Untitled Group's Filippo Palermo is a dreamer. He fancies seeing Madonna headline their flagship annual event Beyond The Valley (BTV) – today Australia's largest multi-day music festival – as she re-embraces disco.
"I hope Madonna reads this and, if she does, I would love nothing more than for Madonna to play at Beyond The Valley – that would be an absolute dream," Palermo enthuses. "She would be a miracle to pull off, just given the sheer popularity and size of her as an artist – probably one of the biggest of the history of music."
A strategist, Palermo might just make it happen. After all, in 2022 the Untitled Group co-founder and managing partner facilitated Nelly Furtado's triumphant return to live music.
The aughts pop fave appeared exclusively at Beyond The Valley and joined Dom Dolla for a mash-up of her song Say It Right and Bicep's Glue, going viral on TikTok – "one of my proudest moments," he says.
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"Literally the night before we got the final confirmation email – and her performance was incredible. She's such an icon. With moments like that, we really consider the artistry; we really consider the live performance; really consider the popularity."
Inevitably, ticket sales justify the investment.
The entrepreneur is Zooming from Untitled Group's headquarters, fresh from the extended AO LIVE at the Australian Open – the only program of its kind at a Grand Slam tournament – with South Korean partystarter Peggy Gou playing Men's Final Day. He relishes the role of curator.
"It's awesome," Palermo extols. "We really enjoy putting it on every year at the AO. It's always a really good amalgamation between sports and music, along with all of their other entertainment offerings. So we were stoked with the outcome and finishing with Peggy was a big, big vibe."
In 2014 Palermo co-founded Untitled Group as a boutique concern alongside Michael Christidis, Nicholas Greco, and Christian Serrao in Naarm/Melbourne and it's now Australia's largest independently-owned music and events company.
Increasingly multi-faceted, the fold has added new divisions in artist management, talent booking and creator representation. But they still values grassroots authenticity.
In December 2024 Untitled Group launched their 10th anniversary celebrations with a mythic rave at The Wool Store, a heritage building in West Footscray constructed during a post-war wool boom – Dom Dolla DJing back-to-back with Bosnian-German stalwart Solomun a "magical moment."
Last year, they generated record-breaking ticket sales in excess of 800,000.
Leading up to the New Year's Eve period, Untitled Group sold out the 10th edition of Beyond The Valley, with 40,000 punters descending on the Barunah Plains Homestead, a historic sheep station, in Victoria's Western District to catch Addison Rae's first headlining festival performance globally – the "destination event" sponsored by Visit Victoria.
They have received industry accolades, too, premiering at #12 in the Billboard Boxscore Mid-Year Report's 'Top Promoters' rankings and landing in The Music's Power 50 for 2025.
From King Street To The World
The Untitled Group origin story is set in the Naarm/Melbourne underground, with all four founders hailing from CALD families – significant as promoters from Southern and Eastern European migrant backgrounds established the city's nightclub scene.
Indeed, the charismatic Sicilian hairdressing mogul Victor La Greca opened the Hippodrome in King Street in the mid-'80s.
In fact, Palermo came up in the 2000s. A teen musician, he'd discovered electronica on hearing Daft Punk's classic 1997 debut Homework.
"In a nutshell, Mike Christidis and I were best mates in high school, started running club nights and I started DJing,” he explains. “We were running parties with Dom Dolla back then as well, which was how we kind of got to form a friendship and working relationship with him."
Soon, the team expanded. "We had met Nic because I was DJing for Nic – he was running Tuesday nights at Tramp Bar on King Street – and we decided to make it three."
Last to enlist was Serrao. "We were hearing rumours of this young promoter doing these massive numbers at formal and deb after parties, as well as a weekly club night on Thursdays out in Southbank,” he remembers.
“So it was almost like a cold call – we reached out to him and we caught up with him. The four of us were all 18, 19 years old and we just got along like a house on fire. We had the same music taste, same vision for Australian music, same vision for our club nights and same vision for the trajectory that we wanted to head in – which was mainly live music-focused instead of hospitality."
The quartet had success in 2012 with their earliest weekly club Treehouse at Inflation, again in King Street, subsequently floating Anyway at The Palace Theatre (the former Metro Nightclub) – the intention to revive the '90s superclub concept, Alison Wonderland guesting. Festivals ensued.
In 2014, the year in which Untitled Group was devised as an umbrella company, the crew inaugurated the stylistically diverse Beyond The Valley on Phillip Island – among its draws RÜFÜS DU SOL.
The festival is now a "must-attend tradition," with Wildlands, in Meanjin/Brisbane and Boorloo/Perth, a spin-off. Gaining momentum, the fold introduced Pitch Music & Arts, a credible camping alternative to the 'bush doof' with cutting-edge house and techno, in the panoramic Gariwerd/Grampian plains region around the Labour Day long weekend.
Since 2018, Untitled Group has also orchestrated Ability Fest, an accessible festival conceived by Paralympic gold medallist Dylan Alcott.
9 To 5
Each partner in Untitled Group has their own responsibility day-to-day in an organisation that currently employs 75 staff. Palermo handles creative direction and production.
"A lot of that is stage designs, the arts program, the festival experience and the digital creative as well – so working with our internal creative team and external studios,” he explains.
"But, on top of that, the thing which probably takes up the most of my time is government relations, I'd say – so working on planning permits and documentations and certification to run events at venues such as The Wool Store, Rippon Lea Estate [used for the not without friends party in January] the Beyond The Valley site (which was previously just a farm and a wedding venue), the Pitch site and venues like Coburg Velodrome."
Negotiating with authorities sounds tedious – but, despite that statutory administration, Palermo welcomes a challenge, especially for gatherings at heritage sites.
Notably, Untitled Group initially transformed The Wool Store for a warehouse rave in 2018 with Solomun.
"I mean, to work within spaces like that, to use The Wool Store as an example, it does still kind of scratch that creative itch, because it's not a traditional venue for live music," Palermo explains.
"But having the ability to lead the conversations with, say, state or federal government and work towards enriching the Australian live music industry by bringing artists into spaces like that, the process is very motivating for me because I know what the end result looks like."
Miracle Maker: The Rise Of Dom Dolla
In many ways, Untitled Group enabled the ascent of Australian superstar DJ Dom Dolla, certainly domestically. Their mate has long played Beyond The Valley.
In late 2023, Dom Dolla smashed records selling out two homecoming shows at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. He then mounted a blockbuster national tour the following year, shifting 170,000 tickets (with two dates at Naarm/Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse) – unprecedented for a homegrown electronic dance music identity.
In December, Dom Dolla DJed at Allianz Stadium in Eora/Sydney, becoming the first EDM act to headline an Australian stadium before travelling to Beyond The Valley for its New Year's Eve countdown.
"Obviously he's just come out of playing a stadium in December [but] he's still got that connection to culture through agreeing to play at music festivals," Palermo says.
Yet Palermo is disinclined to accept any credit for the ARIA inaugural 'Global Impact Award' winner. "I thought he would get this big in his early years. But Dom Dolla is the reason behind the giant rise of Dom Dolla…
“Watching the way he conducts himself in terms of his songwriting, his live performances – he's involved in every single detail of those shows… So he is a true creative end-to-end. And, if that wasn't there, he would be nowhere near as big as he is today."
Computer World
In 2026 Untitled Group has several arms. There's Proxy, a talent booking agency run by Steel Hanf and Paul Hillman with names such as Lastlings, Luude and SG Lewis and concentrated on the Asia-Pacific.
"It's important for that business in particular that we don't get too involved from a day-to-day standpoint," Palermo stresses. They also have the in-house Underscore, an innovative influencer and creator marketing hub.
Aside from branding, Underscore has connected Untitled Group with a core demographic in Gen Z.
"We are providing a good focus on Gen Z because they are very actively buying tickets and they're prioritising 'experiences' over consumer products.,” he notes. “We've really tried to tap into that and grown our offerings as a business. The growth is organic and it's never linear. Festivals now operate as cultural, social and destination moments, not just 'gigs'.
“So social media obviously accelerates that discovery and urgency. [But] the trust in the brands like Beyond The Valley and Pitch, combined with a solid line-up of good music, good creatives and a good marketing campaign, is what can drive that urgency to purchase."
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Untitled Group has endured difficulties – navigating the COVID-19 pandemic the most salient. In 2022 its winery festival Grapevine Gathering in the Hunter Valley, NSW was cancelled days out due to restrictions.
Now the industry is facing an economic downturn – which may ironically be a boon for EDM as young people seek escape.
"There have been a lot of music festivals that have unfortunately not been able to continue over the last five years, they've either gone on hiatus or have wrapped up all together – and that's not good for anyone," Palermo says. "It completely shoots market confidence. It's something that we're hyper-aware of.
"We often have regular conversations with other festival promoters about the sustainability of live music and how we can work together to achieve that. But, I mean, the biggest challenges have been consolidating and making sure we're focusing on our key festival products while growing the touring arm of the company – which is extremely important to us."
For Palermo, it's about "taking the right educated risks when it comes to artist bookings, being unique with our offering (bespoke stage designs is a good example) and making sure that festivals like Beyond The Valley for instance are a must-attend tradition."
It's crucial to reassess. "All the mistakes that we've made have become keys to the learnings that we're now sitting on today. So it's not just moments like the pandemic that can be challenging, it's also about mistakes that you made along the way – whether you give up in that moment.
“Sometimes, for some organisations, it is quite literally too hard to just bounce back."
Nightclubbing
In the winter of 2017, Untitled Group launched the Naarm/Melbourne nightclub XE54, an underground bunker in Southbank – Saturdays dedicated to techno and house with guest international DJs like Keinemusik's &ME, Brazil's ANNA and Detroit legend Carl Craig. Alas, it's now defunct.
Oldtimers lament the decline of weekly clubbing, with punters favouring festivals or standalone events – Revolver Upstairs an exception. Palermo acknowledges that the city's nightlife is "very different nowadays" to when he started, though he maintains a "fascination" with club culture and its function as an incubator, as with bandrooms.
"The nightclub scene is very much still alive," he insists, adding "I feel like Melburnians should really try to support [venues] if they have the means to."
Palermo admires how promoter-cum-content creator Danny Rants recently sold out Orkestrated's reunion gig at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl – the Melbourne bounce pioneers inherently a club phenom.
"We've spoken to a lot of our touring team and some of our more junior promoters about really prioritising that connection to culture and community through the use of nightclubs and, of course, supporting that ecosystem."
Untitled Group do host club events at local institutions like 'Revs'. "It's so, so important to the music industry in Melbourne that these venues continue to thrive."
(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)
In the '90s, Naarm/Melbourne's dance music promoters were engaged in heated rivalry, culminating in the infamous poster wars. But the environment has evolved with greater interconnectedness.
"I think it's just different times," Palermo reflects. "I guess the biggest change that I notice is the change in communication. Naturally, we do compete with other promoters for certain artists and certain tours. We're all offering on the same artists sometimes. But the communication style seems to be very different to those days...
“'Cause even I was DJing and selling tickets for festivals back in those days and I did notice that there was a lot more of a combative nature in the tone of voice between promoters, whereas now it doesn't exist. Well, it's nowhere near as prevalent.
"That's not to say that it's not competitive. It is competitive,” he adds. “But there's a level of collaboration there, especially when it comes to keeping music festivals alive and keeping live music venues alive. There's a lot of collaboration there. There's a lot of support there and a lot of camaraderie – which is really, really nice.
“It shows a great deal of respect between each of us, 'cause we all know how hard it can be to pull off something like a festival or a live music venue. In the touring landscape, it's just business as usual for the most part. Everyone just talks to each other with a good and decent level of respect."
Palermo honour relationships. "There's certain tours that everyone wants for themselves, and artists that they've worked with for a long period of time, so you have to respect those boundaries."
As it happens, Untitled Group united with TEG [Live] to present Dom Dolla at Allianz Stadium. Moreover, over summer both Untitled Group and Live Nation Australia were involved in the AO's entertainment program, with the latter staging AO LIVE Opening Week in the TOPCOURT precinct and providing "programming integration" into AO LIVE "but," Palermo says, "giving us the freedom to still program, run, co-ordinate and book AO LIVE end-to-end as the lead promoter was really exciting for us as a cultural moment for Australia."
He emphasises, "So everyone's kind of working together a lot more nowadays – I think it's a really exciting new direction."
However, Untitled Group's status as an independent concern matters considering that Live Nation is an international juggernaut – and they have felt pressure to elevate in the past. "We don't feel that pressure anymore," Palermo says.
He reasons that this is because they're now confident that Beyond The Valley particularly has a supportive community. The team "don't get bogged down in that pressure or need to prove ourselves more or less… We are fiercely independent – and we are really enjoying that level of freedom. It's to be able to be independent and to make those decisions."
The Next Big Thing
Palermo is looking ahead to the next event – and the next trend. Come March, Untitled Group will host the ninth instalment of Pitch Music & Arts with Belgian techno super-DJ Charlotte de Witte as headliner – the festival close to selling out. The collective has successive tours on the horizon. After promoting US rock band Good Charlotte's comeback, they'll again present the Wu-Tang Clan – this time for their farewell tour.
"The one that we're really focusing on at the moment is Pitch, 'cause it's around the corner," Palermo shares. "And the festival experience for Pitch this year is turning a corner where it is going to be absolutely mind-blowing – and I don't say those words lightly. Just being across a lot of the technical production planning, the creative, some of the theatrical moments that we're having at the festival this year, we're really levelling it up.
“We're working with a lot of European creative studios and we're working with [arts curator] Tom Supple from Dark Mofo and a whole range of new creatives that have come in to breathe this fresh new excitement into the festival. So that's something in particular I'm really looking forward to."
He teases an Ability Fest redux – "watch this space."
In 2026 Palermo and Untitled Group are building on their heritage. "Expect the unexpected. We're planning some really exciting moments, which kind of nod to the history of the last 12 months between warehouses and events at estates and a whole range of other things that are currently in conversation. [But] I can't reveal too much."
If there's an act that intergenerational music fans hope will tour Australia, it's Depeche Mode – last here in 1994. Rumours of the band's return circulated in 2023. "We've thrown our hat in the ring before and tried to bring them to Australia," Palermo divulges.
Unfortunately, the cost to transport the Brits' epic set-up is prohibitive. "They will not compromise on their production – and you can only have respect for their artistic integrity behind that. It impacts the budget.
"With some artists, it may impact the budget to a point where it's not feasible – because Australia's so far, especially freight for some of the infrastructure. It's very, very different to moving a show from Los Angeles to San Francisco. It can't just go on the back of a truck and then you tour it around.
“So there's some shows that we've had to get infrastructure here by cargo ship. It takes a very, very long time – and it's tricky." Another challenge?
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
