Photo: Good Things Festival 2024 wraps up in Brisbane. Photo by Jordan Munns via Facebook.

In scenes reminiscent of Woodstock ’99, music revellers were scorched alive at Brisbane’s RNA Showgrounds for Good Things Festival yesterday, as the temperature pushed 40 degrees in the City’s concrete jungle.

With heat stroke consuming the crowd, and electrical storms tempting the event’s fate, music-goers are asking the question: “Why aren’t Australian music festivals held in winter?”

While the Good Things crew did an excellent job helping patrons to battle the extremities – with free re-fill water stations and outdoor showers, where you could cool down from the wild mosh pit scenes – it seems a winter music festival isn’t such a bad idea.

Punters paid $239.95 a pop for a ticket to Good Things, with Melbourne and Sydney also experiencing intolerable conditions.

On Facebook, festival promoters addressed the harsh conditions as the Brisbane leg of the Australian tour wrapped up.

“Brisbane, that was a scorcher, on and off the stage! Thank you for your continued rockin. Another one for the books! This weekend threw EVERYTHING at us,” the post reads.

“Scorching heat, torrential rain, and even the threat of storms couldn’t dampen our collective spirits. Every band brought the , the crowd was electric, and the vibes were immaculate. THANK YOU.”

Tony Gimellaro replied in the comments, saying that perhaps it’s time to make Australian music festival season a winter one.

“Just saying, most of those issues could be avoided if you put the festival in winter, it would be a first.” Tony said.

“I just need to be able to fantasise about not dying of heat stroke at a festival for once. This isn’t the BDO days anymore, pushing 40 the heat of summer is my mortal enemy.”

Emily Rosalea added: “I’m 33 and autistic and have POTS. I sweated out every drop of water I put in that weekend plus more  we’re all gonna have to start wearing little umbrella caps soon.”

‘You might be comfy, but you’d be disappointed with the lineup’

But, finally a response as why organisers are choosing summer.

Replying to Tony, a Good Things promoter explained: “Sure, your might be comfy, but you’d be very disappointed with available lineup – international acts have a choice of Euro/US summer or Australian winter.”

So there you have it folks.

The reason why we don’t have music festivals in Australia in winter is because there’s too much competition when it comes to artist performing preferences, and we’d end up with a not-so-international line-up.

But given the sweltering conditions, would you place value on a more enjoyable festival experience over the acts at hand?

Earlier this year, Priceless Records held The Big Weekend Festival in the middle of winter (July 13) at Blackflag Brewing in Coolum. It sold-out with a record 600+ punters.

The event – which saw The Bennies headline, alongside The Screaming Jets’ Dave Gleeson and local rockstar Pricey – was a huge success, with minimal fuss.

But more to the point: people weren’t rolling out the door on masse looking like deathly, dehydrated carcasses.

Sure it’s a mini-festival with an all-Aussie line-up, but should we be putting people’s health as more of a priority?

Months later, the same brewery brought Bodyjar and Redhook to its shores and in true punk-rock style, the sold-out show went off the hook.

Australian acts are nothing to be sneezed at, and can put on a show which rivals any of the big stuff for far less than half the price. (Tickets to both Blackflag shows were around $50).

So, we are putting it to you the punters: at what point do the outside extremities override the show itself, and pose a health and safety risk?

We want to hear your thoughts! Email editor@yelo.live and tell us when you think is the best time to have a music festival in Australia.