The Long Sunset Music Festival

Scenic Rim Regional Council Mayor, Councillor Tom Sharp and Councillors; Queensland Music Festival Chair, Mr Daniel Gschwind and Acting CEO, Mr Darly Raven; event partners and supporters; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

I also acknowledge the Original Custodians of the lands around Canungra, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people with us this afternoon.

I am delighted to join you for my very first experience of a Queensland Music Trails event.

When the Queensland Music Festival was established 25 years ago by the then Minister for the Arts, Matt Foley, his vision was to create a biennial festival that would take music to all Queenslanders, wherever they lived.

Over the next two decades, that vision was interpreted by six different Artistic Directors. They commissioned imaginative projects that were experienced by more than a million Queenslanders in over a hundred communities across our State. Today, Winton’s 21-year-old Musical Fence still captivates visitors, and the people of the north-west still talk about bobcats dancing to the music of a live orchestra in the Mount Isa Bash.

But that was all in the time before COVID, and like every artist and every performing arts organisation in the country, the Queensland Music Festival felt an immediate impact when the pandemic reached Australia in 2020.

It could have represented an existential threat, but the far-sighted Board and staff saw it as an opportunity for an innovative and imaginative re-thinking of the Festival’s founding mission.

The result was the world-first Queensland Music Trails concept which now stages music tourism events like this in iconic locations all over the State, with visitors coming from throughout Queensland as well as interstate and overseas, all of them drawn by the irresistible lure of hearing the music and musicians they love in exceptional locations.

It's a winning combination and Queensland Music Trails brings significant economic benefit to regional Queensland while helping to reinforce community identity and cohesion by celebrating local stories.

But, importantly, Music Trails is also a beacon of hope and inspiration to artists, crew and other creative industry workers because of the contribution made to SupportACT.

On behalf of all Queenslanders, I thank the Queensland Music Festival for this commitment to the welfare and mental health of everyone working in the music industry, especially our First Nations music workers.

As Governor, I also thank the many partners, sponsors and donors for their generous investment and belief in The Long Sunset, especially the Queensland Government and the Scenic Rim Regional Council.

I also congratulate everyone involved in bringing the third Long Sunset to fruition and, as Patron of the Queensland Music Festival, now have great pleasure in presenting your Chairman, Mr Daniel Gschwind, with this Certificate of Patronage in recognition of the essential role the Festival plays in Queensland’s cultural and tourism ecosystem.