Bringing Arts To The Forefront Of Festivals

"There’s so many festivals that title themselves as music and arts festivals but the arts… seems to be an afterthought,” says Keen. Although Sugar Mountain doesn’t have the “arts and music festival” tag/title, that’s what Keen and his team are trying to deliver. “We’re trying to gradually throughout the years bring the percentage of contribution [from the arts and music sides]… so it’s seen on a 50-50 platform. So say like in another couple of years hopefully we’re developed enough so that people will come just as much for the art as they are for the music.”

We wouldn’t blame you if acts like Nas, Body/Head (Kim Gordon and Bill Nace), Odesza, Swans, Ariel Pink and Dan Deacon were what drew your attention to the festival, but Sugar Mountain’s art line-up rivals its music one. This year, Sugar Mountain will feature artists working with the stage environment, as well as exhibiting installations and doing performative pieces throughout the day. Ash Keating, whose extinguisher painting work recently showed at NGV’s Melbourne Now exhibition, will be bringing that practice to the festival’s car park stage. “He’ll start it before the festival but then at different parts throughout the day he’ll address that again,” explains Keen. Abby Portner – sister of Dave Portner from Animal Collective and most widely known for her work with the band – will be providing “giant inflatable set designs” that will “spill into the crowd a little bit”. Hisham Bharoocha and Leif Podhajsky will be collaborating in a gallery environment: each artist will take up a small gallery space, and collaborate in the long adjoining room between their individual spaces. “Leif will be doing a large installation piece that has a lot of moving bits and Hisham will be doing a live–” Keen stumbles trying to describe it, “–it has a lot of kick drums and they’re all triggered by electronic devices.” Keen’s recommended must-see act, however, is Japanese-French duo Nonotak, who make their inaugural visit to Australia. “They’re gonna be doing a really expansive standalone installation but also an onstage installation and live performance.”  

Let’s not forget the third component of the festival: food. Sugar Mountain co-founder Brett Louis along with the new addition to the team, Arron Ollington, have enlisted Hammer & Tong, Uncle, The Beaufort/Ike’s Rack Shack, Rockwell & Sons and Raph Rashid’s Snack Shack to cater and nourish the punters. “[Brett] really wanted to push the envelope with the food side of things. Melbourne has… taste in music, art and food and we wanted to spoil them in that way. And we wanted to spoil ourselves,” Keen admits with a grin, “I mean, I wanna eat something good while I’m running around!”