This area has a lot of importance to a lot of people. It's culturally
pivotal, there's employment benefits and most of all, with our arts,
music and culture scenes slowly starting to deteriorate in NSW as a
result of venue closures and losses in grants, it's of an upmost
importance to retain North Byron Parklands as a home for this culture.

I support it

I support the applications for North Byron Parklands for a Modification
to Concept Approval MP 09_0028 to allow for changes to patron size and
to harmonise the conditions to reflect a permanent cultural events
site. Further, development consent to sought the permanent use of the
North Byron Parklands as a cultural events site for up to 50,000
patrons.

I have been working at North Byron Parklands since the first ever event
held in 2013. It is a fantastic event site and managed extremely well
by the Venue Management team and the hirers such as Splendour in the
Grass and Falls Festival. Until recently I lived only a few k's up the
road in Mooball and the community impact was nothing but positive -
including the increased traffic as it meant increased business for the
small business in town. I fully support this site becoming a permanent
event site.

This site gives jobs to so many people, local businesses and provides
priceless memories for so many people across the nation. It brings a
large booth to the local tourism and is committed to addressing
feedback from the local community.

North Byron Parklands, Splendour In The Grass and Falls Festival (Byron)
have provided me and dozens of members of my local Byron Bay community
including friends, neighbours, colleagues and family with local jobs,
entertainment and arts industry career opportunities, platforms for
cultural engagement and community connection. The festivals are
absolute highlights in the local Byron Bay and wider Northern Rivers
cultural calendar and bring diverse local communities together to
celebrate our cultural capital, explore environmental awareness and
political engagement. Our communities would be enormously poorer -
culturally and economically - should these festivals and the venue be
denied the opportunity to grow and develop.

To whom it may concern, I support the State Significant Development (SSD)
application of North Byron Parklands for the following reasons:
Transparency, Consultation, Commitment to Sustainability: My
professional dealings with NBP have been as head of Northern Rivers
Tourism 2008-2012 and as a tourism and events consultant. From the
outset of their trial approval application in 2009 North Byron
Parklands (NBP) have consistently demonstrated a transparent,
consultative approach to their application to become a permanent arts
and cultural venue for NSW. They have responded directly to all
questions from planning authorities, engaged and consulted the
Northern Rivers business and residential community at critical stages,
addressed concerns, demonstrated compliance with approval conditions,
incorporated learnings into operational and policy improvements and
provided verifiable data to support claims made in their applications
and/or modifications. Concerns from community and environmental groups
have been addressed directly without hyperbole or obfuscation. The
events Splendour in the Grass (SITG) and Falls Music and Arts Festival
(FMAF) have emphasised the importance of conserving, respecting and
protecting the environments and surrounding communities of North Byron
Parklands through event marketing, onsite facilities such as recycling
stations, carpooling incentives and waste management initiatives.
North Byron Parklands have undertaken significant conservation and
remediation activities at the site including monitoring noise
pollution, creation of wildlife corridors, traffic calming measures,
prohibiting patron access to sensitive ecological areas and removal of
noxious weeds. A permanent cultural event site will be an economic
driver for the Northern Rivers: Economic impacts assessments from 2009
to 2016 using industry standard methodology demonstrate that the
events held at NBP have generated significant and sustained increases
in economic benefits for the Northern Rivers region and NSW as a
whole. In 2016, festivals held at the North Byron Parklands generated:
* Total direct expenditure of $55.1m, a 17.5% increase from 2015 and
599% from the 2009 event. Festival organisers spent $17.5m on staff,
goods and services while attendees spent $39.1m primarily on
food/beverage and accommodation. * Gross Value Added (GVA) of $60.7m,
$17.1m of which is attributed to Byron Shire. This represents an
increase of 23.9% in the Byron Shire share from 2015 and 284% from
2009. * 788* total FTE jobs (188 of which were in Byron Shire), a 225%
increase from the 58 EFT generated in 2009. (*taking into account
direct employment, supply chain and household consumption). The
projected economic impacts of the NPB Economic Impact Assessment
report (EIR) 2010 have been demonstrably conservative, lending
credence to forecast economic impacts of a permanent approval
described in future use scenarios. Detailed in NBP's 2016 economic
impact report, these future use scenarios project total direct
expenditure of between $62.8 and $80m. Total economic outputs for
Byron Shire are projected to increase at the same magnitude ranging
from $307m to $358m. Similarly, total employment generated from events
at North Byron Parklands are forecast to increase to between 1911 and
2230 jobs. A permanent approval for North Byron Parklands has
demonstrated and realistic potential to make festivals and events at
the site a significant economic driver for regional NSW, in line with
its existing destination brand, consistent with Byron Shire Council's
aspirations and sectoral strengths in arts and creative industries.
Visitor Economy Benefits: Festivals and events are catalysts for
visitation to the Northern Rivers region, with the festivals held at
North Byron Parklands in 2016 generating over 241,000 visitor nights
in Northern Rivers NSW. This is a significant contribution to the
regional economy over just two annual events. Playing regular host to
festivals and events bolsters the Northern Rivers' national and
international reputation through the sustained exposure events create
to attract visitors and by allowing visitors to experience the
region's accommodation, retail, restaurants, nature-based attractions
and other facilities. A permanent event site also contributes to one
of the strategic priority actions of the NSW Visitor Economy Industry
Action Plan, namely to build a strong events calendar for Sydney and
NSW. Investment Confidence: Permanent approval provides investment
confidence, certainty and reduced risk for local businesses to
establish or expand operations to cater to both large and small events
over the proposed scenarios for events held at North Byron Parklands.
Social Capital: Events foster healthier and more connected communities
who take pride in hosting and participating in local events.
Visitation by and interaction with performers and professionals from
around the world facilitates opportunities for local workers,
organisers and volunteers from the community, and generates publicity
to a large, engaged audiences of those performers through endorsement
and testimonial.

I am against this form of festival where the environment is totally
affected through the enormous amount of rubbish that is generated and
by the disturbance to wildlife habitat. There is no need for other
festivals on this site which has been a wetlands area and all that
entails. All of Australia is affected by destruction of wetlands in
coastal areas.

I Strongly Support this application for the use of The North Byron
Parklands. I Live and work in the area and see the amount of life it
brings to the community and the business it brings to the whole of the
Northern Rivers. Using the M1 daily with my commute to work I never
have any problems with traffic. I Think the Slender and Falls
festival's are such a great use of Parklands great location adding to
the areas great reputation as a world travel destination. Falls
supports local music.

We area a registered not-for-profit organisation staffed entirely by
volunteers, our mission is to rescue abandoned, abused and surrendered
domestic animals and find them responsible, caring homes. All of our
rescued animals are de-sexed, micro-chipped, vaccinated, flea treated
and wormed prior to adoption by suitable families. Completely
self-funded with operating costs of approx $30,000 per year we are
very appreciative of any bequests, personal or business donations
which add to our own fundraising efforts and enable us to continue our
work of removing abandoned domestic animals from their fate, freeing
natural wildlife and habitat from the threat of domestic predators
whilst enriching the lives of families and parents who want their
children to grow up with caring natures via responsible pet ownership.
Splendour's 2015 grant of $2500 benefited us by enabling us to
professionally build an internal ceiling with ventilation and heat
control in our dated, old fashioned industrial unit shelter. This
provided us with a much cleaner, hygienic and healthier environment to
work within. As many of our volunteers are elderly (in their 60's and
70's) this has achieved improved working conditions for them and much
less stressful and hygienic accommodation for the animals in our care.
Pets for Life Animal Shelter applauds the efforts of all sections of
the community and business who recognise that only by understanding
each other's objectives without prejudging can we work together to
affect a better future for all who are part of Life's Rich Tapestry in
Byron Shire.