The Grates' Death Valley Fun Camp Is A Family-Friendly Getaway For The Festival-ed Out

John Patterson and Patience Hodgson have been to their fair share of festivals in their time. As two-thirds of the founding line-up for beloved Brisbane indie outfit The Grates — and, since 2012, proprietors of the Morningside-based Southside Tea Room and Death Valley Bar — they've seen pretty much everything such events have to offer.

In 2016, the pair of musicians and entrepreneurs took their knowledge and experience and whittled it down to the essentials of what makes an enjoyable outdoor encounter, holding the inaugural Death Valley Fun Camp in May last year. After a successful first outing, Patterson and Hodgson will bring the second installment back to Lake Moogerah campgrounds this weekend for another weekend-long foray into low-pressure festivities and friendliness, an idea that grew out of Patterson's own qualms about the size and intensity of the usual festival fare.

"This is not where you come to, like, 'play hard' — it's where you come to play, full stop."

"I just thought about, like, how festival environments are so intense," he says of the idea's inception. "Like, it's a big experience, but there is a lot of pressure on to make the most of it; you spend so much money, you're lining up for drink tickets, you're there for three days, it's like... for someone who's kind of introverted, it's not always the most pleasant. Maybe that's not how you relax, and I guess we kind of wanted to make a festival that was so small and spread out that we could feel comfortable around people — be around people but not necessarily be up against sweaty people."

"I guess it's like the opposite of 'work hard, play hard'," Hodgson agrees. "This is not where you come to, like, 'play hard' — it's where you come to play, full stop. It's just a nice place to really just... it's relaxed, and it's fun, and it's just no pressures."

This year's second go-around features many of the drawcards boasted at 2016's event — good food, live music, activities, an inherent sense of community and charity — as well as introducing some new elements, including a 'digital detox' initiative that, Patterson and Hodgson say, grew organically out of the vibe at last year's camp.

"We didn't even really think about it, but at last year's camp, I just noticed a lack of anyone using their phone, and I think that was part of... because the experience just seems so grounded, in the moment, so this year, I was like, that is definitely part of what makes it good," Patterson explains.

"I feel like that was something that we learnt that that's something the people that came to the camp wanted to do," Hodgson agrees. "Because they weren't on their phones, I guess they felt... I guess they needed to do something, or they wanted to participate, and it was their choosing to participate that made them not feel like they wanted to use their phones."

That drive to disconnect also helps boost the appeal for families looking to spend a weekend together without the distractions of the online world, instead affording the opportunity to bond over pastimes such as zipline, kayaking, swimming, archery, crafts, workshops and other activities well-suited to the camp's all-age-friendly location.

"We're doing it in a school campground, where kids go all the time," Hodgson says. "So, yeah, that makes it easier.

"And I guess because it's small, that's what makes it also not too intimidating to go with kids. Like, people take kids to Splendour. They've got all this stuff. But I guess because it is sort of... we might have 100, 150 people or something, it seems like... last year when we took [daughter] Soda, it didn't feel like it was stressful or anything."

"You could go to sleep on the grass … and no one's gonna piss on you."

Indeed, the low pressure, the relaxed atmosphere and the necessarily limited numbers all amount to something of a festival for the partied-out, who want to enjoy people's company without the intensity of much larger events.

"That's what it is for me," Patterson concedes. "I've been to every Splendour except one, and it's always very intense. We've been to heaps of festivals over the years and it's really nice to have something that is so low-pressure that you could just hide the entire time."

"You could actually go to sleep," Hodgson offers, before Patterson continues: "Yeah, you could go to sleep on the grass..."

"Just under a tree..." she says.

"...and no one's gonna piss on you," he laughs.

"No one's going to do any high-jinks on you," Hodgson asserts. "And there's no big lines to toilets or anything like that, you can have a shower..."

"You can have a shower. A warm shower," Patterson adds.

"But because it's small and because it's held in the campgrounds and because everything's in like, this... it's its own little village, it does seem to have a real, friendly community vibe," Hodgson concludes. "Even though the people that drink, like … even though you can have full-strength beers at the camp and stuff, it just seems like it's got a more natural drinking style. I think, because it's low-pressure, you're not making that big investment. Like, when you go to a big festival, it's like a big investment that you want to get a big return for, so yeah, we're not out for you to have a massive return. But you can do whatever you want."

That fundamental friendliness — undoubtedly a massive part of the camp's appeal — stands out in every aspect of its organisation: Jacob Knauth (of Major Leagues) supplies the food via his eatery, Lucky Egg; Young Henrys provides the (full-strength!) beer and cider; music comes courtesy of the Top Shelf Wedding Band, comprising several alumni from the city's garage-rock fraternity; food and beverage proceeds are donated to Kids Helpline… the whole thing just smacks of warmth and welcome, and that's key to its ethos and longevity, its founders say.

"By the end of the camp, it was like, everyone's washing their own dishes, and everyone just wanted to help. It was really beautiful."

"I didn't expect — I should've known, because Southside's got a really nice, like, community kind of vibe about it — but I didn't expect... there were so many people that came to the camp that I'd never met before that weren't regular Southside customers," Hodgson reflects. "But the whole inclusive vibe, the inclusiveness that happened at camp, people became friends and just chatted to people; it was really cool."

"It was so nice when it was, like, 7am and people roll out of bed to come and help and make breakfast, and you get to meet people over breakfast that you haven't met," Patterson concurs. "By the end of the camp, it was like, everyone's washing their own dishes, and everyone just wanted to help. It was really beautiful."

While the pair don't necessarily want individual camps to get bigger — and, due to site limitations, they probably couldn't, given Lake Moogerah's 200-person capacity — Patterson and Hodgson foresee other ways the Death Valley Fun Camp could spread its wings, to more events per year, or even extending its horizons to other locations, should there be an interest in it. And, as more people age out of going to larger festivals, it's the exact sort of event whose appeal will only seem to grow year on year — and that's just fine with its creators, who say they'd like to keep the camp running "as long as people want to come to it".

"I'd like to try it in other locations in Australia as well, because I think it would work an hour out of Sydney or an hour out of Melbourne as well," Patterson muses.

"It probably wouldn't be that hard," Hodgson says.

"It's small; it's really manageable," Patterson agrees. "It's not, like, an undertaking... no one's going to get crushed, no one's going to get stampeded. There are less things to worry about."

"I also feel with music festivals, you've got a do a lot of long lead, booking people in," Hodgson says. "If we're only having one band, we can pull it together really quickly — and I like that for our lifestyle, because we just have a lot going on all the time and, now we've got a daughter, it means that it's nice that it's at a size that doesn't feel like it's coming at a huge cost."

"I think if it was ever gonna be bigger, you could probably do a couple of them over a couple of weekends or something," Patterson concludes. "But yeah ... I think there's other ways that it could get bigger without it being on that single night. The beauty of it is that it can't get any bigger than that.

"I think everyone involved would love to come and do it a couple weekends in a row. I think it'd feel really good. By the third one, you'd be like, 'I think we've got this down.'"

Death Valley Fun Camp returns to Lake Moogerah campground from 27-28 May. Tickets are still on sale. All-inclusive passes cost $179 (kids under 8 $69, under 2 free).

See the camp's website for all the details.