The folks behind UNIFY: A Heavy Music Gathering — the eponymous heavy music label Unified — have issued a statement today, announcing that following the successes of last weekend's festival, UNIFY would be back for a third year in 2017.
In the statement, Unified's Head Of Recorded Music Luke Logemann writes about the success of UNIFY amid talks about the demise of Australian heavy music festivals, days on from the news that Legion Festival would be postponed until next January.
"Obviously, the Australian festival scene has taken a hit recently. And it feels like not a day goes by without our social media feeds being inundated with negative stories about festivals being cancelled and falling apart. And while everyone is drawn to clicking on this endless stream of failure, I hope the media sites and people around will take the time to highlight what a successful and rewarding transaction just took place."
Speaking exclusively to theMusic.com.au, Unified's Head Of Recorded Music Luke Logemann told us that heavy music will continue to stay alive and kicking, as long as we play our cards right — that is, plan an event with immense attention to detail and not bite off more than you can chew.
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"We planned it, really really well and really thoroughly. We did so much work in the background … We found the right partners, we didn't bite off more than we could chew, we put a lot of attention to detail in."
Logemann said of UNIFY's return next year that they would grow it "in the healthiest way possible".
"We are working to find out different ways to grow it in the healthiest way possible, but at the same time not biting off more than we can chew. I can tell you we don't plan on growing it [UNIFY 2017] that much bigger than this, ever. It'll never leave the area it's in — the vibe of the festival is going to remain intact no matter what we do."
At the end of their prepared statement, Logemann writes that struggling festivals are not the fans' fault, but an industry problem.
"It's the industry's problem to sort out ... I'm not sure where it went wrong, I just think we can't be blaming this on the fans because they don't get to pick line-ups or anything like that. All they do is pick what they wanna go to. I don't wanna comment on what other people have done wrong, except we all need to be working out what has gone wrong and doing better if we wanna look after these kids.
He maintains that bigger is not always better, especially when you're just getting a festival off the ground.
"To tell you the truth, think about the way Soundwave started, it started with such modest beginnings. They didn't just try to do this national festival catering to 20,000 people. All of the best things are built slowly, all the best things are [from] people [that] have attention to detail to make them as good as they can be."
Putting in his two cents about Legion Festival, Logemann said the concept was amazing, but it's a huge risk.
"The thing that I wonder is, how many oversees bands are going to trust a crowdfunded event? Maybe they'll be into it, I'm not sure, but it's definitely a huge risk. Time will tell. I think if anything like this is gonna be pulled off anywhere in the world, maybe set the expectations and numbers a little lower. Apart from that it's an amazing concept, it really is. It's about community and all the intentions are all good."
Read the full statement below.
#heavymusicisaliveandwell
So by now, most of our punters and bands have all headed back to their homes, most of the site is packed up and most of our staff have finally had some sleep after working so hard for the last week. We can see so many positive reviews from media, and so much nice feedback all over social media and in our email accounts. It really is overwhelming to hear and read so much love coming from everyone who was a part of the experience.
I wanted to talk about our event in a larger sense, and touch on why we started this and where it is going. Obviously, the Australian festival scene has taken a hit recently. And it feels like not a day goes by without our social media feeds being inundated with negative stories about festivals being cancelled and falling apart. And while everyone is drawn to clicking on this endless stream of failure, I hope the media sites and people around will take the time to highlight what a successful and rewarding transaction just took place.
UNIFY 2016 sold out. We just paid all of our artists well and looked after them with all the food, drinks and special requests they could want, and more. Our punters were able to BYO drinks and food, and then were still charged reasonable prices for those things once they got in ($5 beers!) as they watched a lineup of some of the best bands around. The local community also were looked after - last years income for the football club enabled them to get a solar panel to run their buildings and enabled them to run a bus for young kids to travel to play football each week - the local bottle and food shops were all stoked on how much business they did. The staff were rewarded and looked after with whatever they need, media were given amazing access to the artists, the security guards were treated with respect and dignity and the treated the fans with the same respect… even the Tiger Snake we found under the stage was caught and released into the wild.
Now I will say that no one is perfect, and I’m sure there will be individuals with different experiences, but my point is that the music and festival business can be something where no one has to lose. It can be something that is done with the right attitude and ethics, and it can be something that maintains integrity and improves as years go by.
In our first year, we sold 3000 tickets in 3 hours. We could have sold more, but we didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew. Thats been the UNIFIED / THE HILLS ARE ALIVE model since forever - we grow slowly and we do things with attention to detail and make sure we can achieve what we set out to achieve. We would never take for granted having 3000 people’s lives in our hands. Our second year, we grew just a little more - another 2000 people, and another few bands. We took suggestions from punters and staff, and applied them all for year two for improvement.
Now we will do the same for Year 3. Consider this your official announcement - THERE WILL BE A THIRD YEAR OF UNIFY in January 2017.
It will naturally be bigger and better than last year, with the key word here being “naturally” - we’ll grow it slightly, and we’ll improve and tweak the things we need to, but we won’t be trying to expand it beyond what it needs to be. This is an event based on people being comfortable and feeling safe and feeling rewarded for being part of a community. We want UNIFY to exist for 20, 30, 40 years and beyond, and we won’t be exposing this event to the kind of risk that could stop that happening. We have plenty of plans in the works, but we’ll only make announcements when we have 100% locked everything in and know what we are doing. We will continue to listen to your feedback and we’ll continue to improve every aspect of the experience until its absolutely perfect.
I’ve been asked probably a hundred times now whether we will try and replace Soundwave and fill that space. We all loved Soundwave and I personally attended at least two cities every year the festival was on - it was one of the highlights of my year. But thats not what this event is supposed to be. Obviously via our various business ventures in the heavy music space (UNFD, 24 Hundred, UNIFY) we have a wealth of experience, and we will be exploring how to use that to cater for heavy music festival fans all around the country. But for now, UNIFY will remain what it is - a professionally run community experience in country Victoria by the fans and for the fans.
I hope the spirit of this announcement is recognised as one of gracefulness and positivity. This was an experience none of us will ever forget, and its only the beginning of something beautiful.
I want to leave you with one more comment. The festivals that have shut down here aren’t an indication of the fans not showing support or complaining too much. The fans were always there, and they deserve to not be scrutinised for what they choose to attend. This has been an industry problem first and foremost.
- Luke Logemann, and Team UNIFY / THE HILLS ARE ALIVE / UNIFIED
