We need more mid-winter music festivals. Pōneke already has one.
What the rest of the country can learn from Cuba Street's Great Sounds Great.
Nothing is happening. There’s nothing to do. Barely anything is on. Where are the concerts, the events, the festivals, something, anything at all, that can drag people out of their houses when it’s cold and wet and wintry?
It seems like we’ve all gone into hibernation. Lately, I’ve had this conversation a lot. It’s true that, after a record-breaking summer, this winter feels slight. Xzibit, Tenacious D and 30 Seconds to Mars have all cancelled their shows.
With Splendour in the Grass axed, along with many other Australian festivals, we’ve had few sideshows to get exited about. Last year, an entire week of events, called Night Light, was based in Taranaki around those acts.
This year, there’s Greta Van Fleet and … The Wiggles.
FFS. What’s going on?
“It's a chicken and egg thing,” says Joel Cosgrove. The Pōneke-based promoter sees this phenomenon playing out too. He says everyone know summer festivals work. Winter? That could be seen as a risk. “People go after what they know and what works.”
But Cosgrove, one of the co-founders of the Eyegum Collective, is trying to do something about it. For the past three years, he’s helped co-ordinate Great Sounds Great, a one-day Pōneke music festival based in six venues on and around Cuba Street.
It is, he says, directly influenced by Tāmaki Makaurau’s own The Others Way, a one-day festival hosted in venues in and around K’ Road. “It's a celebration of the venues we love the most,” he says. The line-up includes several headliners with a hand-picked line-up of locals around them.
That means on August 31, artists like Fur Patrol, Trinity Roots, Erny Belle, Ebony Lamb and Hera Lindsay Bird will perform in San Fran, Meow, Valhalla, Rogue & Vagabond, Bedlam & Squalor, Hotel Bristol from 5pm onwards.
With more than 30 acts, trying to see everything is a fool’s errand. “You probably can,” says Cosgrove, but he believes you’d have a better time looking at a timetable and organising your night, rather than trying to wear out your running shoes. “You don't have to see everything. In fact, you really should try hard not to see everything.”
Cosgrove’s other tip is to take a punt. Yes, many will try to see the big acts, names like Jujulipps and Half Hexagon, but he recommends taking a punt on acts you might not yet be familiar with. His picks? Sleeping Village and Maiden Name. “They're doing some really good shit,” he says.
So, back to the original question. Why aren’t there more festival like Great Sounds Great being held at this time of year? Cosgrove says their first event was held in November, but ever since, it’s been heading more and more towards being a winter event. That’s because of the giant festival-sized gaps apparent around this time.
Local venues that are busy during summer often struggle during winter, he says. So venue owners love it. “Putting on something relatively convoluted and big is much handier for them now than at the end of the year,” he says.
He’s hoping they can help change the vibe, encourage people to get out in winter, and start a tradition that continues. It happens at Sydney’s Vivid festival, and many other major international city during the colder months. “Part of the challenge is getting people excited,” he says. “In Portland and Vancouver, you can have rain for two weeks and people still go out.”
It’s a risk. It’s always a risk. “I don't have to explain how much of a blood bath the last couple of years have been in terms of promoting festivals and events,” says Cosgrove. “We've lost money every year we've done it.” So why keep going? “Cos we’re stupid,” he replies. He’s joking. The real reason? “We just love what we do.”
Great Sound Great tickets cost $95; they can be purchased here.
Everything you need to know.
The summer festival line-ups are dropping thick and fast. In Gisborne, Ice Spice, RL Grime, Corrella and Koven will headline Rhythm & Vines. That’s a big step up for Ice Spice, who was last here performing at last year’s Listen In, where she played for just 15 minutes. (It was a great 15 minutes.) Meanwhile, down south, Rhythm & Alps has Becky Hill, Andy C, Shapeshifter and Elemeno P. Interestingly, Sir Dave Dobbyn appears on both line-ups. He’s loyal, I’ll give him that.
In more tour news, Boiler Room faves Mannequin Pussy have confirmed a one-off show here as part of their I Got Heaven world tour. The Philadelphia punks will play The Tuning Fork on December 13, where I will be in the front row screaming every word of ‘Loud Bark’. Pre-sales begin on Monday. While you’re here, Nadia Reid is heading out on a major November tour; tickets are here.
And now, a bit of a prediction. Last year, Limp Bizkit sold out Spark Arena on the back of three Australian Good Things festival shows. The line-up for this year’s festival is here, and it’s bonkers: KoRn, Sum 41, Bill Corgan, Mastodon, Frank Turner and L7 are all on the bill for Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in December. We’ll get sideshows for some of these acts, surely? Could KoRn fill Spark?
Money’s too tight to mention in America, where bands keep cancelling their tours over financial concerns. “The cancellation is caused by a mix of significant financial concerns and lower than expected ticket sales which is a common problem for many artists this year,” said rock act Helmet after cancelling a recent tour. Stereogum has more, including all the other acts who can’t afford to play live.
When Chappell Roan arrives here in February (for Laneway, or Electric Avenue, or her own show?) please don’t ask her for a photo. “I don’t want whatever the fuck you think you’re supposed to be entitled to whenever you see a celebrity,” she ranted recently. “I don’t give a fuck if you think it’s selfish of me to say no for a photo or for your time or for a hug. That’s not normal. That’s weird.”
Finally, I am obsessed with Ka, a New York firefighter who crafts minimalist, soul-drenched hip-hip in his spare time. He emerges from the shadows every few years, slings vinyl from street corners, and, for now, his new album, The Thief Next to Jesus, is only available by purchasing the .wav files from his website. But we have one video available from the project, ‘Such Devotion’, and it’s … perfect.
