Community
26 November, 2025
Rumble grumbles: residents speak out about festival concerns
“You can feel the pulsing beat all through your body. It’s rattled the windows, you can’t sleep.”
RESIDENT concerns for safety and compliance at Wild Horses Festival are under investigation by Northern Grampians Shire Council.
Police are also investigating reports of theft and assualt.
Festival organisers say they are taking all reports seriously, but all this is still taking its toll on residents.
“You can feel the pulsing beat all through your body. It’s rattled the windows, you can’t sleep,” resident Anne Hughes said.
An estimated 3000 campers and party goers came to the area in droves for the Wild Horses Festival 2025 this month. Despite concerns from locals and one of the councillors themselves, Northern Grampians Shire granted the three-day electronic music festival a permit to proceed with strict conditions.
It was those objectors like residents Ms Hughes and Jean Goode, who have felt their concerns have fallen on deaf ears time and time again.
“I moved here for peace and quiet to help me with my medical condition,” Ms Hughes said. “But I get everything but that.
“You see the reports come out after the event and talk about how well behaved everyone was and how successful the event was, but that’s not our experience.”
Ms Hughes said while the permit allowed for the event to go for three days, there was still music and issues in the days before and after.
“You could here the doof doof from the early morning on the Tuesday and shattering noise from the site on Thursday all before the permit hours of operation,” she said.
“I live on a conservation property and the music was so loud you could see the birds disturbed and scattering, the kangaroos dashing, trying to get away from the noise.”
Ms Hughes said the music continued through the weekend, rattling her windows and bass you could hear “through noise cancelling headphones”.
“I tried to ring through the hotline multiple times, but I couldn’t get through,” she said.
And while this wasn’t unusal compared to any other year, what happened after the event officially ended wasn’t.
“On Monday I see three large vehicles ripping up the road beside my gate with donuts and they knocked a tree out of the ground.
“The situation deteriorated and the male driver who had jumped out of his vehicle snatched my phone out of my hand and raced for my car which he then drove up the hill and dumped.”
Ms Hughes said she also found “rubbish and drugs thrown from the side of Border Track onto my property.” The police were made aware of both instances.
St Arnaud senior sergeant Tim Thomson said: “All reports made to police are subject to active and ongoing investigation.
“At this stage, no persons of interest have been identified.”
Ms Goode said she had also found graffiti on her property. “We’re embarrassed because we don’t want to be the people calling the police. But this is about our property being destroyed and our safety.”
Ms Hughes said residents had grown tired of having to advocate.
“We were offered compensation for going away during the festival, but I don’t trust that my property won’t get ruined,” she said. “This council has not only invited in this sort of aggressive, intrusive activity but it is also promoting drug-taking; excessive alcohol consumption; vandalism; home and property invasions and damage; thefts, and violence against local residents.”
Council chief executive Brent McAlister said he was looking into the concerns of permit breaches. “Council acknowledges the strong concerns voiced by neighbouring properties,” he said. “We will complete a thorough investigation into the complaints, to ensure all conditions on the permit were complied with.”
At the time of writing, campers were still on the site, but they have two weeks after the event to vacate.
Festival organisers said they too took the concerns seriously.
“We’ll continue to do everything reasonably practicable to minimise off-site impacts and engage constructively with residents,” they said.
“We understand community members remain concerned, and we respect their right to express those views.
“This is limited to a single weekend each year.”
But this sentiment isn’t shared.
“It’s a stress we feel 365 days a year, before and after,” Ms Goode said.
Read More: St Arnaud