Return to Rio festival calls it quits after 11 years

Another NSW music festival has called it quits, with organisers blaming a 529 per cent increase in police and medical costs they must bear following a 2019 change to the state’s laws.

Return to Rio, a boutique funk, soul and house music festival held at Wisemans Ferry since 2013 is the latest event to be cancelled or abandoned in the face of escalating expenses and the cost-of-living crisis.

“It’s devastating,” said Alex Cooper, who founded the event with husband Ricky. “There needs to be more done for the industry to survive. It’s just financially unviable.”

The announcement will increase pressure on the NSW Labor government, which is reviewing music festival regulations amid a nationwide nadir that has seen Groovin the Moo, Falls and Splendour in the Grass all take a break.

In NSW, festivals deemed high-risk or “subject” events must submit a complex safety management plan that typically requires a bigger police and medical presence, and comes with significant costs that are billed to organisers.

Return to Rio was not held during COVID, or in 2022 due to floods, but when it returned last year, it was deemed a subject festival under the new laws. The Coopers said their police and medical costs increased 529 per cent over 2019 levels as a result. In total, extra costs amounted to $300,000, they said, including planning, infrastructure and harm minimisation services.

Police fees of $110,000 included patrolling officers, a boat on the Hawkesbury River and an on-site compound. There was a similar ratio of police officers to revellers as public schools had teachers to students, Alex said. There were 24 medics and two ambulances on standby, with six medical presentations recorded over three days.

Organisers also had to maintain a separate, staffed control room. “For a few thousand people, we had to have a policeman, a medic, a security guard, a member of the production team, a member of the bar team and they had to stay in the central control room all day,” Ricky said.