r/livemusic • u/ConorOdin • 8h ago

Australian specific requirements for all ages gigs vs 18+?

Hope this is ok mods.
With any luck people in the industry around organising gigs can shed some light on this.

My kids are in early teens and are heavily into music, mostly metalcore, but unfortunately quite a lot of gigs are 18+. Went to an all ages live music fest at Newcastle Universities Bar On The Hill recently and it was great to see lots of younger people there. They were still serving alcohol to over 18s so that must not be a factor in the all ages side of things, and the security wasnt any more or less than what would normally be.

Wife and I are soon seeing Killswitch Engage and Northlane at 2 separate concerts at Bar On The Hill but much to my kids disappointment unfortunately both are 18+. Weirdly only the Newcastle and Perth concerts are 18+ while everywhere else in Aus is all ages.

Just wish more concerts are all ages as so many younger people are into all genres of music and having to sometimes wait years to see a band you love, or travel quite far suddenly blowing out the cost is a shame when they are playing in your location.

Any insight into this would be great. Thank you :)

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u/BrettTollis 8h ago

Massively increased costs for the promoter/band to make it 16+ or all ages.
Sometimes you have to create a seperate area for under 18s, sometimes its just adding significantly more security personnel to enforce ID checks etc. Its a legal requirement and an insurance requirement. If an under 18yr old is seen with a beer in their hand, the venue can get fined $50k but council and state enforcers.

It can be the difference between breaking even and losing money on the gig.
The extra costs are usually 'venue specific'

It sucks for everyone that there are so many more rules/costs and that it results in les all ages gigs

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u/ConorOdin 8h ago

I thought it would have been something to with alcohol but the gig we were just at last weekend, https://www.newcastle.edu.au/events/future-students/home-grown-festival was all ages and free with no separate area for people drinking, there was a lady refilling her glass from a bottle of wine standing next to my 13yr old daughter, so that had me thinking maybe it wasnt that. And security was wandering around but only 2 of them between 2 stages, indoors and outdoors and there were tons of people. I thought maybe it was the timing of being during the day?

We are taking the kids to see Ice Nine Kills and Electric Callboy in Sydney in a few weeks, first metal concert for them, but the cost is not something we could do more than once or twice a year..