Features August 21, 2018

Doing it for the kids: All-Ages Yours & Owls festival to support the next generation of music lovers and industry workers

Former Assistant Editor

This morning, Yours & Owls festival announced their first all-ages sideshow, with a bill chock-full of homegrown talent including The Jungle Giants, Mallrat, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Maddy Jane and more.

Yours & Owls co-founder Ben Tillman tells TMN that rather than trying to find financial value in an all-ages gig, their focus has been on nurturing the next generation of music lovers.

“To be honest, the all-ages aspect has no real financial benefit to us. If the decisions were going to be made on a financial basis, we simply wouldn’t do them.

“The value to us is more in growing the culture around live music and providing something for those younger kids to do… We really care about the scene we’re involved in and want to help continue to build it, so to us, the opportunity comes in just living a happy, fulfilled life, working with music and people in music and seeing the area grow and flourish.”

The lineup is strong with local talent, with Maddy Jane, TOTTY, Cry Club and SPIT CHEWY all hailing from the Gong.

In terms of curating the lineup, Tillman says that while the all-ages aspect does influence the kinds of acts they choose, “on the flip side, the artist you book will also change the demographic you attract.”

As a fully licensed event, OH&S considerations are mostly around the service of alcohol, he explains.

“It’s a balancing act of providing a safe environment that also allows the best experience to all punters.”

Tillman remembers his own first experience as an underage punter, attending local band competitions at the PCYC.

“The first proper concerts I saw on my own, with friends, would have been in Year 7 or 8. We started seeing a few bigger international touring bands at the Hordern Pavillion and Sydney Entertainment Centre, big venues like that.

Incubus was the first concert that I paid for myself and without any parents being involved.”

He says that it’s important for the Australian music community to put on all-ages events, as children “are the future”.

“They will eventually be the ones going to 18+ shows, they will eventually be the ones who grow up and play in bands or work in the music industry, so if they’re not inspired to care about music, why would they ever aspire to grow up and be a part of it?”

The all-ages festival will go down at Waves at Towrodgi on September 29. Tickets on sale today from Moshtix.