Yours and Owls Festival plans to 'take over Flagstaff Hill' - but council is yet to grant approval

Organisers of the popular Yours and Owls Festival have announced Flagstaff Hill as its 2025 venue, despite not having approval from Wollongong City Council for the event.

Council confirmed organisers lodged an event application on Friday 6 December, which is yet to be assessed.

The two-day event for over 16s only will be held on 1 and 2 March and is expected to attract about 15,000 people each day.

The venue had simply been tagged as “Wollongong foreshore” when artists and dates for the festival were announced and tickets went on sale in October.

On Tuesday (10 December) organisers announced the new home for the 2025 event would be at one of the region’s most iconic landmarks: “Yours and Owls will be taking over the picturesque Flagstaff Hill, in a Wollongong festival first”.

“Multiple stages, the best international and local artists, chill-out spaces, bars, food, and arts showcase all the best elements Wollongong and its surroundings have to offer!” organisers announced.

Flagstaff Hill is one of 16 locations across the city – including Stuart Park, Rex Jackson Oval and Wentworth Street, Port Kembla – where council allows events, concerts and other opportunities, but event applications must be submitted for council assessment and approval.

“Yours and Owls lodged an event application for Flagstaff Hill on Friday 6 December 2024,” a council spokesperson said.

“This application has not yet been assessed or approved.

“It is at the applicant’s own risk if they choose to promote or sell tickets for an event on council land without an event approval.

“In some circumstances council will issue an ‘in-principle’ approval prior to final issuing of a licence where it is confident all the conditions can be met.

“Council has not issued in-principle approval for this event at this point in time.”

The spokesperson said representatives from Yours and Owls had met with council staff to discuss the proposal before lodging the application, in which staff offered their advice for things which would need to be taken into account for this kind of event.

“We advised the applicant they would need to consider a range of factors including (but not limited to) sound, landowner approval, traffic management around the site, management of heritage items within the event footprint, management of environmental (weather) factors, management of waste, management of impacted businesses and other key stakeholders,” they said.

Despite the popular festival having used council land in previous years at locations such as Stuart Park and Thomas Dalton Park, council’s assessment and approval process will still be rigorous.

“We will ensure the applicant can demonstrate how they will comply with the terms and conditions laid out in the Foreshore Generic Event Approval, as well as any additional event-specific conditions we see fit to include,” the council spokesperson said.

“As the application has only recently been lodged with council it’s too early to speculate what event-specific conditions council may seek to include and what fees would be charged of the organisers.

“As with all events of this nature, Yours and Owls would be required to provide a bond from which council would deduct funds should there be any site remediation needed after the event.”

The festival was last held at the University of Wollongong in 2023 after announcing a three-year partnership to hold the festival on campus. After this year’s event was postponed due to difficulties finding headline acts, the event was moved to March 2025.

However, the festival dates clashed with UOW’s orientation week.

“The new festival dates coincide with the start of the academic year, meaning the bump-in and build for the festival would need to start during orientation week, which would be too disruptive to students at an incredibly busy time,” a UOW spokesperson said.

But they did not rule out the possibility of the festival returning to UOW in future years.

“UOW has an excellent relationship with the Yours and Owls team, who continue to be our entertainment bookers for UniBar and Uni Hall,” the UOW spokesperson said.

“The 2023 Yours and Owls Festival was a huge success for everyone involved, as was the recent Yours and Owls Festival 10th birthday party held on the Wollongong campus in October.

“We hope the 2025 event is just as successful and wish the Yours and Owls team well with its new venue.”

Tickets are on sale through the Yours and Owls website, with international headliners already announced.