By Jeremy Sollars
Southern Downs councillors this week voted to refuse a permit for the ‘Bohemian Beatfreaks’ music and arts festival which was proposed to be held at Cherrabah Homestead Resort in November.
Council officers initially refused a ‘temporary entertainment permit’ for the festival back in July – following a formal objection to the festival by the Queensland Police – prompting the organisers, Rabbits Eat Lettuce (REL Events Pty Ltd) to write to the council requesting that councillors overturn the refusal at their August meeting on Wednesday of this week, 28 August.
The same promoters staged a similar festival at Cherrabah in April of this year, after moving it from Casino after New South Wales Police refused to issue an approval on safety grounds.
Two people aged in their 20s died during the April event of non-suspicious causes, believed to be drug-related, and a 37 year old man at the event went missing for more than a fortnight, prompting a major search and rescue operation locally before he resurfaced in the Bunya Mountains area.
In a statement released following this week’s council meeting on Wednesday a council spokeswoman said ‘Bohemian Beatfreaks’ was “denied approval (by councillors) after strong objection from the Queensland Police Assistance Commissioner for the Southern Region as well as issues surrounding safety and community benefit”.
“A previous 2019 event, hosted at Cherrabah Resort, raised issues that highlighted the concerns for the safety of all community members and which were also referenced in communication from the Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner of the Southern Region,” the council spokeswoman said.
“In not supporting the event, Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon cited an excessive strain on local law enforcement’s resources as well as considerable safety concerns for attendees and surrounding community members.
“Council found that the issues raised by the Queensland Police and other concerns submitted by community members were not sufficiently offset by measures listed in the event application by REL Events.”
Mayor Tracy Dobie said the onus was “on the organising bodies to meet and cover safety and application standards”.
“In this instance, Rabbits Eat Lettuce has not provided sufficient measures to meet safety and application standards,” Cr Dobie said.
“Should the organisers take measures to meet these concerns surrounding safety and strain upon local police, there is no reason that future event applications should not be submitted.
“Council noted that the issues raised within the review of the application outweigh the proposed benefits to the community.”
REL Pty Ltd events director Erik Lamir pointed out in his letter to the council prior to this week’s meeting that ‘Rabbits Eat Lettuce’ in April and another similar event at Cherrabah within the last 12 months brought “approximately 7000 new visitors to the Warwick region from around the country” and that as an event company it has to date “brought approximately $1,796,000 into the Warwick local economy in the 2019 tax year”.
