06/08/2026
Hi Everyone, it’s always fun reading people’s opinions as to why the RHST isn’t in town 😂the best one so far I’ve had sent to me is my business is finished and I’m divorcing my wife 🤦♂️😂I can assure you I love my wife and I love my business 🔥 I’ve held 15 large music festivals in 15 years which generate millions into our economy . I’m still very good friends with the promoter of RHST and I talk to promoters around Australia to see what opportunities are out there . Like everything in Australia prices have gone up and unfortunately for Mt gambier we are becoming too small or viable for large acts! What Jimmy Barnes was worth in 2014 is nothing on what he charges now so a festival of that size is now in the millions with all the other artists on the bill , the infrastructure , the logistics etc make it almost impossible to host . The limestone coast region is probably around 60-70,000 people and a percentage of that is people from say 40 up . So let’s say 10 -20 % are in that age bracket so 10-15,000 ? I sell out most of my shows at around 5-5500 patrons which is incredible considering the size of Mt Gambier 😊 you will notice all the venues on the line up are major cities or venues close to cities where there are large numbers of population so they are holding 10-15,000 people ! I would need every single adult in the the region to attend the show to make it happen 😮 I can assure you no large festival will go to Apple farm or a paddock out of town or Showgrounds etc ( no offence to those venues 🙌) and if a festival does want to come through I will be the first person they contact ! Why ? Because a promoter will not risk a multi million dollar production with a venue or person they don’t trust or don’t have years of experience working with them ! I will continually work at getting shows and who knows something may well be on the cards for 2027 and if it is you will be the first to know and if it isn’t I’m still happily married 😂 I can sleep easy knowing I’ve brought the biggest rock , hip hop and folk artists in Australian music history to our wonderful town and region over 15 years and let’s see what happens in the future 🙌for those of you who support thank you 🙏 to those who complain and send me private nasty messages or are negative also thank you 🤩 the positive and negative only feeds my fire 🔥 I love a good challenge so who knows what the future brings 😊in the mean time I’ll keep myself locked up in my gaol with my amazing wife and family 😜
James
