Live Music Working Group

People playing music The Live Music Working Group has been established by Council to identify and work through issues that impact on Yarra’s live music community.

At its May 2010 meeting, Council resolved to set up the eight-person working group.

One of the group’s central roles was to identify issues relating to live music in Yarra and to consider models that address similar issues in other Australian cities.

The group's recommendations, set out in the draft Live Music Working Group Action Plan, were adopted by Council for further consideration in July 2011.

docx format Live Music Working Group Action Plan 2011 (20.37kB)
pdf format Live Music Working Group Action Plan 2011 (78.30kB)

The Yarra Councillors who are currently members of the working group are Councillors Anthony Main, Dale Smedley and Amanda Stone.

The following community members are part of the working group:

Ann Polis - a Fitzroy resident who is actively involved in a number of organisations within the community, including the Neighbourhood Justice Centre and Collingwood College.
Judith Campbell - a Richmond resident who has held a long-term interest in the impact of venues on residents.
Helen Marcou - co-founder of SLAM (Save Live Music) and owner of Bakehouse Studios.
Jon Perring - board member of Contemporary Music Victoria and Fair Go For Live Music, co-owner of Yarra music venues Bar Open, Yah Yah's and the Tote.
Kiernan Hennessey and Kate Shaw were also invited by the Working Group to take part in the discussions.

Here is the Live Music Working Group Terms of Reference (45.62kB)

Yarra Live Music Working Group: meeting outcomes and recommmendations:

The working group met on five occasions between October 2010 and March 2011.
One of the principal outcomes of those meetings was the development of a draft Action Plan.

Some of the key tasks set out in the draft Action Plan include:

the creation of a Live Music Compact (an informal written agreement) that would look into the economic, regulatory and cultural factors impacting the live music industry and attempt to introduce ways for negotiating and accommodating those factors
supporting a 'help desk' for live music that would provide specialist advice on planning matters, particularly for new live music operators
reviewing Council's music in parks local law and Council's processes for managing noise and amenity complaints
developing a code of conduct for the live music industry and seek a commitment from experienced operators to train new and inexperienced operators
considering 'safe' locations for venues through the Business Land Review and re-zoning applications
advocating to the State Government to finalise and implement the Voluntary Live Music Practice Guide and release the Inner City Entertainment Precinct report.

In March 2012, Council received a progress report on works being undertaken to implement the Live Music Working Group's recommendations.
The report noted that actions included:

the development of fact sheets to be distributed to explain technical issues surrounding planning requirements for live music venues and surrounding properties
the ongoing professional development of planners
strategic advocacy to the State Government on various matters related to live music
review of Local Laws 2 and 3
initiation of the Night Time Economy Project
refer consideration of a new initiative to the 2012-13 budget process.

Of the above actions, the following have been completed:

Development of fact sheets - a fact sheet explaining the rights and requirements of live music venues and developers under the planning scheme was distributed in August 2012
Local Laws 2 and 3 were reviewed in the first half of 2012 and adopted by Council in July 2012. There were no changes to clauses relating to the way noise complaints or amenity issues were managed
A new inititiative in the form of a live music festival was supported in the 2012-13 budget with $35,000 seed funding.

Next steps

A further progress report on how the implementation of these actions is going is expected to be considered by Council in December 2012.

Meanwhile, Council is expected to begin an EOI process in late August 2012 to call for nominations from individuals and organisations interested in producing the 2013 live music festival.

Further information
Siu Chan
Co-ordinator - Arts and Cultural Services
9205 5045
Siu.Chan@yarracity.vic.gov.au