In November 2022, three days before the sixth edition of Hopkins Creek music festival was due to start, disaster struck.

Some 80 millimetres of rain hit the festival site in 72 hours, and organisers were forced to call the event off.

Since then, fans have been waiting in limbo to see if it would ever return, and in April this year, their prayers were answered.

Hopkins Creek announced via its Instagram that it will return to the festival calendar from November 7 to 9 – much to the joy of the festival’s loyal followers.

This news comes as several other boutique, small-scale festivals – such as Meadow and Inner Varnika – have permanently finished operating.

Those still running face increasing pressure from climate change-induced extreme weather events, rising insurance premiums, and other associated costs.

Hopkins Creek owner and Event Director Todd O’Brien said that in such a difficult environment, festivals like Hopkins Creek are essential for the music community.

Smaller festivals give local Australian artists a platform outside of the city, where they can build connections and experiment, he said.

“Hopkins started pretty organically,” O’Brien said.

“It grew out of that desire to create a space where music and community came first…it’s always been about keeping it intimate so it still feels like a gathering of friends.”

DJ and Artist Liaison at Hopkins Creek’s March 2022 edition Elsie Lamb said that small independent festivals capture the special energy that the Australian underground scene has.

“I think it’s pretty obvious how hard it is to run a festival in this day and age, if you consider the climate, inflation, and how little room our society makes for music events like this,” she said.

Seeing the community support for this year’s festival “is so special”, she said.  

When the Hopkins Creek team had to cancel the November 2022 edition due to flooding, O’Brien said that it was “one of the toughest calls we’ve had to make”.

In 2022, the festival site became waterlogged, access roads to the festival were unsafe, and the team received advice from emergency services indicating that it would be dangerous to go ahead.

“That experience really brought home how much climate change and extreme weather are impacting festivals, especially smaller regional ones,” O’Brien said.

As it turned out, 2022 was an especially bad year. Between the start of October and the end of December, 13 festivals throughout the east coast were cancelled due to flooding or extreme weather, according to a recent paper investigating the influence of climate change on Australian festivals.

The report said that the recent increase in extreme weather events – combined with firm scientific predictions that these will become increasingly common due to climate change – means that new music festival support policies are needed.

Festival cancellations “can have flow-on effects for the entire Australian live music ecosystem”, the report said, adding that the live music sector is often overlooked in national policy.

Audiences are also responding to extreme weather around festival dates.

A 2025 study by Green Music Australia found that 85 per cent of attendees surveyed experienced extreme weather at a festival in the past 12 months, 88 per cent believe that climate change contributes to an increase in extreme weather at festivals, and 34 per cent are more cautious about purchasing tickets due to extreme weather.

In addition to these responses, 81 per cent of respondents said that the government isn’t doing enough to protect the music scene from climate change.

This comes amidst other rising costs for festival operators. The Green Music Australia report said that these costs are “the main barrier to running a music festival”, with rents, insurance premiums, and supply costs all increasing.

This is a problem that O’Brien has noticed too.

“Insurance costs are close to prohibitive for boutique festivals,” he said.

“We’ve seen operators walk away because they simply can’t absorb it anymore.”

O’Brien said that the financial pressure is constant, and when you add in weather unpredictability and complex red tape, it is a heavy load for small organising teams.

In the lead up to the 2022 federal election, music industry body APRA AMCOS called on the government to establish a Federal Insurance Scheme to provide security if operators had to cancel their event due to natural disasters or health orders.

“A government-backed insurance scheme would make a huge difference,” O’Brien said.

“It would give small events a change to survive instead of being priced out,” he said, adding that cancellation insurance costs can be more than 20 per cent of an event’s total budget.

Without this insurance, operators have no way to refund patrons if they have to cancel, O’Brien said.

In spite of all these challenges, Hopkins Creek has survived and is going ahead this November, much to the joy of Lamb (who will be playing under her DJ moniker ‘Elsie’).

Lamb first started DJing after meeting Miles Murray at Hopkins Creek when she was working, where he invited her to record a mix for his Space’d Ensemble mix series. 

For them to both be on the same line up three years later is a very special, full-circle moment, she said.

Reflecting on what makes the festival so meaningful for her, Lamb said that “it’s the connections [that you make] and it’s having third spaces for the community too”.

“Celebrating community is the most important thing.”

Lamb said that the government should be doing more to support small festivals, to ensure that these events, where you can “meet new people, discover new music, and support [musicians] in their endeavours”, can stay afloat.

The event is so much more than just a place to dance and party, Lamb said – a sentiment that O’Brien echoes.

“We see Hopkins as a regenerative cultural project,” he said.

“If people leave with a deeper sense of connection, with new friendships, and with a commitment to caring for community and environment, then we’ve done our job.”

After the three-year hiatus, Hopkins’ loyal followers are clearly ready to hit the dance floor once more – the festival is now sold out. 

For O’Brien, the hard work and the long wait has been worth it.

“What keeps me going is seeing how much it means to people, despite the challenges,” he said.

“It’s hard work, but the energy on site every year makes it worthwhile.”