For the first time since the 2019 festival, the Yours and Owls team don't have to contend with COVID or rain.
The 2020 festival was postponed due to COVID, taking place the following year with the extra headache of it being a seated event due to new pandemic protocols.
Last year's festival had to be cancelled just days out because pouring rain left the Stuart Park site flooded.
Yours and Owls' Adam Smith said organising this year's festival - which has moved to the University of Wollongong for the weekend of October 14 and 15 - has been a bit easier.
"I'm happy that I'm not having to deal with either of those two things - touch wood," Smith said of rain and COVID complications.
"It's been different - it's obviously a new site which has a whole other set of challenges and learnings but we're really excited to be there and keen to work with the university - who are great to work with - and council are always very supportive."
In gaining the thumbs-up for the UOW event, Yours and Owls had asked for a six-year approval with 25,000 punters for this year's event, growing to 40,000 from the second year.
The Wollongong Local Planning Panel refused that plan for growth, stating "insufficient information" had been supplied to justify the increase to 40,000 people.
Instead, the approval limits crowd size to 25,000 for the next six years of the festival.
Smith said the larger figures were part of the steady growth of the festival, which was on track to see a 20,000-strong crowd last year before the rain got in the way.
"We've got a vision to grow over time - that's something we we think is good for us and good for the community and good for the music industry," Smith said.
"As you grow over time you have the ability to attract different headliners, different interesting artists at these events. It was where we would like to get to and that's how we ended up with those figures."
However, while he said the 40,000 figure wasn't off the table, the promoters were going to focus on the 25,000-figure for this festival rather than push back on the panel's ruling.
"We're always happy to work with whatever the panel's ruled that's best for the community," he said.
"That's what we have to work with. We're not here to try and push against what ultimately isn't in everyone's interests. I think this year it'll be great to just focus on what we've got and make it a great and fun and successful event."
A pandemic is out of the promoters' control but Smith said the UOW campus allowed the festival to better cope with any last-minute rainfall.
"There's no denying the fact that it's an outdoor festival but [the built-up venue] does help to mitigate things," he said.
"You're not getting bogged and you can pull right up [to the stages] and it drains a lot better.
"It allows in a practical sense, simplicity in the bump-in to have paved roads and it's got a lot of existing power - great things that help make the site build a lot easier."
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
