Events funds attack, promoters say local music, arts neglected Music fans at Social Summadayze Music Festival, Subiaco, January 6. Promoters say they're not being taken seriously and state governments are neglecting local events. PROMOTERS say they're not being taken seriously and state governments are neglecting local events, including music concerts and arts festivals. Industry leaders told The Sunday Times successive governments had been too focused on attracting international or interstate tourists and had overlooked events that would benefit local residents. Mellen Events managing director Brad Mellen, who was behind last Sunday's Future Music Festival in Joondalup, said the sector was an important driver of the economy and a significant employer. "There has to be a shift from the thought process that all events have to have some sort of measurable tourism value," he said. That's where we go wrong. We should not be purely putting on events for that reason. We're really in a great position to capitalise on putting on events in Perth, but we don't because we seem to have this mentality that unless it's got a tourism benefit (or) international exposure (and) unless someone from outside of WA suggests it, why would we do it? Funding for many of the state's events is delegated through Eventscorp, a division of Tourism WA. The organisation's evaluation criteria for funding new events includes alignment with Tourism WA's brand, potential media coverage overseas in tourist hot spots and tourism activity. The website says events that provide significant TV coverage and which can feature tourism postcards or signage get "favourable consideration." Mr Mellen said he fully supported the work of Eventscorp and the extra funding being filtered into country events through Royalties for Regions, but he said it didn't go far enough. "We should be putting on events for the people who live in Perth," he said. It helps to add to the vibrant fabric of WA as a great, fun, positive place to live, because there is always something to do. That helps create a really good long-term culture in the city. And the social and, importantly, the employment benefits are really, really strong. Events Industry Association vice-president Cassandra Brennan said the lack of funding meant many events were skipping the city. "We believe we are tourists in our own town," she said. The colour of someone's money from Asia or Sydney is exactly the same colour as the money of the people of Perth. She said governments needed to support home-grown events that could become important to the state. I've heard of some fabulous events that would like to be created in WA, but there isn't the funding to get them off the ground and hunting the corporate sector is extraordinarily difficult.