Morningside Live Block Party has been cancelled.

Another music festival bites the dust with organisers citing "operational issues".

“It’s going to be a bloodbath.”

That’s what one local promoter told me back in November.

He said those words as we stared down the barrel of a post-Covid festival boom, a stacked, slammed and supersized summer containing 100 separate events giving us more options than we’ve ever had before.

Those words have echoed around in my head over the past couple of weeks.

First came the shocking news that Nest Fest, the Hawkes Bay post-New Year’s festival, had gone into receivership despite a line-up that looked like this...

On January 5 and 6, Nest Fest went ahead, and then it went under, owing $800,000 to artists, contractors and festival-goers.

It sounds like not enough people showed up.

Now, Nest Fest is never coming back.

From RNZ:

“[The promoter] sent an email officially communicating that his business Nest Fest had gone into receivership and would be passed over to administrators. He will be leaving the music industry, he's not too sure what that means for anyone else but he's really sorry and basically all the best.”

From Newsroom:

“The festival was pretty average. There was no cover and it was pouring with rain … it was all just a bit of a mess. Their main stage was clearly set up to hold like 10,000 or 15,000 people and that was only one of the four stages so it was clearly lacking.”

Then, late last week, another festival seemed to quietly bite the dust.

Morningside Live Block Party was billed as a one-day, all-local event built to showcase the buzzing surrounds of the Auckland suburb it was being held in.

The Beths, Avantdale Bowling Club and Troy Kingi sounds like a great day out, and a hell of a way to see off summer, especially one that’s been this hectic.

On Friday, ticketholders received an email saying their party was cancelled due to “operational issues”. Full refunds would be heading their way.

There are a few things going on here.

There is so much competition for event dollars right now.

On the stadium level, Pink is in town this week, kicking off a five-show run where she’ll play to more New Zealanders than any other artist this year.

Coldplay and Pearl Jam recently sold out two stadium shows each in November, racking up everyone’s credit card bills.

People are still paying off their bills from jetting over to Australia to see Taylor Swift.

Dozens of artists are scheduled to pack crowds into Spark Arena and The Powerstation over the next few months, including two sold out SZA shows.

Two weekends ago, four different festivals were held. Last weekend, five rock acts packed out venues around Auckland.

We still have Womad, Homegrown, Earth Beat, Two Minds, Cross St Music Festival and Souled Out to come this month.

So we’re spoilt for choice.

But this also proves another point.

Running a music festival is hard.

You’re only as good as your last one.

From Newsroom:

“We’re not talking about a situation where the business has been in the red for some time. This is the outcome of one event and all of a sudden you find yourself in the red and carrying that burden. To recover from this you’d have to make $800,000 at the next one just to get back to zero. It’s not like a business where you can recover during the year – you get one shot …”

I hope this is the last bad news of this “blood bath”.

But I suspect it might not be.

Update: Morningside Live Block Party has posted this message to their social media channels:

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Everything you need to know…

• Erny Belle, Dick Move and Tiny Ruins are among the Taite Music Prize nominees, an award that gives $12,500 to the artist that made the best album over the past year. See the top 10 on RNZ.

• I’d always wondered about all that plastic that goes into making up vinyl. It turns out it is a problem, but one Kiwi company has come up with a solution. Holiday Records is making “biovinyl” with 92% fewer emissions and a product that is 100% recyclable.

• On a recent episode of The Detail, the podcast went behind-the-scenes of a drug-testing tent at a music festival. “We’re just consistently hearing from people ‘This is the first time I’ve had an honest conversation with someone about drugs’.” It’s a good listen and you can do so here.

• Among the concert announcements this week are Cigarettes After Sex, who play Spark Arena on March 19 next year and Teddy Swims, who plays dates in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in July.

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