Veteran promoter Michael Chugg believes that the days of the Australian mega festival are virtually at an end.
Speaking to The Music Perth ahead of the WAM Conference, Chugg commented on the tough environment for festivals, which has seen the cancellation of Homebake, which Chugg Entertainment has an interest in, and Harvest in recent months.
“I do think the day of monster festivals, unless they have a history and are organisationally together, is coming to an end,” he said. “That being said – we still have a dozen or so festivals with capacities of up to 15,000 and a few even bigger. It all depends on the cities, the people and lots of other variables.”
As well as Homebake Chugg Entertainment promotes or co-promotes Laneway, Deni Blues & Roots, CMC Rocks The Hunter and West Coast Blues & Roots. Like the later, WA will be in focus during his keynote address on Friday 8 November.
“Being out of the pressure of the Sydney and Melbourne scenes has allowed some of these [West Australian] acts to express themselves and to write incredibly original and great songs as well as great live shows,” Chugg said.
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“Tame Impala are very close to breaking the industry worldwide, and I was recently in Sicily, Italy and France and got great pleasure out of hearing Luke Steele's Empire Of The Sun getting massive airplay. One of the very successful young bands that we are working with actually originally came from Perth.”
From tomorrow theMusic.com.au will be on the ground at the WAM Festival, covering the conference, awards and live shows. Stay tuned to the site and our socials to stay up to date.
