It was around 2010 that Australia's festival giants had their final hoorah. The following years saw a landslide of debt, dwindling ticket sales and cancelled headliners: Harvest Festival and Pyramid Rock were both canned in September of 2013. Supafest faced creditors in the Victorian Supreme Court. Playground Weekender and Peats Ridge folded, Stereosonic was sold to SFX over in the States, Parklife was downsized and rebranded as Listen Out. Soundwave collapsed, unable to pay its contractors with a recorded $5 million loss in 2014, Future Music went into liquidation.
The days of the mega-festival were officially over. "I think it was a bubble that burst. Everything grew to this massive point, every festival was 50,000 people plus, the biggest acts imaginable... It's a lot of money involved, there's so much risk there and that model to kinda out-do line-ups is really not sustainable for a business," explains Nicholas Greco, whose own boutique festival, Beyond The Valley, debuted in 2014. "It's a cultural shift. I think it's taking it down from this big, clinical event that's all at the same location and having each event boutique so that it doesn't feel like you're at the same event with a different line-up."
"Everything grew to this massive point, every festival was 50,000 people plus, the biggest acts imaginable..."
It was 2010 and my second-ever Big Day Out. The festival was celebrating its 100th performance that year, and an extra Sydney show had been added to meet demand. Muse and Powderfinger were headlining, the festival's peak attendance was drawn at 337,000. I wandered around Sydney Showground recognising the same chips on a stick stand, the same show bags, the same slingshot ride, paint peeling as the sun beat onto the concrete jungle of the same venue of years gone by. It was sterile, uninviting. My friend was groped in the moshpit of Rise Against. There were brawls and one-on-one punch-ons. At one point we saw a man stagger along the footpath with a heavily bleeding arm, still slugging away at his beer. That year, The Australian published an article in which Iain Shedden described BDO as among the "most successful and long-running rock festivals in the world". By the end of 2014, it had closed its doors.
"[Punters] want to go to an event and they want to feel safe. I think at some of these bigger events, you can go there and you maybe don't feel as safe as a smaller event, where you're taken care of a bit better... that 'no dickheads' policy, it comes though the culture of the festival and the culture that the line-ups they book create," Greco muses. "That's really the way forward; you don't wanna go to an event and see these big fights or these big macho guys who are really intimidating to the normal person. You just wanna go have fun with your friends, feel like you can express yourself."
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The biggest calling card for the old-model festivals was a premium headliner - a 'white whale' as it's known by industry organisers - but Greco stresses that this selling point is unsustainable. "Someone's always gonna have a bigger act than you, so if you're basing your event on who's hot right now, you might just [fail] when you can't get the hottest DJ or the biggest band," he explains. "Our luxury camping area was kinda our biggest selling point for year one when we announced the festival and didn't even have a line-up ready to go."
"We find on social media that the line-up gets a huge response, but you put up a photo of a Nutella donut and everyone absolutely loses their shit."
The boutique festival trend revolves around a more immersive audience experience and with an emphasis on artists who will appeal to a broader spectrum. There's room to play around with the budget. "I think if you compare us to one of the bigger events that aren't with us anymore, I think their budget would have been 99% line up 'cuz that's kinda what they had to do in that market. Whereas we're able to split it up into, like, 50% of our budget goes towards talent, and then we can split it into big art installations, these glamping areas, the different bar offerings, cocktail bars, all the food. All that's important. We find on social media that the line-up gets a huge response, but you put up a photo of a Nutella donut and everyone absolutely loses their shit," Greco laughs.
The next generation of festival promoters and directors are the former audiences of the fallen greats - Your Paradise, Yours & Owls and Beyond The Valley are just a few of many boutique festivals that have sprung up in recent times, run by organisers in their 20s. "There's a demand for these boutique events. We've discussed it in the office: we probably wouldn't be around if all these big festivals were still there... There wouldn't be any room for us; for the little guy promoter to come in and take a punt on running an event of this magnitude," Greco suggests. "We feel like we really understand our market because we're kinda the same age that we're targeting." Paul Piticco, co-CEO of Secret Sounds agrees: "Their passing definitely changed the cycle and made room for up-and-comers to thrive. It also made the audiences think about what they want and how that could be different from what they had."
But with seemingly every boutique festival offering similar experiences - glamping, craft beer, international food trucks and a rotation of high-ranking triple j-favourite line-ups - will the former saving grace become the next death sentence, the new 'same old'? "I think so," nods Greco. "This summer it feels like there are so many boutique events and day parties popping up. You wanna make sure they're not looking the same, you have to find your point of difference. [But] there is only room for so many events, regardless of where they come from," Piticco muses. "It's nailing the audience experience from start to finish. It's about having event quality over quantity. It's also the location... It's part of the reason why that bubble burst because it is the same rehashed experienced and patrons are a lot smarter now, they're more aware and you can't just be giving someone the same offering as everyone else... Now, locations are getting more unique, it's such a big selling point... It's all that extra stuff that makes up the bigger picture rather than being at a showground where everything feels the same, you can hear cars revving in the background, you just don't feel you're on this journey where you get to drive out to this magical place," Greco says. "It is about the whole experience; the weather, the food, the people, the style, the locations. The music is a core piece but there is a lot to consider to make a ‘life moment’."
The next step is toward a European festival model - house and electronic music-centric line-ups, immersive, interactive art experiences, high-luxury camping, innovative stage design. "There's a shift in the festival culture as well with this big shift in the globalisation of everything. Patrons can see what's happening in the world [via social media] and they expect the quality they see at a European festival or a festival they see in America. There's no reason we shouldn't expect that of our festivals and our events here."
