Sunshine Coast musician Drew Wilson is calling for an independent body to make the local music industry a fair one.

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

His comments refer to Council-run Caloundra Music Festival (CMF), where Drew 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 to feather their own caps. But this is diluting what we have and that’s really disappointing.

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

Drew says 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 reveal the event is struggling.

Revellers who attended the tax-payer-funded festival this year said numbers were “unusually low” this year.

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

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

Cindy says 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 says on her Buskers Instagram page.

“7464 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 says, “I expected to see more people there, though.”

Council defends tax-payer 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 says.

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

Crystal Waters Music Club’s similar fate

Crystal Waters Music Club became the latest victim in a string of cancelled events by Council in August.

Other events which suffered a similar blow include Cindy’s two-day busking festival, which became Gypsyland on Tour.

Cindy says she was forced to “reimagine” the outdoor event in a matter of weeks, over “integrity” issues with Council.

So will this be the end for Caloundra Music Festival, too?

Show goes on for Drew Wilson with new music

The show will go on for musicians like Drew Wilson (pictured).

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

“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, started making music for the big screen after a Nashville licensing agent asked to use one of his songs.

“They shot back with an urgent email saying they wanted me to record up 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’s always more music on the cards for the father-of-two, Drew always makes time to help his fellow compatriots.

He wrote a song for emerging country musician Darcy Kate, which saw her break through as a nationally-recognised musician.

The song reached number one on Australian Country Radio charts in August, with full rotation on local commercial radio.

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