Why big music acts are shunning Canberra

ACT government officials gave evidence to a public hearing into Australia's live music industry on Friday.

The inquiry is part of the federal government's efforts to revive the country's struggling arts and music sector, which has been grappling with the impacts of high inflation and a spate of venue closures brought on by COVID-19.

It comes after festival organisers abruptly called off popular music festivals Splendour in the Grass and Groovin' The Moo earlier this year.

Executive group manager of ACT economic development Daniel Bailey said cold weather was a "big part" of why Canberrans weren't seeing their favourite artists making a pit stop while on tour Down Under.

"We've got the stadium and the AIS arena and the Canberra Theatre, so we've got a range of different facilities now. We have identified a gap in indoor facilities for larger artists to come to town," Mr Bailey told a committee.

"Having an indoor facility is definitely the safer thing to have. We do get the occasional stadium event but having something that caters to a larger [cohort] we can hopefully get some of the larger artists coming to town."

Major artists including the likes of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Coldplay, Blink-182 and Pearl Jam all have either visited or have plans to hold arena tours in Australia during 2024.

Most international artists have made a beeline for smaller states and territories, with the bulk of shows scheduled for Sydney and Melbourne.

The inquiry heard broader evidence that the introduction of pill testing in the ACT has had a direct impact on insurance premiums for event promoters.

Canberra's Groovin' the Moo music festival in 2018 was the first in the country to trial free pill testing, with the ACT launching Australia's first fixed pill-testing site in 2022.

Festival organisers were forced to scrap free drug-checking services in 2022 and 2023 after claiming insurers had hit them with premium hikes of up to 2200 per cent.

ACT officials said conversations between promoters and pill-testing services about securing insurance premiums at affordable rates were still ongoing.

Executive branch manager of artsACT Caroline Fulton told the committee venues and organisations were finding it "very difficult" to avoid exorbitant costs when trying to to secure an insurance provider.

"It's obviously in terms of a global issue and not really, I think, an easy one for any one jurisdiction to address," Ms Fulton said.

"In terms of looking at that it needs to be looking at the global market and I think there could be national strategies that could look at addressing that in some way for organisations and festivals."