By Jeremy Cook
Organisers of electronic music festival Rabbits Eat Lettuce have pushed forward with long term plans for the Southern Downs, lodging a development application to make the region their permanent home.
The festival’s plans were first revealed back in July when organisers announced an agreement for a 10-year venue contract had been reached with owners of Cherrabah Resort, located about 30 kilometres south east of Warwick.
The venue has already played host to the four-day camping festival on two previous occasions in 2019, when two festival goers fatally overdosed in their tent, and in 2024 when it hosted Queensland’s first ever pill testing trial.
A development application has since been lodged with the Southern Downs Regional Council in mid-September.
Proposed plans show the festival hopes to use the site for no more than 12 days per year to host up to 10,000 people.
The festival has no plans to install permanent infrastructure or clear any vegetation, the application shows with development planners noting the festival site “will not be readily visible from the adjoining road network or properties”.
Under local laws, organisers will need specific planning approval from the Southern Downs council to hold each event.
According to the application, the festival received three separate noise complaints over Easter during its 2024 event.
The decision to grant the festival its required event permits earlier this year sparked a frustrated response from nearby residents with one telling Warwick Stanthorpe Today he held concerns about potential noise pollution.
A noise assessment, submitted with the application, claimed “at no time did measured residential noise levels exceed any of the noise limits”.
“These measured residential noise levels were undertaken with a total of four strategically located noise loggers, in addition to attended noise monitoring, with the attended noise monitoring conducted for the duration of the Easter 2024 event,” the report stated.
“It should also be noted that even though the amplified music noise levels from the event were compliant at the residences, after the noise complaint was received the stage volumes were adjusted to a lower level to appease the residents.”
Precinct Urban Planning, who submitted the application on behalf of Rabbits Eat Lettuce, wrote their intent was to secure “a broad planning land use approval” which could be used to facilitate events over a 12 day period each year.
The council has not made a decision on the application yet, though tickets for the festival’s 2025 event have already gone on sale.
