Answered by: Brent Lean - Festival Director
What makes your event stand out from other festivals? Being an independent, locally owned festival means we’re personally invested in every aspect. We focus on the basics – artist line-up, top-level production, great food and bevvies and minimising queues. The audience really creates the atmosphere of the festival – make them happy and they’ll create the difference.
What’s improved for your next event? We’re always looking to amp up on the things mentioned above – fine-tuning the experience. You never stop learning!
Favourite festival ‘Do you remember when…’ moment? Too bloody hard. Millions of them, but ScHoolboy Q nearly missing his set time because we couldn’t stop him from riding The Slingshot...
Which artist – living or dead – would you like to have backstage drinks with? David Bowie for an intellectual conversation around music and the arts. Jim Morrison if looking for a bender.
How is the festival landscape changing? The main positive is discussion around addressing gender imbalance and inclusiveness in both line-ups and those working behind the scenes. It’s also interesting to see the return of some ‘mega’ style festivals and what effect that will have on the local independent festivals and the festival market in general.
Is there more pressure to create an “Instagrammable” festival? No, we really don’t feel any pressure there – that result will happen regardless when you create a positive environment and get it right. The music is always the priority
How do you go about ensuring your festival is a safe space? We will be continuing and evolving our crowd care, health and safety management systems at the festival. We also continue our integrated planning work with crowd care services, police, security and regional health services who will – like always – have a strong presence at the event.
What are your views on pill testing? Do you think it has a place at festivals? Absolutely. The difficulty, however, is getting all relevant stakeholders on the same page – Government/Police/Health, etc. Unfortunately a great divide currently exists and the recent rhetoric from Government agencies doesn’t fill me with hope anytime soon. Saving young lives should trump all else.
