General News
25 April, 2025
Music festival handling unclear
A banned music festival went ahead near Daisy Hill over the Easter Long Weekend, despite council saying it couldn’t, although event organisers remember it differently.
Celestial Grove, a collaboration between Sickest House and AustrAliens, was held across the Easter Long Weekend despite the Central Goldfields Shire Council announcing the event did not have the necessary permits.
The sold out event was issued an injunction by police due to not having the necessary permits last week when it was to take place near Geelong.
Announced on the Facebook event, the festival that promised dubstep to psytrance was moved to a private property in the Central Goldfields Shire.
Council’s general manager infrastructure assets and planning Amber Ricks said officers were made aware of the music festival in the late afternoon on Thursday.
“Officers worked closely with local and regional members of Victoria Police to locate the event site and attended on Good Friday to serve a notice informing the landowner and the event organiser that they must cease all preparations and that the event is not permitted to go ahead,” she said.
A spokesperson from Sickest House, however, said they were never told by council the event couldn’t go ahead having had a conversation with a council officer the day before.
“All we were informed is that they wish they had known sooner, but expressed they were happy to let the event go ahead and see if any concerns were raised to work on for next time,” they said.
According to Sickest House’s spokesperson, they were only told to register the event with the local police which they said they did.
Nearby residents, particularly across the Talbot community, heard the events music across the Easter Long Weekend — from Friday through to the next Monday, particularly at night.
Local fire brigade volunteer and team member at the Talbot Post Office Amanda Conn said the event has divided Talbot’s community.
“Overall the town being divided is not a nice feeling. Some people are happy for that kind of stuff to happen and other people don’t want to encourage it,” she said.
While Ms Conn’s home wasn’t close to the event, that didn’t stop the noise disrupting her family’s long weekend.
“It upset all of my animals, my children couldn’t sleep, my puppy could not settle,” she said.
“It’s four nights over a long weekend we didn’t sleep.”
Sickest House’s spokesperson said they weren’t made aware of any issues with noise over the weekend.
“[We] are deeply sorry to hear that this event had disturbed local neighbours as we weren’t aware the noise levels were that high and had no one inform us otherwise,” they said.
At 5.30 pm on Saturday local fire brigades attended a report of a fire in the Fire Danger Period at the event.
Talbot Fire Brigade Captain Ross Andrews said they found no evidence of a fire, but was concerned by its location with difficult access and limited phone service.
“With it being so dry if something did happen, with no phone service, if somebody needed [emergency services] it would have been very difficult to make contact with the outside world and would have delayed a response,” he said.
“The amount of people in that area in this time of year being so dry was a concern.”
However, Sickest House’s spokesperson claimed they did take steps to protect the safety of those who attended.
“We had all safety measures in place from emergency exits, proper amenities (food, toilets, water, shade), medics and fire wardens on site and less than 300 people expected for a members only event,” they said.
As of Thursday Sickest House are yet to debrief with council. It is also understood the Central Goldfields Shire Council and local police recently had a meeting following the event.
Ms Ricks said council remain committed to taking all necessary steps to prevent unpermitted events.
“Council encourages major event organisers to engage with council and other stakeholders early in their planning to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of event patrons and our community,” she said.