Ausmusic T-shirt Day took place yesterday, rounding out Ausmusic month, but the charity event raising funds for SupportAct felt a little smaller this year.
The 2023 installment saw 690 fundraisers gather a massive $904k in donations, making it the biggest year to date according to the SupportAct 2023 ‘Sizzle Final’ video .
This year, with a similar number of 665 fundraisers, donations have only reached $641.8K prior to release of the official numbers.
Born from Australia’s youth broadcaster triple j’s annual Ausmusic month celebrations. Ausmusic T-shirt Day first began partnering with Support Act and the Australian Recording Industry Association in 2017.
An initiative to raise funds and provide Australian music industry professionals with crisis relief, as well as mental health & wellbeing assistance.
This year, support and publicity from the media was low. Although the 2024 campaign had a high-profile line-up of ambassadors, including Missy Higgins, Tony Armstrong and Heart-Break High’s, Ayesha Madon.
Coverage and promotion of the day by the usual media bodies was limited to social media posts on industry accounts and a few links for merch and gigs on their news pages.
The day and cause was highlighted at the 2024 ARIA awards with Gudinski Breakthrough Artist Award winners, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers repping Aus merch as they introduced the Pixies, who also donned some vintage Aussie rock tees.
But given the success of last year’s fundraiser, this year has seemingly fallen flat. Arguably as a result of the limited coverage by the fundraisers main media partner.
With two days left of Ausmusic month, the donation portal is still open, and Ausmusic t-shirts are still fashionable every other day.
Support Act have premium Ausmusic tees that you can still purchase from their website, with 100% of proceeds going straight to the charity.
Support Act is the Australian music industry’s primary mental health charity, and they provide significant support to help our industry workers.
Donate/Purchase a t-shirt: Ausmusic T-Shirt Day
