With the always phenomenal Peats Ridge Festival (held over New Years Eve just an hour or so north of Sydney) just around the corner (hard to believe, no?), Larry Heath caught up with Festival Director Matt Grant to chat about the event, the lineup and more…
How do you feel the line up has shaped together so far?
I’m really happy with it actually, in some ways I think it may well be the strongest line up we’ve put out. It’s got such a great mix across different genres and merging and really established Australian acts. I’m obviously really, really excited to have Goyte playing especially in the New Year slot, I think it’s a real privilege to present him at that time. So I’m very excited about that, but also some of the lesser known acts… Mount Mocha Kilimanjaro back is great, I’m excited about Hanggai just for that sort of really random left of centre act that we really like to put on our bill.
The Dum Dum Girls are great on the up and coming and we just don’t have to worry, they’re just going to rock it. I’m really looking forward to seeing them and, you know really getting some good dance floor action going. Xavier Rudd, we’ve been talking to Xavier Rudd for many years to come and perform the festival. So to actual get him to come along is really great. I guess it’s some sort of recognition of where we got to as well. And then there are bands like Tijuana Cartel who we’ve supported since the very beginning who are now just on that cusps of breaking. Husky as well… they’re two acts to me seem really pitched at that point which is just about to break, a lot of interest in them.
I’ve had this question just about what is it that courses a band about to break. It’s so much the interaction between the band itself, the agents, the management, the record label, the way the public see of it… all these things come together in a certain sort of way and you can feel it happening. Then there’s this magical moment where they just take off like in a massive, massive way and Husky are definitely feeling like they’re just right on the edge of that, so, yeah it’ll be interesting to see where they go. They‘re certainly one of my picks.
Now you put out back in July, you’re on the look out for the next homegrown talent for the 2011 line up. How’s that been going?
Absolutely massive. We’ve had nine hundred and something… it’s pretty close to a thousand applicants. I’m surrounded by just an enormous amount of music that I’ve got to spend the next two and half weeks going through and it’s going to be a sixteen hour day, seven day a week listening marathon. Which I love because it’s where we discover bands.
I mean that’s where Angus and Julia came out under the first year they played for us. They were just a CD and an application amongst hundreds of CDs. And you go through it, it’s like grape picking. Every now and then this absolute gem pops up and you’re like wow, I can’t believe the quality of this act and it’s just so exciting to be able to present them. That’s what I love.
When it comes to the festival itself, it has grown and grown over the years, but from what people tell me it has always kept the soul from its original shows. Is that something you feel or at least strive to achieve?
To be honest I think it’s linked to the intention of the event. As an event, we try to achieve good things with it, in the work we do around in supporting emerging artists. Bringing people into the festival… even the people that work in the festival… bringing people in and supporting them to grow within the festival. I mean we have long term plans and I thin because of that intention, the festival tends to attract people with soul, and that inevitably flows through to the feel of the event and the experience of people that attend it. So yes you’re right, I’d agree with you. I mean it has grown but it still does have the same feel its always had. And there’s a kind of intimacy about it, even though it’s getting to be quite a big event now. Still, all the way through its retained it’s intimacy. I feel very lucky to be a part of that.
What’s been some of your favourite “festival food” when you’ve been presenting your festival?
Ahh that’s a good question, I used to be a big fan of Dutch poffertjes. Just small and tasty to run around with. There use to be a fish taco place as well. Always a very strange mix, but it seemed to work quite well. I think the thing is, you’ve got people coming into a space for four sometimes five days, it’s really important to give them a variety of things to eat. We have a space at the festival called Eden that we run ourselves and that’s all organic food and it’s basically a place where people can come and get a real healthy meal at the festival. It really tastes good, is good value, it’s filling, it’s wholesome and we create a really nice out door café environment within that. Food is an important part of festivals, I think often it gets overlooked but if you are somewhere for that many days, then what you eat is a big deal. That’s something you’ve got to look after.
Is there anything you’re looking to make changes to for the next event, or do you feel like you’ve got it pretty much sorted from previous years?
I always try and keep things quite fluid in the festival. I think the core of the festival is within the organisation of it. In terms of what works and what doesn’t work, I think we’ve pretty much got it sorted now. But in regards to the venues we offer and the people we engage with, there are a few new things we’re bringing in. I think it’s really important to keep change within in that.
There’s something comfortable about attending a festival that never changes, but there’s something exciting about going to a festival where you know there’s going to be a few things different. That there’s a few new energies that’ll be brought in and that’s something that I like to bring in to Peats Ridge so, yes there are. I can’t say what they are now just yet, but certainly by the time we come out with the second release we’ll be releasing all that sort of information as well. The different areas and the new things were bringing into this years event.
You were one of the festivals that has done pre-sales before the artists have event been announced. How have they gone? Has there been interest on that level?
Brilliant actually, brilliant. They’ve gone much better then they’d ever gone any other year. I know in the current marketplace there’s quite a few festivals that are struggling. I think we’ve been extremely lucky that we have such a loyal base of supporters for Peats Ridge. So many people go out and buy a ticket to the festival without knowing anything about it, just on their trust of what we do. Yeah they’ve gone really well, they’ve gone really really well.
Well that’s good to hear because there’s always that concern with festivals these days that it could have a good run forever and then suddenly the market place is so over flooded that the good ones are no longer getting the support they used to… but it always feels like you guys get that little bit extra which is so great.
I look around and see those established festivals that really, really make a lot of effort to cover all facets of festival entertainment. I won’t go into names but if you look around it’s fairly obvious… they’ve been going for seven, eight, ten, twelve years and they’ve got a lot of respect in the market place and all those festivals don’t seem to be getting touched so much by the crowding in the market place.
It tends to be the new festivals that are trying to get in and don’t have that history or that heritage to trade off, and they are finding it quite hard. I’d be very cautious if I was trying to start a new festival in this market place. But the established ones, I think if they concentrate on their core audience and on what they do well… on what they’ve established and what they’ve built their festivals on… people are going to stick to what they know and what they can trust in an uncertain marketplace. So there’s definitely some strength in that.
Well best of luck with the festival this year and it’s always a fun time out there… I hope it’s a fun time for you guys as well.
It is, yes it is I love it, I love it you know at the end of the day, I’ve put on a festival that I want to go to. It’s kind of a shame that I have to work at it, but I try and get as much time out as I can to go out and enjoy it because it’s a good thing to do.
Tickets to Peats Ridge are on sale now! http://www.peatsridgefestival.com.au/
