(Image: Supplied)

Hillsong youth camp has hosted a three-day youth summer camp — which looks suspiciously like a Christian music festival — with videos of more than 100 mask-less attendees dancing and singing inside a large tent at the Glenrock scout camp south of Newcastle.

NSW Health has ordered the organisers to stop the Pentecostal partygoers from breaking singing and dancing restrictions implemented after the Omicron outbreak. Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the restrictions apply to “major recreation facilities” attended by a large number of people in a “building or place used for large-scale sporting or recreation activities”. 

Hillsong camp organisers have said the singing was a “small part” of its outdoor Christian services. Singing and dancing are allowed as part of religious services. 

The camp was open to kids in grades seven to nine from January 10 to 12, promising “a week like no other … having the greatest time of your life!”

Revellers at a Hillsong event (Image: Supplied)

It’s not clear whether the church will be fined: under the NSW Public Health Act, children under 15 can be given an on-the-spot fine of $40 for not wearing or carrying a mask; it’s $80 for those aged 16 or 17. Businesses can be fined $55,000 for not following health orders and another $27,500 for each day the offence continues. NSW Police didn’t respond to Crikey’s request for comment by deadline.

Although in the wrong, Hillsong stretching the rules shows another concession made to religious groups. While singing and dancing in a small church seems like a fair concession, applying the same rules to megachurches like Hillsong exposes hypocrisy. 

It’s not the first time Hillsong has had special exemptions. In March 2020, as the pandemic took off, the government decided to ban any non-essential gatherings of groups of 500 or more. Importantly, the rules didn’t come into play until a Monday — allowing Prime Minister Scott Morrison to attend a Cronulla Sharks rugby league match and for Hillsong to host the second weekend of the Colour Conference, an annual forum attended by thousands. Hillsong founder Brian Houston is a personal friend of Morrison, who is a member of the Pentecostal megachurch Horizon. 

Houston — who has pleaded not guilty to a charge by NSW Police of concealing information on child sexual abuse in the 1970s — was also granted an exemption in July 2021 to leave Australia and preach abroad, granted an exemption as he was planning to leave the country for more than three months. 

Sydney’s Lord Gladstone pub is rebranding itself as a church for the day, seeing if it can get around the restrictions with an event on January 23 to raise money for Support Act, an organisation that delivers crisis relief and mental health services to those in the music industry.