Wowsers want to stop city concerts after the Fed Square debacle but rock’n’roll must never die

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Opinion

November 16, 2025 — 4.00pm

When Amyl and the Sniffers’ free gig at Federation Square was cancelled on Friday night, Amy Taylor, lead singer of the Grammy-nominated Melbourne band, left no doubt how she felt.

“F---ing. C---s,” she posted in an Instagram story soon after the plug was pulled at 8.15pm. Organisers had decided that multiple breaches of the security fences, in the largest of which about 1000 people flooded into a site that was already at capacity, posed a serious risk to public safety.

Amyl and the Sniffers’ free gig at Federation Square on Friday night was cancelled over safety concerns.

A short while later, now fully apprised of the reasons behind the decision, the band posted an update with the fury dialled down.

Though Taylor and her bandmates were still “so f---ing sorry that we couldn’t play”, they had decided to ease frustrations by donating their fee for the show, putting $5000 on the bar at each of seven iconic Melbourne rock pubs.

As responses go, it was perfect. Without playing a note, the band’s status as hometown legends of rock was assured.

The status of Federation Square as a venue for free concerts, though, is less certain.

Almost immediately, the calls came to put a stop to the free, all-ages public music events that have become a hallmark of the venue over the past two summers (though they have been happening for years, the programming has stepped up enormously since 2024).

The crowd at Friday night’s planned concert had reached the capacity of 10,000 by 7.40pm.

Public safety concerns were cited, and with good reason. No one wants a disaster like Hillsborough, in which 97 soccer fans died after a crowd crush in 1989, or Roskilde, in which nine fans died at a Pearl Jam show in 2000. But to my ears, some of this clamouring to shut down all free music at Fed Square echoes the tired old trope of rock’n’roll being the devil’s music, and its followers an unholy rabble.

Having been lucky enough to attend many of the gigs over the past couple of years – Robbie Williams, Glass Beams, Eddie Current Suppression Ring, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Sun Ra Arkestra – I can attest that these are overwhelmingly positive experiences for just about everyone concerned.

Kids, parents, grandparents; hardcore fans and the merely curious; inner-city hipsters, suburbanites, people from regional Victoria; rich and poor: because it’s free, unticketed and alcohol-free in the public square, all are able to attend. And do.

These events have been celebrations of the city, of the role of music in it, and of Federation Square as a public meeting place. There have been plenty of other events there too, of a non-musical nature, particularly big sporting moments, that have both proven its value as a public square and tested organisers’ ability to balance the competing demands of public appetite and public safety.

What happened on Friday night was not evidence of failure per se. It was proof that Federation Square had become a victim of its own success. These “surprise” gigs – typically announced just a few days ahead in a deliberate bid to curb crowd numbers – have now become expected, and people are willing to factor them into their last-minute planning.

Compounding the situation was the fact that (a) Amyl are on a roll, having collected a Grammy nomination earlier in the week for best rock performance and having scored the support slot for AC/DC’s Australian tour (for the record, they were terrific when I saw them on Thursday), and (b) Melbourne was riding a wave of rock’n’roll energy, with Oasis, Metallica and AC/DC having all played stadium shows in the past couple of weeks.

Factor in the excitement that comes from (c) the first hint of summer and (d) it being a Friday night, and some of the gatecrashers being well lubricated – and you have a perfect storm for an imperfect event.

The gig was announced on Wednesday morning. People started pouring into the square early on Friday, and by 7.40pm it was at capacity (10,000). The perimeter fences, introduced a couple of weeks ago for the King Gizzard rave set, which also reached capacity, held, but the gates did not. When it became clear that numbers could not be contained, management made the tough call to cancel the show, just before support act Public Figures were to be joined onstage by 40 bagpipers for a cover of AC/DC’s It’s A Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’Roll).

Of course, it was hugely disappointing, but it was the right call.

There are unquestionably lessons to be learnt from Friday, and Fed Square management, Victoria Police and other stakeholders are already cramming. But to suggest that free live music should be scrapped entirely is a kneejerk response that all should firmly resist.

I spent Saturday in Castlemaine at the Town Folk music festival. As a demonstration of what live music has to offer, it could hardly have been more compelling. There was an area for kids to run around and play games, space for them in the front row – and an opportunity for them to play the cowbell during the mesmerising set by Zambian Afrobeat-psych-metal band W.I.T.C.H. – a wide range of musical offerings, from folk to country to the electro-goth stylings of Sharon Van Etten, and an overwhelming sense of congeniality and community.

It was the very opposite of the devil’s music, just as the Fed Square concerts – which have also included knockout shows by Kneecap and Canadian DJ-producer Dan Snaith (aka Caribou) – have been.

Music does that. It brings people together. It builds community. It makes us better.

Let’s not lose sight of that as we work out how to stage events like Friday’s just a little more smoothly.