Music Festival - Example

Project Design: The Australian Blues Music Festival For the love of Australian Blues Music and legitimate desire to increase the level of visitation to the Goulburn District, particularly in times when its numbers were usually low, Tattersalls Hotel’s Richard Simmer and local publican George and Maryanne Lipman founded the Australian Blues Music Festival in 1997. However, due to the rising cost of infrastructure for the Festival, they sold it to the Goulburn City Council in 1999. Since then the event format has changed to a multi-venue festival celebrated in different areas throughout the Goulburn historic Central Business District (CBD) that includes, pubs, clubs, cafes, and the breathtaking Belmore Park. It is held annually on the second weekend in February with opening ceremonies at the Tattersalls Hotel and performances commencing on the Thursday night with the independently owned and run Australia Blues Music ‘Chain’ Awards. The Festival highlights the finest upcoming and legendary blues performers around Australia and features workshops with artist, amp and vintage guitar shop, markets, and the All star Pro Jam as the festival closing climax (GMCTD 2007, History Page). Since the Goulburn Mulwaree Council owns the festival, the objective is primarily to promote the Goulburn City area as tourism or as a desirable visitor destination for the benefit of the community and business (GMC Management Plan 2006, p.128). The 2007 Australian Blues Music Festival, resolved and approved by the Goulburn Mulwaree Council last August 15, 2006, will push through according to the management strategy set out in the 2007-2010 Business Plans (GMC EDTACC 2006, p.10). The Goulburn Mulwaree Council objective is to generate a 5% increase in visitations and a 10% increase in the average visitor length of stay. They also want to encourage and increase local businesses participation in the success of the newly formed Visitor Information Centre activities and to have a product sales range increased by 10th in 2007. In this regard, they aimed to increase the Australian Blues Music Festival Tickets issuance by 15% and to replace the $20,000 government grant by sponsorship coming from the private sector. More importantly, they are targeting above 80% customer satisfaction rating for all events and festivals (GMC Management Plan 2006, p.144). Officially opened to the public on February 8, 2007 at the Tattersals Hotel, the festival continue to entertain visitors up to the 11th with various Blues artist performing in different official venue in the CBD such Astor Hotel, Belmore Park, Centro Goulburn, Goulburn Club, Goulburn Railway Bowling Club, Goulburn Workers Club, Hibernian Hotel, Lerida Estate Winery, and the Lieder Theatre. Aside from performing Blues artist, the Festival includes a variety of market stalls or “Blue City Bazaar” located at the Montague Street adjacent to the Belmore Park. A great hit since 2004, the Zone of Tone Vintage Guitar Shop, a collection of great old blues guitar and amps from the 1930 to the modern era also joined the market street. Available in selected restaurants in the area, busking opportunities is open for other artist including the “open mic’ jam at the Goulburn Club. For the public and children, free entertainment and activities in the Belmore Park is available throughout the festival. At the corner of Bourke and Verner Street, various workshops were held at the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium. At a fee of $5, participants learn the rudiments of slide guitar and song writing from 8 Ball Aitken, a Far North Queensland roots guitarist and singer. They also take advantage of learning Didgeridoo rhythms and techniques from Matt Gresham and the fundamentals of fiddle, accordion, and percussions from famous artist Allez-Gator. At the Goulburn Club, Mark Salter of Merewether Fats and Kings Biscuit Blues Band, a professional harmonica player and teacher, explains the different essential techniques in playing traditional blues such as acoustic, Chicago electric, and guitar and harp (GMCTD 2007, Market and Workshop page). The City of Goulburn located in the scenic Southern Tablelands of New South Wales is providing a blend of city facilities and a country lifestyle. Over the past 170 years, the city has been the centre of diverse activity and recognized for its stability. The Goulburn Australian Blues Music Festival since its foundation in 1997 has earned the reputation as National Festival of Australian Blues Music. It has attracted the support of the Australian Blues Music industry, appreciation societies, patrons, and volunteers. Through the effort of the Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee and the Events, Marketing, and Promotion Group, the establishment of the Visitor Information Centre and partnership with the national tourism industry contributes to the profitable business environment in the area. This is inline with the Goulburn City council vision of sustaining a vibrant community, protecting, enhancing, and enjoying their rich social, environmental, and economic heritage. They are firmly focused in moving head in into the future through a clear strategic directions set to position the area as one of the leading regional centres of New South Wales. One of the six key goals in the 2007 to 2012 Corporate Plan that would be the basis of the Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s strategic and operational policies is building a strong economy. In this goal, the key issues include the diversity of businesses and industries, employment opportunities for all sectors, business growth, value adding to existing businesses and industries, and the council’s role and participation (GMC Corporate Plan 2007, p.1). Since the Festival was handed over to the Goulburn Mulwaree Council in 1999, the council set itself as the lead organization committed to its stakeholders, visitors, and its citizens. Their goals include corporate planning, efficient customer services, and incorporation of best practices into their business activities, human resources, and governance. To ensure the fulfilment of these goals their planning framework took into account accessibility, transparency, and openness to the public. Therefore, they conduct community consultation and encourage them to participate in the annual events and festival. Consultations include matters where there is known considerable divergence of views and use them in the decision-making process. Community inclusion and involvement seeks various valuable contributions made through community member’s participation. The council is also aware that these endeavours maybe subject to economic constraints and budget considerations thus a committee was formed to ensure financial sustainability and legislative compliance. Internal Audit and regulatory control is also major concern to ensure smooth financial flow and transparency. The council has also undertaken a community survey in 2006 to ascertain the views of its community regarding the importance and satisfaction of service delivery. Finally, to sustain high-level of performance, constant evaluation, monitoring, and reporting were incorporated in the strategic planning outline (GMC Corporate Plan 2007, p.3) The pre-Festival promotional events launched on February 3 and 4 received strong positive support and interest from all sectors of such as the blues music industry, media (foreign, national, and local), local business, the community, and patrons. Following the management model set out for the 2007-2010 Business Plan provides a more efficient use of staff time and resources. Ticket sales were encouraging and expenditures have been reduced by minimizing cost through various in-kind sponsorship and partnership arrangements. Some local business who are also official venues for the Festival contributed by sponsoring sound and lighting production at their area while Fender Australia and Goulburn Music Centre provided the backline equipment for the main stage and sound and lighting production for the free community stage in Belmore Park respectively. More importantly, aside from the official website, the Festival’s 200-2010 Business Plan’s direct marketing approach to Festival’s subscribers is one of the major communication channels supplemented by additional advertising and publicity in the industry and tourism. In addition, posters and other promotional print such as brochures, stickers, coasters, highway signage, banners, and business window display throughout Goulburn Central Business District helps to raise interest and create an atmosphere of confidence and enthusiasm. Lastly, since it is recognized as a National Festival of Australian Blues Music, the Goulburn event benefits from the national media coverage (GMC EDTACC, 2007, p.10-19). The report on the official outcome of the 11th Australian Blues Music Festival held on 8-11 February 2007 has been generally constructive and extremely positive. Undeniably, the 2007 Festival received wider representation in the media than the preceding years. This is evident in the overwhelming media attendance from TV, Radio, and web and print. The reason for such enthusiasm is the Festival’s particular emphasis on emerging talents, which media and blues societies are interested in order to discover new talents. Furthermore, the fact that the Goulburn’s Festival is the only festivals that have not been “watered down” to be a general music festival, has earned the support of the media and the industry. There is an estimated 500 to 700 additional festival attendance this year and the benefits of the festival were evident across many local businesses as visitor expenditures throughout the weekend were widespread in and out of the official venues. However, although the Festival is generally a success, the delayed approval for the 2007 event to proceed did have some negative impact on the availability of some previous regular venues that result into more free venues used this year than usual. The delayed approval also reduced sponsorship opportunities and increased the number of free venues that made it possible to anyone to see performances without buying a ticket. Weather and other issues including sound production were the primary source of participant’s dissatisfaction and will be address in the 2008 festival planning. The Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s strategic festival planning obviously failed to account on the impacts of delay on ticket sales and probably miscalculated the technical aspects of the events. Although there were many project management activities done such as planning, analysis, and design of objectives and events, resource allocation, issues management, stakeholder’s inclusion, and directing each activity, the council missed the opportunity to take account of controlling the enormous risk involved in such a big event. Plan 2007 to 2012 Reference List GMCTD, 2007, Australian Blues Music Festival, Goulburn Mulwaree Council Tourism Department, Goulburn Visitor Information Centre, 201 Sloane Street, Goulburn NSW 2580, online, http://www.australianbluesfestival.com.au/ GMC Corporate Plan, 2007, Goulburn Mulwaree Council Corporate Plan for 2007-2012, Civic Centre, 184 - 194 Bourke Street, Goulburn GMC EDTACC, 2006, Economic Development & Tourism Advisory Committee Council Chambers, Civic Centre, 184 - 194 Bourke Street, Goulburn GMC Management Plan, 2006, Tourism, Goulburn Mulwaree Council, Goulburn Visitor Information Centre, 201 Sloane Street, Goulburn NSW 2580 GMC Management Plan, 2007, Goulburn Mulwaree Council Management Plan for 2006 to 2007, Goulburn Visitor Information Centre, 201 Sloane Street, Goulburn NSW 2580 GMC EDTACC-Report, 2007, Economic Development & Tourism Advisory Committee Council Chambers: Item 4- 2007 Australian Blues Music Festival Outcomes, Civic Centre, 184 - 194 Bourke Street, Goulburn GMC EDTACC, 2007, Economic Development & Tourism Advisory Committee Council Chambers: Item 9- 2007 Australian Blues Music Festival Report, Civic Centre, 184 - 194 Bourke Street, Goulburn Read More