Exclusivity, community, safety – Why Perth’s Origin Fields festival cut its capacity in half

Goodbye Origin NYE, hello Origin Fields. The Perth festival is going through some massive changes for its 12th year delighting the West Coast, including reducing its capacity from 30,000 punters on one night to 15,000 per day over a two day event.

Origin Fields general manager Daniel Arrigoni tells TMN that there were a number of reasons that inspired the reduction.

“Safety is the main thing behind that, this is coming from 17,000 to 30,000 to 35,000 in the space of three years.

“It’s easy to get lost in bigger festivals; quality is our main concern and we feel this change was necessary to make sure the quality remained the same and the safety aspect was maintained.

“It is a bit change but we feel like it’s the right change for us, to ensure a sense of community throughout the festival,” says Arrigoni.

In addition to the capacity change, the festival will now take place over two days (December 30 and 31) and will be situated at the scenic location of Langley Park.

This morning brought with it the first lineup announcement for the festival, a monster of list that includes exclusive sets from Khalid and Pendulum and one of the two Australian performances from Cardi B and Migos.

For a city that often misses out on international artists, Arrigoni maintains that a big lineup was an important piece of the puzzle, both to attract interstate punters and to cement Perth’s place on the musical map.

“The lineup is always a hard one, you go through so many negotiations, some stick and some don’t but we’re confident these acts are some of the hottest acts in the world right now,” says Arrigoni.

“Its all a part of trying to bring a level of exclusivity to something in Perth. It’s about trying to bring people from the eastern states and showcase what Perth has to offer.”

And it’s working, with Arrigoni and the team observing a sizable uptick in interstate and international patrons in recent years.

So with a spiffy new name, location, format and a more community-minded capacity, what’s in the future for the newly christened Origin Fields?

“The future is bright for us, we hope that the changes we’ve made will provide the opportunity to grow in terms of lineup. As far as what we do next, anything can go.”

Tickets to Origin Fields 2018 are on sale from Tuesday, August 21 at 6pm WST (8pm AEST); for more information and to buy tickets, head to the official site.

Check below for the full first lineup.

Cardi B (One Of Two Australian Performances)
Migos (One Of Two Australian Performances)
Khalid (Australian Exclusive Performance)
The Kooks
Pendulum [live] (Australian Exclusive Performance)
Aj Tracey
Bonobo [DJ Set]
Duke Dumont
Flava D
Habstrakt
Hayden James
Hype & Hazard
Keys N Krates
Mija
Mr Carmack
Pnau
Rolling Blackouts Costal Fever
Safia
Sampa The Great
Sasasas
Sigma [DJ Set]
Superduperkyle
Space Laces
Tash Sultana
Tchami X Malaa [no Redemption]
Virtual Riot
Whethan
Winston Surfshirt