Former festivals chief Olly Arkins voted Sydney deputy lord mayor
Olly Arkins, the former chief executive of the Australian Festival Association, has been voted deputy lord mayor of the City of Sydney.
Councillors voted unanimously for the appointment, Billboard reported on 24 September. The City of Sydney's official meetings site now lists Councillor Olly Arkins as deputy lord mayor.
Arkins is the first openly trans person to hold the deputy role. She was also the first trans councillor elected to the City of Sydney, winning a seat in September 2024, two years before stepping into the deputy post. She uses she/her pronouns. In Sydney the deputy is chosen by fellow councillors each year.
The move caps a five-year stint leading the Australian Festival Association, the industry body for festival organisers. Arkins has described the rewrite of the Music Festivals Act in New South Wales as her biggest achievement there. The reforms passed in September 2024 and changed how festivals in the state are regulated and charged for police and safety costs.
While at the association she also pushed the federal government to create and then increase Revive Live, a public fund to support live music businesses, with dedicated money for festivals. She helped secure the introduction of drug-checking services at festivals in Victoria and New South Wales. And she renegotiated the OneMusic licence scheme, the blanket fee festivals and venues pay for the right to use recorded and live music, to secure better terms for festivals.
Arkins said she ran for council because she had lived Sydney at its best and worst. At its best, she said, the city was fun, welcoming, diverse and affordable. At its worst, it meant lockout laws, high rents and policing policies aimed at music festivals.
She said she was ready to work on making Sydney easy and enjoyable to live in, and a city people around the world want to visit.
Her current council work keeps her close to that brief. She serves as deputy chair of the cultural, creative and nightlife committee and co-chair of the creative and nightlife advisory panel. She is also a board member of Local Government New South Wales, the body that represents councils across the state.
What makes this stand out for live music is the path. Festival organisers often deal with councils over noise, trading hours and event approvals. Sydney now has a deputy lord mayor who spent five years arguing those cases from the industry side.
