The organisers of rural camping festival Jungle Love have announced the cancellation of their 2023 iteration, citing ongoing costs and financial struggles.
The festival shared a statement yesterday (February 2) with the title “Let’s go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over” – a reference to the 2004 comedy Shaun of the Dead. In it, they said it was not “financially feasible” for the festival to go ahead, with inflation rates “driving supplier costs up”.
“With the cost of living going up, we understand many people are struggling to justify the expense of a multi-day festival,” it continued. “We’re just not seeing the ticket sales we need to be assured that we can pay for the expense of creating a mini-city for three days.”
The organisers have resolved to “lay low until better economic times”, instead of attempting to “fight this uphill battle” of putting the festival on under the current financial strain. “We’ll be back when we have the confidence that we can make it a success and make the balance sheet work,” they said. “As a small, independent, not-for-profit event, our margins are paper thin, and we can not afford the risk of operating at another loss.”
Organisers went on to thank those that purchased a ticket already, deeming them “absolute legends for backing the festival” and assuring them they will be refunded in full. They concluded their statement by shining the spotlight on other upcoming festivals such as Boogie, Good Times and Woodford Folk Festival.
“We hope our absence this year highlights the support our industry desperately needs right now,” they said. “Since we aren’t going ahead this year, we hope that those who planned to come will instead pick another festival they would like to attend and buy a ticket for it soon. You’ll be doing them a great service by doing so.”
Jungle Love was set to run from April 28 to 30, over the Labor Day Long Weekend, in Jimna – a locality within the Somerset Region of Queensland.
On Tuesday, the Labor government unveiled Revive – its new national cultural policy, which aims to reinvigorate the country’s arts and entertainment sectors. It has received criticism, however, for only totalling $286million in funding – as opposed to the billions of dollars the Labor Party invests in fossil fuels.
Paul Fletcher, the Shadow Arts Minister, has criticised MP Tony Burke and the Revive police for being “not much new, and not much new money”.
“After all the hype, many will have expected much more from this policy,” he said. “In politics, it is generally a good idea to underpromise and overdeliver. With his national cultural policy, Mr. Burke has done the opposite.”