Australia

On the 9th of December 2019, I reported on allegations coming from site staff on the ground at the Wild Horses festival, that had taken place that previous weekend at Lake Mountain Alpine Resort in Victoria.
As originally reported – and since confirmed by numerous witness statements – Victoria Police faked an emergency in order

Clubs have reopened in Perth with minimal social distancing measures.
Clubs in the Western Australian city of Perth have been able to reopen this last weekend, as the state moves into the fourth phase of reopening following the coronavirus pandemic. A two-square-metre rule — which requires venues to provide two square metres of floor space per

Elements Festival, held in Queensland, is one of the first Australian events to announce it will be going ahead after the entertainment industry was decimated by the COVID 19 situation throughout the year.
The festival organised a special showcase last Sunday as part of Half Wild’s 72 hour digital festival, Synthesis, so we don’t have

Organisers of a Swan Valley music and arts festival that likens itself to Burning Man have left a trail of burnt ticket-holders after the event was cancelled due to COVID-19 and they refused to refund or credit festival-goers.
The Blazing Swan festival team was on-site in Kulin, 3 ½ hours outside Perth, setting up 3

Hundreds of sweaty people, mostly inebriated, jostling and bumping — in some cases actually grinding — into each other in a dark, noisy, confined room were common scenes in nightclubs across Melbourne only a few months ago.
Key points:

Some club owners say many will make the call whether to fold once a definite timeline

A string of strip-searches by NSW cops on underaged festival-goers weren’t just objectionable and unpleasant, they were “unlawful,” a police watchdog has said.
An independent inquiry has handed down its findings into the roles of behaviour of police at a pair of music festivals, which left several children traumatised by the experience and put a

As the COVID-19 virus spreads the globe and wreaks havoc with the touring calendar, Australia’s live entertainment industry has called on government to set aside necessary funds if concerts and festivals are scrapped.
The federal government has promised a A$10 billion economic stimulus as part of its response to the impact of the disease, which

You can’t get much more grassroots than your 89-year-old grandma handing out scones to the vollies, your mum and aunties manning the gate, and your brother and cousins running the site maintenance.

And, as anyone who has ever made the trek to Esoteric will tell you, this event will make you feel like you’re part

Spare a thought for the embattled Rainbow Serpent Festival organisers who have cancelled their rescheduled Regen event set to take place over Easter.
It’s the second time organisers have had to delay after a bushfire devastated the festival site in December forcing the postponement of the traditional January party. All ticket holders will be automatically

Who stole the show in the shadows of Australia’s Grampian Mountains? Xiaoran Shi tells all.
In a time of escalating panic about the global COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary virtues of social distancing, there was something delirious, nay illicit, about 10,000 people descending on a remote plot of land in the Victorian bush—far from any

Happy Daze Festival has released its mammoth lineup for the 2020 edition, tempting everyone at Half Wild HQ to pack some bathers and dancing pants and book flights to the Whitsundays.
Held over 29 – 31 May, Happy Daze may just be the most perfectly located festival in the country. Held on a stunning site

Aviram Saharai & Matan Kadosh / Vini Vici (pronounced “Vini Vichi”). “Few acts have such a well-defined signature sound” – quoting none other than trance icon Armin Van Buuren, when asked to describe the Vini Vici duo.
Although the Vini Vici jam is labeled as Psytrance, their cataclysmic, yet authentic & mesmerising sound took them