WAMFest Unveils Epic First Announcement

Establishing itself as a staple on the WA music calendar and evolving in exciting new ways each year, WAMFest has unveiled the first talent for November’s event, locking down an impressive list of speakers for its highly anticipated conference while beginning to roll out the live music program and more.

Smashing previous records with more than 11,000 attendees last year, the festival rebrands from WAM Festival but retains its four-day format and other elements introduced in 2015, welcoming a diverse spread of local, national and international speakers, including a keynote from The Drones’ frontman Gareth Liddiard and talks and networking opportunities with triple j talent.

Running from Nov 3 – 6, WAMFest will once again kick off with the WAM Awards (details TBA) before the conference - also rebranded to WAMCon – takes over State Theatre from Nov 4 - 5 with more than 50 speakers dishing up valuable information at panels, one-on-one meetings and networking sessions.

Here’s the first WAMCon speaker announcement:

Alex Paioff (CEO, Pilerats & Metric Events/Creative Director, Made In The Pile)

Alex Taggart (Music Rights Management, Outdustry Group/Head of Ops, The Syndicate - Beijing, China)

Andrew Fuller (Owner, myEntertainmentLawyer.com/Manager, Kim Salmon, Rob Snarski - VIC)

Andy Gumley (Booking Agent, Village Sounds - NSW)

Clive Hodson (Director, Perfect Pitch Publishing - NSW)

Craig Porteils (International Music Producer and Mixer - NSW)

Dave Ruby Howe (Director, triple j Unearthed - NSW)

Dom Alessio (Presenter, Home & Hosed, triple j - NSW)

Dorothy Markek (Music Director, Double J - NSW)

Esti Zilber (Associate Producer, Sounds Australia - NSW)

Evelyn Morris (Performer, Pikelet/Blogger, LISTEN - VIC)

Gareth Liddiard (Performer, The Drones - VIC)

Henry Compton (Director, Australia & New Zealand, The Orchard - NSW)

Jocelyn Kane (Executive Director, San Francisco Entertainment Commission - San Francisco, US)

John Chavez (Booking Agent, Ground Control Touring - New York, US)

Kylie Thompson (Owner, Sorrento Strategic Accounting)

Leigh Treweek (Director, The Music/Manager, Alex Lahey - VIC)

Marihuzka Cornelius (Label Manager and A&R, Ivy League/Performer, The Bloods - NSW)

Matt Johnson (Owner, Walking Horse Music/Manager, The Love Junkies, Patient Little Sister, Dream Rimmy)

Mike Harris (CEO, WAM)

Nevin Domer (Owner, Genjing Records/COO, Maybe Mars Records/Founder, Far Out Distant Sounds - Beijing, China)

Paula Guerra (Project Coordinator, KISMIF/Assist. Professor in Sociology, University of Porto–Portugal)

Scott Adam (Head of Programs, Events, Hospitality & Tourism, North Metropolitan TAFE)

Tom Harris (Managing Director, White Sky Music/Manager, The Little Stevies - VIC)

Tom Johannesen (Booking Agent, New World Artists - NSW)

Will Watson (Director/Agent, PS Music Group - QLD)

Zac Abroms (Co-Programmer, Face The Music/Manager, Kate Martin & Manor/Director, Vice Royalty/Director, Maroochy Music & Visual Arts Festival - VIC)

The QuayNote boat party returns (Nov 4), with a live music program that, once fully unveiled, will promote a smorgasbord of local talent across the festival’s Friday showcases, Saturday Spectacular and Block Party and Sunday Best gigs.

13 events of the expanded Friday night festivities have been confirmed with Rag n' Bone, Puck, Claim The Throne, Moana, Mossy Fog, The Homicides, Shit Narnia, Cursed Earth and more playing at various venues across Perth, Northbridge and the surrounding suburbs, while, in an Australian first, Sunday Best sees an exciting partnership with Parlour (described as “the Airbnb of live music”) to allow punters to get in on the action and host an event at their own house – more info on Parlour can be found via their website.

If that wasn’t enough, 12 Northbridge venues have been locked down for the widely successful Saturday Spectacular, which will dish up more than 90 acts from 4pm until late, including:

The Block Party (Wilson Roe St. Car Park), Perth Cultural Centre, Alabama Song,

Badlands Bar, The Bird, The Boston, Ezra Pound, Hen House Live, Jimmy's Den, The

Moon, Mustang Bar and Universal Bar.

Earlybird tickets are now on sale via Eventopia, and you can find more info via the WAM website.