Q&A: Future Music Group’s Brett Robinson on Good Life 2015

The lineup for the largest under 18s festival in Australia was announced overnight and whileits sister festival Future Music sharesmany of its acts, Good Life may have discovered the key to complete autonomy with a throng of inclusions.

Aside from the now obligatory theme park rides that come part-and-parcel with music festivals, the organisers of Good Life 2015 have included: a Meet & Greet Photo Booth (with the stars from Glee, Geordie Shore andPretty Liars), a Theme Park, Water Park, a Sports Zone, a Chillout Zone and an Outdoor Cinema.

TMN chats to Future Music group’s Brett Robinsonabout the new overhaul, how organisers find out what Australian festival-goers aged 13-17 want, and how the age demographic stacks up against the over 18s.

The tie of music with a theme park atmosphere is common at large-scale festivals but Good Life has taken it a lot further with a complete water park and a cinema alongside the carnival rides and foam pit. Why take it up a level?
At the past Good Life shows we have had 2-3 rides and a waterslide and they were incredibly popular, which meant onoccasionthere were waits for these attractions. We wanted to take it up a notch and make sure everyone got toexperiencethese. It’s really all the best things about summer holidays rolled into one day.

What sparked such a dramatic rethink of the festival’s appeal?
Wewantedtocreate a day out that was more then just a musicfestival. Wewanted to create an event where every teenager was really excited to come along and have a greatday out with their mates in a really fun, interactive, varied way. There is something for everyone at thefestival.

What else have you improved on for this year’s run?
Kids also told us it’s a long day to party for sevenhours and they wanted acommunal area to meet mates and chill outin a comfortable space,but it to not be boring. So we created our chill zone andincorporated a cinema into it. We also have a free Pamper tent so you can get you hair and make up touched up after you spend the day on water slides or playing sports.

There’s no denying Good Life’s heavy interaction with its punters. You told a few to ‘get a job’ late last year and they took it with a grain of salt. Why do you know what Australian festival-goers aged 13-17 want?
Ithink the mistake that festivals organisers can make is thinking they know what there market wants, we spend a lot of the off season doing surveys, focus groups and allowing our 10 underage resident DJs to have a huge input into the event.

As far as punter behavior goes, how do the ‘underagers’ stack up against the 18+?
It's actually really amazing, a lot of the big internationals stars have told us Good Life is there favourite gig of the tour. The energy is seriously unbelievable.

On the topic of safety, what can you tell us about the crew manning the fun park attractions?
I can tell you they hate our process as it’s probably the most stringent in Australia. We make sure all rides have all the correct accreditation and are built to highly regulated Australian standards. It’s a long process of working with our contractors to deliver exciting rides that are tested and proven to be safe.

This year’s return sold about 90,000 tickets across the country, does this increase year-on-year or fluctuate?
We have been steadily increasing our numbers each year and expect it to grow a lot this year after launching extremely successfully into new territories last year (Perth and Brisbane).

With Big Day Out taking a year off in 2015, do you expect Good Life to benefit from that in ticket sales purchased by the under 18s bracket?
It’s notsomething we have really concerned ourselves with to be honest, but sure, if someregulars of Big Day arelooking forsomething new to try, wewould welcome them with open arms.Everyone’s welcome at Good Life.

Good Life 2015 lineup:

DJs:

Avicii | Afrojack | Martin Garrix

Will Sparks v Timmy Trumpet v Joel Fletcher

Blasterjaxx | Frontliner | Carnage | Tigerlily

Uberjak’d | Slice n Dice | Some Blonde DJ

Live acts:

Bliss N Eso
Havana Brown
Allday

Meet & Greet Photo Booth TV stars:

Glee – Mark Salling (Noah)

Pretty Little Liars – Tyler Blackburn (Caleb)

Geordie Shore – Charlotte Crosby

+ free attractions including:

Theme Park with carnival rides, Water Park with massive waterslides, foam pit & misting tent. Sports Zone, Chillout zone with Outdoor Cinema, Pamper Area (make-up artists & hairdressers) + much more

Dates:

Sun 1 Mar
Royal Randwick Racecourse, Sydney
(13-17 yrs)

Mon 2 Mar
HBF Arena, Joondalup (Perth)
(13-17 yrs)

Fri 6 Mar

Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane

(13-17 yrs)

Mon 9 Mar

Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne

(13-17 yrs)