Adventures Of The Australian Festival Scene

As UK festivals start promoting the hell out of their annual wild, summer weekends over social media with witty meme graphics and the constant bombardment of ‘Tickets almost sold out! Get yours now (or we’ll tell you to again in an hour anyway)’, the Australian festival season is sadly coming to a close. Alas, the reverse of seasons to this side of the world means Autumn has arrived outside my Melbourne city-view window with grey, rainy days, as the number of festivals plastering their brightly coloured posters around the city dwindles.

Since I arrived in this beautiful country back in November with wide-eyed ambitions of music work experience I have been lucky to attend a surprisingly impressive total of six music festivals (Stereosonic, Falls Festival, Laneway, St Kilda Festival, Soundwave, Groovin The Moo) for work and one for pleasure, Future Music Festival. Big Day Out narrowly misses out on that first list by an hour as I get screwed over by a food van company I was working for, ‘Running On Empty’ if you’re asking, but that’s another story. And by the way, this wasn’t any glamorous backstage work giving Placebo their ‘raspberries, flowers and incense sticks’ (genuine rider request list I found backstage), but cleaning, wrist banding and volunteering, that kind of stuff. And so to the point of this article, to provide an insight to the Australian festivals that IKE’s audience may one day wish to attend or have already been able to enjoy themselves.   

To read the rest of this article and my reviews of Laneway Festival and Soundwave, head to: www.ikeproductions.co.uk/adventures-australian-festival-scene/

My Festival Merch And What It All Means

(From left to right, top then bottom)

1. Stereosonic, Melbourne Showgrounds (Melbourne), 8/9th December 2013
For my first festival in Australia I was on the Showcleaners cleaning team. I bought my first vest 'singlet' that would later start my trend of buying a vest at every festival I attended. At this electronic dance music festival I got to see David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Nero and many others.

2. Laneway Festival, Footscray Community Arts Centre (Melbourne), 1st February 2014
At this Indie/Rock/Alternative festival I was a volunteer on the wristbanding team. I got to see Vance Joy, Chvrches, Haim and Lorde on the same stage. My second favourite of all the festivals I've experienced so far because of its laid back and feel-good atmosphere.


3. St Kilda Festival, St Kilda (Melbourne), 1-9th February
I was a volunteer for Live n Local week as part of St Kilda Festival which was taking part as gigs in various venues in St Kilda. I was delivering sandwich boards with gig posters, giving out promotional guitar picks and surveying the audience at the gigs. Sunday Chairs were one of the best bands I saw, they played at Prince Bandroom.


4. Soundwave, Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne), 28th February 2014
I was on the Showcleaners team again for this Rock/Metal/Alternative festival. I got to see Biffy Clyro, Placebo and Green Day headline with a 3 hour set. There was a bright blue sky and hot sun all day.

5. Future Music Festival, Randwick Racecourse (Sydney), 8th March 2014
Future Music Festival was my favourite of all the music festivals I've attended so far in Australia, so much so I spent $100 on merch to wear on the day. The festival showcases some of my favourite acts in electronic dance music and hip hop, two of my favourite genres. I booked my ticket before I left home in the UK as it looked like it has the biggest and best lineups. Martin Garrix, Rudimental, Pharrell Williams, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Chase & Status were all awesome. Big party atmosphere.


6. Optus Rockcorps, Prince Bandroom (St Kilda),
I had previously volunteered for Rockcorps in 2008 and 2009 in London where I carried out four hours gardening and painting for a Rockcorps gig ticket. When I heard the well known slogan 'Give, Get Given' on Nova FM at the gym I looked online to find projects in Melbourne. I helped out at second project where the band playing the gig, American Authors came to see us and take part. The gig, although underage, was better than I'd anticipated, they make an effort to put on an energetic show.


7. Groovin The Moo, Bendigo, 3rd May 2014
The purple tshirt is my favourite tshirt of all the merch I've collected, I like the bright colour and cool gold design on it. A friend and I was working on the main gate wristbanding for ths festival. We got to see Thundamentals, Peking Duck, The Naked And The Famous, Dizzee Rascal and Disclosure for a second night in a row. The weather was really cold and it rained quite a bit near the end so we didn't mind leaving early for our train!