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Category: Carnivals and Festivals / Arts and Entertainment / Music Industry

Southbound music festival moving to December

Tuesday, 1 Mar 2016 10:51:31 | Nicole Asher

The Southbound music festival draws in crowds of around 15,000 people. (Supplied: Southbound)

WA's biggest music festival Southbound has been moved from January to December after promoters were forced to cancel this year's concert as bushfires swept through parts of the South-West.

The fires claimed two lives, destroyed more than 160 properties in the shires of Harvey and Wiluna and forced the closure of roads between Perth and the South-West.

Southbound has been running in Busselton every January since 2005, but from this summer the three-day festival will be held from December 27 to 29.

Those dates will be fixed each year, with this year's event starting on a Tuesday.

Sunset Events managing director and promoter Dave Chitty said the festival was rescheduled following discussions with the local council and other stakeholders.

He said the festival's dates had been a little flexible in the past depending on the dates of the eastern states-based Falls Festival, as many artists appear there before travelling to WA for Southbound.

"As a result of that we're now often on the second weekend of January," Mr Chitty said.

"And we find with the second weekend of January that a lot of people have finished that whole Christmas and New Year's Eve period they've gone back to work and it's a bit harder to get them to come back down.

"We were noticing when we were on the first weekend of January when everyone's still down there the numbers were higher.

"So we felt it would be better to have consistent dates year in year out rather than having alternating weekends and also in that sweet spot when everyone is on holidays and free to attend."

New festive season dates 'make good sense'

The City of Busselton said the switch to the same days in December every year would make it easier to plan other events in the area and to maintain Bovell Oval, where Southbound is held.

City of Busselton Mayor Grant Henley said the Council had considered the relative pros and cons and decided that it made good sense to host Southbound on the same three days in between Christmas and New Year each year.

"We understand that it also works better for local police in terms of resourcing during the busy summer season," he said.

"Having the same dates every year will mean that all parties, including nearby residents, will always know when the festival is going to be held without having to wait for the official announcement."

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