Music Festivals Act (NSW)

The Music Festivals Act 2019 applies to music festivals held in NSW. Most ticketed events featuring multiple performances will meet the definition.

The key question is whether your event is a music festival or a concert — and if it is a music festival, whether you will need an agreed Health and Medical Plan (HMP).

The Act does not apply to concerts. To be treated as a concert, your event must meet all of the criteria in the left column simultaneously.

Use the table below to work out where you stand.

Once the Act applies, there are two tracks:

This chapter covers the obligations and processes under the Music Festivals Act 2019 and the Music Festivals Regulation 2024 only.

It does not cover the operational planning required to actually deliver those obligations. That guidance lives in other chapters:

• Health and medical staffing: Medical
• Harm reduction services and peer-based care: Harm Reduction & Welfare
• Police and security arrangements: Police Engagement & Security
• Licensing and liquor compliance: Liquor Licensing
• Transport planning: Traffic & Transport Management

The Act was introduced to promote safer music festivals in NSW. Its stated purpose (Section 2A) is to:

• regulate and support the planning and delivery of safe music festivals.
• help organisers manage risks through access to expert health and safety advice.
• facilitate collaboration between government and music festival organisers

When making decisions under the Act, all parties, including music festival organisers and government agencies, must consider:

• The contribution music festivals make to employment, the live music industry, the arts, community, and cultural and tourism sector.
• Harm minimisation measures that help reduce risks associated with alcohol and other drug use and support patron safety.

The Act requires all music festival organisers to prepare and implement a Health and Medical Plan (HMP). It also allows the DCITHS Secretary to decide whether a festival’s HMP must be formally reviewed and agreed to by NSW Health before the event can proceed.

Key definitions from The Act

• Music festival organiser: the person or entity noted on the public liability insurance policy
• Health and Medical Plan (HMP): the planning document required under s.5(5)
• Agreed Health and Medical Plan (HMP): a HMP that must be submitted to and approved by the Health Secretary
• Medical event: the death of a person, the admission of a person to an intensive care unit of a hospital, or endotracheal intubation of a person.
• Prescribed medical event: a medical event that is reasonably suspected to be because of alcohol or drug use, or caused by crowd behaviour or improper safety management. Used in the Secretary's determination assessment.
• Prescribed day: a compliance milestone date defined in the Regulation, calculated in advance of the festival start date. Not a fixed calendar date.

The Regulation sets out how the Act operates in practice. It defines:

• the prescribed days: the 120-, 60-, and 14-day compliance milestones (calculated in advance of the festival start date)
• the composition and operation of the Music Festivals Roundtable the advisory body that informs the Secretary's determinations

The Roundtable includes 13 representatives from NSW Health, NSW Police, Sound NSW, and industry bodies including the Australian Festival Association (AFA) and peer-based harm reduction services.

Every music festival organiser in NSW must prepare a Health and Medical Plan. There are no exemptions for small or first-time events.

Whether you also need an agreed HMP depends on a determination by the DCITHS Secretary. In making that determination, the DCITHS Secretary must have regard to advice from the Health Secretary, the Commissioner of Police, the Music Festivals Roundtable, and the organiser themselves. Your prescribed medical event history is also a key factor, including events at festivals you organised in other Australian states or territories. The assessment covers the three years before your festival start date, or the last three festivals you organised if those were held more than three years ago.

The table below summarises what each track requires.

All deadlines are calculated from your festival start date, except the 30-day police milestone which runs from a separate triggering event. These are prescribed days set by the Regulation, not fixed calendar dates.

Every HMP must be prepared in accordance with the NSW Health Guidelines for Music Festival Event Organisers: Music Festival Harm Reduction.

See: NSW Health HMP Template for the full list of required content across Parts A, B, C, D & E.

See: NSW Health Guidelines for staffing ratios, risk assessment tools, and clinical standards.

The HMP has three parts, with different parties responsible for each:

For agreed HMPs the organiser must also submit a clinical addendum officially referred to in the Act as an 'addendum to the health and medical plan') at least 14 days before the event. This must include the names, AHPRA registration numbers, and rostered hours of all health staff.

For agreed HMPs, the following must accompany your submission:

See: 8.3 HMP Submission Readiness Checklist

The following are not legally required to accompany the HMP but are best practice and may be requested:

• Transport management plan
• Waste management plan
• Alcohol management plan

See chapters Traffic & Transport Management , Waste Management and Liquor Licensing for detail on operational requirements, risk mitigation, and best practices for these plans.

If you need to make a material change to an agreed HMP after it has been submitted, you must notify the Health Secretary in writing and receive written agreement before implementing the change.

Implementing a change including last-minute staffing or site adjustments without written agreement is a breach of the Act.

For festivals operating under an agreed HMP, a post-event medical report must be submitted to NSW Health within 14 days of the event. The report must include:

• total clinical presentations
• age and triage category breakdowns (Australasian Triage Scale)
• hospital transfers, ICU admissions, and intubations

See: NSW Health HMP Template (Part B, Section 4) for the recommended report format.

Any of the following prescribed entities can request a briefing with your health service providers, and you must hold it. Failing to do so carries a maximum court-imposed penalty of 100 penalty units ($11,000 at the time of publication).

• the DHTIS Secretary
• NSW Police Force
• Fire and Rescue NSW
• NSW Rural Fire Service
• the Ministry of Health
• the local council for the area in which the festival is held
• the Ambulance Service of NSW

Briefings can happen at three points: at least 48 hours before the festival, on the day it starts (on-site), and within 21 days after it ends. Give each prescribed entity at least 7 days' notice of the date, time, and location. Their representatives are entitled to attend.

You must keep an incident register during your festival in the form approved by the Secretary, and retain it for a legal minimum of 3 years. Failure to keep, maintain, or make the register available carries a maximum penalty of 100 penalty units ($11,000 at the time of publication).

The register covers the period from when the festival starts until one hour after it stops. Record each of the following as they occur, and note the action taken in response:

• the death of a patron
• a patron requiring medical assistance due to intoxication
• violence or anti-social behaviour on the premises
• violence or anti-social behaviour in the immediate vicinity involving someone who recently left or was refused entry
• possession or use of a suspected prohibited drug or plant on the premises, unless disclosed to a health or harm reduction service provider
• a person being removed from the premises
• a minor found in an area prohibited to minors under the HMP

Police officers, inspectors, and health officers may request the register at any time. You must allow them to inspect it, take copies, or remove it from the premises.

The Act is enforced as if it were gaming and liquor legislation under the Gaming and Liquor Administration Act 2007. In practice, this a means:

• Inspectors can be appointed specifically to enforce this Act, with the same powers they hold under the Gaming and Liquor Administration Act 2007.
• Offences under this Act can be prosecuted under that Act's proceedings framework.
• Failure to keep the agreed HMP on-site and available (s.8) can be dealt with by penalty notice — set at 10 penalty units.
• Police officers are responsible for enforcing compliance with the incident register obligation (s.11) and any law enforcement and safety conditions proposed by the Commissioner of Police and adopted by the Secretary.

RACI key: R = Responsible (does the work) | A = Accountable (owns the outcome) | C = Consulted (input required) | I = Informed (notified of outcome)

Music festival organisers may be levied user charges by:

• NSW Ambulance for the cost of ambulance services allocated to the event
• NSW Police Force for the cost of police services required for public order and safety

These charges are separate from your HMP obligations. There are formal review pathways for both.

The following sections detail the process, cost and review options for user charges.

If you believe the ambulance charges quoted for your event are excessive, you can request a review. The review is conducted by an independent team within NSW Health.

• Deadline: Apply at least 16 weeks before your event
• Contact: Ambulance-EventPlanning@health.nsw.gov.au, or call (02) 9779 3833.

See: NSW Ambulance Sporting & Special Events User Charges Fact Sheet for further detail.

If you believe the number of police services quoted is unreasonable, you can apply for an internal review within 28 days of receiving the decision.

The escalation pathway is:

1. Police Area Command / Police District Commander
2. Region Commander
3. Commander, Police Transport and Public Safety Command

All review correspondence must be in writing.

See: NSW User Pays Policing Services page and the NSW Police Force Cost Recovery and User Charges Policy for further detail.

The Music Festivals Appeal Panel can waive or reduce government user charges in exceptional circumstances where payment would threaten the financial viability of your festival.

This is not a merit-based process. It is a financial relief pathway for established festivals facing circumstances outside their control.

Eligibility criteria you must meet all of the following:

• The festival has been held in NSW at least twice in the last 10 years
• The festival is paid and ticketed
• The festival programs new and original contemporary music as its primary focus
• The festival is Australian owned or part Australian-owned
• The festival can demonstrate solvency before user charges are applied
• No breaches of the Act or Liquor Act demerit points in the last three years

Assessment criteria you must also demonstrate:

• Exceptional circumstances exist and are beyond your control
• Payment of user charges would threaten the festival's financial viability
• The festival delivers tourism value to NSW
• You have applied for an internal review of the charges first (unless timing made this impossible)

Key dates and process:

Applications are submitted online via the NSW Government website

Panel decisions are final and there is no further appeal. Decisions apply to the individual event only and do not carry over to future events.

See: 8.2 External Guidance for further information on the Appeal Panel process.

See: Decisions of the Music Festivals Appeal Panel page for published outcomes.

All festivals

□ Early Notification Form submitted to the DCITHS Secretary at least 120 days before the festival

□ HMP prepared in accordance with the NSW Health Guidelines for Music Festival Event Organisers

□ HMP Parts A, B, and C complete including all required appendices

□ Part D (Multi-Day) and Part E (Regional/Remote) completed (if applicable to your event)

□ HMP stored with event planning documents

□ DCITH Secretary determines if agreed HMP is required 90 days before the festival

Agreed HMP track only

□ ASIC Company Extract (directors and shareholders) provided

□ Insurance Certificate of Currency provided

□ Site map provided includes emergency corridors and medical centre location

□ HMP submitted to NSW Health at least 60 days before the festival

□ Copy of HMP provided to the NSW Police Commissioner

□ Law Enforcement and Safety Schedule submitted (if required)

□ Clinical addendum (staff names, qualifications, rosters) submitted at least 14 days before the event

□ NSW Health agreement received at least 14 days before the event

□ Any agreed HMP amendments sought and approved in writing before implementation

□ Post-event medical report submitted to NSW Health within 14 days of the festival

□ Incident register prepared in the form approved by the DCITHS Secretary

□ Incident register kept on-site throughout the festival and for one hour after it stops operating

□ Incident register retained for at least 3 years after the festival

□ Prescribed entities notified of any briefing date, time, and location at least 7 days in advance

□ Post-event debrief held within 21 days of the festival end (if requested by a prescribed entity)

See: Schedule for Music festivals required to have an agreed health and medical plan (HMP)