Sunshine Coast musician Drew Wilson is calling for an independent body to help make the local music industry fairer.

Drew Wilson — whose latest pop-folk track Holding Onto You is enjoying commercial success — says many local artists feel unsupported by Sunshine Coast Council.

His comments refer to the Council-run Caloundra Music Festival (CMF), where he says local acts are continually left off the bill.

“It is a hard pill to swallow to see the same locals getting on the bill of our major music festival, just because they or their friends record at a particular studio, or work at a particular shop,” Drew says.

“We have a lot of people doing things in their own backyard and feathering their own caps. But this is diluting what we have and that’s really disappointing.

“I think there needs to be an overhaul of the processes around some of our major music events.”

Drew says that for a region with “such an abundance of talented musicians”, it lacks a “functioning overarching body”.

“It would be great for an organisation to get behind and support the growth and nurturing of this in the same way that QMusic or the Gold Coast music groups have for their regions.”

Concert-goers say Caloundra Music Festival numbers are ‘low’

His comments come as concert-goers question attendance at this year’s event.

Revellers who attended the taxpayer-funded festival said numbers felt “unusually low”.

However, in a press release on October 4, Council said the festival attracted “16,000 fans”.

Buskers by the Lake organiser Cindy Jensen (pictured left) said attendance was “less than half that amount”.

Cindy said she volunteered on the gates this year to gain insight into how many people “were really attending”.

“We’re stoked, as it gave us a chance to gain some valuable FACTS,” she said on her Buskers Instagram page.

“7,464 people checked in through the gates over the three days.”

Mooloolaba musician Liam Griffin also volunteered at the festival.

“It was an enjoyable weekend of live music,” he said. “I expected to see more people there, though.”

Council defends taxpayer-funded festival

A Council spokesperson said the figure released was an “aggregate attendance” of the whole event.

“All multi-day events supported by Council and Tourism Events Queensland use this methodology to report attendance figures,” she said.

“Attendance is a different figure to the ‘number of individuals’ that will have attended the festival. Weekend tickets are only scanned once on entry, even if patrons attend all three days.”

Crystal Waters Music Club’s similar fate

Crystal Waters Music Club became the latest in a string of Council-related event cancellations in August.

Other events affected include Cindy’s two-day busking festival, which later became Gypsyland on Tour.

Cindy said she was forced to “reimagine” the outdoor event within weeks due to “integrity” issues with Council.

So will this be the end for Caloundra Music Festival?

Show goes on for Drew Wilson with new music

The show goes on for musicians like Drew Wilson.

“Some people have a goal of recording a song, getting commercial radio play or playing to thousands,” he said.

“I just love that I still get to sing my own songs and people are happy to listen.

“Writing music for TV and movies is a great avenue and something that I really enjoy.”

Drew, who has been playing music since he was seven, began writing for screen after a Nashville licensing agent reached out to use one of his songs.

“They shot back with an urgent email saying they wanted me to record one of the songs ASAP and represent it. Some placement people from ABC/Disney said it would be a great fit for a Grey’s Anatomy placement.

“Needless to say I was pretty excited and showed the song to a few people who all said I should release it, and so here we are.”

Drew’s support for emerging talent

Drew is a well-respected high school teacher and has lived on the Coast with his wife for 20 years.

While there is always more music on the cards for the father of two, he continues to support emerging artists.

He recently wrote a song for country musician Darcy Kate, helping her break through as a nationally recognised artist.

The track reached number one on the Australian Country Radio charts in August and received full rotation on local commercial radio.

“I’d love to continue mentoring and supporting other Coast artists.”