“If There Isn’t Skyscrapers, Don’t Play There!” Rock Music Scenes, Regional Touring, and Music Policy in Australia

Australia’s concentrated population presents particular challenges for touring music acts. The country’s capital cities are few, and the distance between these cities is not dotted with the type of vibrant regional music scene commonly found abroad. Yet due to an array of state and federal arts grants–all aiming to subsidisze music touring–many Australian inner-city acts venture out to these destinations hoping to find conductive performance environments. In this paper, we map the experiences of a number of Melbourne and Brisbane bands–via interviews and case study–as they tour outside of their local/city scenes.