Greens MP questions NSW Govt over funding to KKR-linked festivals Listen Out & Field Day
Cate Faehrmann posed questions to NSW's Minister for Music John Graham on his government's 'Music Festival Viability Fund'.
NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann has today questioned the NSW Government’s dedication to supporting locally run music festivals, over its decision to award KKR-linked festivals Listen Out and Field Day with support funding.
In September of 2024, NSW’s Minister for Music John Graham announced the ‘Music Festivals Amendment Bill’, designed to address “the regulatory framework (which) would benefit from a closer focus on harm reduction, industry sustainability, and ensuring costs for festivals in NSW are at a level comparable to other states, while still prioritising health and safety at festival events."
In applying for the ‘Music Festivals Viability Fund’, a pool of $3 million AUD, the government outlined a series of criteria for successful applicants. These included the need to be over 15,000 capacity in size, be presented in NSW, and that a successful festival “is Australian-owned or has part international ownership.”
In April of 2025, the NSW Government announced the recipients of these festivals, which included: Bluesfest, Lost Paradise, Yours And Owls, Listen Out and Field Day. These recipients received funding for their events, which had taken place since September 2024, up to $500,000 to “help ease some of the pressures that organisers may be facing.”
Today, Cate Faehrmann called into question the NSW government’s decision to award up to $500,000 each to Listen Out and Field Day, given that both are listed alongside Harbourlife as being festivals within the portfolio of global live entertainment company Superstruct Entertainment.
Faehrmann explained that Superstruct holds all shares of Fuzzy Projects, a company belonging to the festival’s promoter Fuzzy. Superstruct holds a portfolio of over 85 festivals worldwide, including Sónar Festival, Sziget, Brunch Electronik, as well as streaming platform and promoter Boiler Room.
“Minister, is it appropriate for $1 million of taxpayers’ money to be spent on music festivals which are majority owned by international conglomerates with links to military investments?” she asked.
In June of last year, Superstruct was purchased by global investment firm KKR Investments for $2.1 billion AUD. KKR’s investments in weapons manufacturing, the controversial Coastal GasLink Pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in Canada and Israeli companies that operate in Occupied Palestinian Territories have been the fuel for growing calls to boycott KKR-linked events worldwide, which Faehrmann referred to in her questions.
Fuzzy’s involvement with Superstruct began in 2018, while Superstruct’s acquisition by KKR Investments happened in June of 2024.
Minister John Graham began his response by mentioning that his government is “deeply committed to bringing music back right across NSW.” He then went on to describe that the historical and recent loss of venues and festivals has been the result of the cost of touring and the cost of living impacting ticket sales, and that the festivals that received funding were “able to illustrate that they do actually have a live fiscal problem as they’re trying to operate.”
To Faehrmann’s concerns about Fuzzy's links to investment firm KKR and its military investments, the Minister responded that this was not a consideration in screening festivals, saying: "There are strict guidelines in place for this program... Those guidelines don’t go to ties to defence programs. These decisions, as they come through the agencies, will not have taken that into account."
The Minister went on to comment on the government’s stance on internationally owned organisations receiving funding, saying, “in some of these programs, we have taken into account the fact that with some of the assistance we’re giving, we are distinguishing between wholly international entities and entities that have a footprint in Australia. There is an issue with the international companies around the world reaching into this country and other countries, and the ways they’re intervening in local music markets.”
One of Fuzzy’s directors, Adelle Robinson, is the Chair of the board of the Australian Festivals Association, which advocated for the ‘Music Festivals Amendment Bill’ and resulted in the ‘Music Festivals Viability Fund’. Robinson is, as of May this year, also the Chair of the Sound NSW Advisory Board, the organisation that assists in selecting recipients for the ‘Music Festivals Viability Fund’, and was not a member of the board when grants were allocated to Listen Out and Field Day. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Biennale of Sydney.
In May of this year, founder and creative director of Fuzzy, John Wall, announced that he was leaving the company, sharing on LinkedIn: “A massive thanks to James and Roderick from Superstruct, who invited Fuzzy to be one of the first companies to join them,” he shared.
Mixmag ANZ is not alleging corrupt behaviour by Adelle Robinson or Fuzzy in her role in these organisations.
While plans for Field Day have not yet been made clear, Listen Out is likely no longer a festival under the eligibility criteria of the ‘Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund’, announcing in July that it will pivot into focusing on “one-off, carefully curated parties in killer locations around Australia all year long.” Given the fund’s design “to grow and support the live music ecosystem in NSW,” Listen Out’s pivot away from running as a festival raises questions about whether this funding would have been more impactful supporting a festival likely to operate the following year.
Fuzzy has, since the allocation of these grants, also been awarded the rights to run two key events in NSW, those being a New Year’s Eve festival on Bondi Beach, and a five-year license to run the Bondi Beach Party during the Sydney Mardi Gras, the latter of which was not granted to Sydney Mardi Gras.
Faehrmann’s questions to Parliament highlight a growing concern around investment in music, which is spreading far beyond musically inclined communities.
In April of this year, Vivid Sydney’s partnership with Airbnb, which has been identified as a target for boycott by the non-violent Palestinian-led movement BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), saw a number of artists, promoters and speakers pull out from the Vivid lineup.
This culminated in a variety of members of the Vivid lineup signing an open letter calling for Vivid to drop its Airbnb partnership, and two shows taking place at Carriageworks pulled out of Vivid entirely, removing its branding from every aspect of their events.
Read: Andy Garvey, Moktar & Sleep D formally cut ties with Vivid in act of Pro-Palestinian solidarity
So too, activists have continued to boycott other Superstruct-owned events, with Boiler Room’s slated appearance in São Paulo cancelled by the promoter this last weekend, and 14 artists recently withdrawing from KKR-linked Netherlands-based Milkshake Festival.
With organisers sharing that close to 300,000 people marched over the Sydney Harbour Bridge this last Sunday, it’s clear that world events are growing more relevant than ever in Australia. Faehrmann’s questions to the NSW Government are only the latest example of this, but a huge milestone in how it relates to local music culture.
Following Faehrmann’s supplementary question, where she pressed the Minister on his confidence that the eligibility guidelines for the ‘Contemporary Music Festival Viability Fund’ were being met in regard to festivals being partly or wholly Australian-owned, the Minister responded with, “I wasn’t aware of some of the specifics that the member has put in the house in relation to the ownership. So, I’m certainly happy to take that part of the question on notice and get some additional details.
I do think this is a legitimate distinction to make. It is one that the government is interested in making, and of course it’s one that we’re always interested in being open to adjusting as things develop in this area of the economy.”
Mixmag ANZ has reached out to Fuzzy for comment.
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Jack Colquhoun is Mixmag ANZ's Managing Editor, find him on Instagram.
