Q&A: Geordie Barker, co-founder of Pleasure Garden Festival

Australia was given a brand new festival this morning. Described as “an immersive, creative music and arts experience”, The Pleasure Garden Festival will take its first bow in St Kilda this December.

Featuring an eclectic first lineup of acts including, The Cat Empire (pictured), Tash Sultana, Dub FX and Jakubi, Pleasure Garden plans to reinvigorate the concept of its namesake, a popular space of public entertainment back in the 18th Century.

TMN chats to Geordie Barker, Co-Founder of event management company Parachute International and The Pleasure Garden Festival, about the Pleasure Garden’s beginnings, the current festival landscape and his secret to a smooth operation.

Looking back on your career in event management, what do you now see as your Big Break?

Being given the opportunity to site manage the Shangri La field at Glastonbury Festival, still one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career.

Since founding Parachute International with Goose McGrath, is there a rule of thumb you’ve found you operate best under?

Every day’s a school day, and you can constantly strive to be better. Working within a dynamically changing industry, everyone working within, or with the company needs to constantly work towards being the best, and to be honest and open enough to learn and grow and change to improve systems and communication.

Tell us how The Pleasure Garden came about?

Australia has a very different festival landscape from the rest of the world, and having worked in the US and the UK, it was strange that Melbourne had such a vast range of skilled artists and musicians but no real immersive creative arts music festivals. With the loss of some of our larger festivals, we decided that it was time to try and push the boundaries of expectation of festivals in Australia.

What are your views on the current festival market?

It’s a fragile market at the minute, with the loss of such heavy weights as Soundwave, Big Day Out, Future Music, and more recently Stereosonic. I think people want more! They look at festivals like Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Boomtown and Burning Man and realise that a festival is more than a stage, some burger vans and a bar in a field. A festival is a clash of arts, music, culture and community. A festival should push the boundaries of imagination, enable artists from all fields a platform for performance, interaction and display. We are aiming to try and give that platform.

Why is it Melbourne only? Are there plans to take it national?

Melbourne is known as the cultural hub of Australia, the talent in Melbourne is astounding. Unfortunately the recent cuts to the Arts from the federal government have left the industry decimated.

We want to foster this community and The Pleasure Garden is the first step in properly integrating performance, music, visual arts and community. If the response in Melbourne is strong, a national focus would be amazing; especially to allow collaboration of artists from different areas of the country.

You’ve worked on local festivals like Soundwave and Stereosonic and international juggernauts like Burning Man and Glastonbury. What did you learn from your past experiences that informed the creation of The Pleasure Garden?

Community is key. If creative people are enabled and supported by the wider community to be allowed to build amazing places for music and interaction, everyone benefits. The other key point is that festivals like Glastonbury and Burning Man are built by people from all areas of the world, and all walks of life.

What are some best practices for those wanting a successful career in the festival industry?

Be open minded, communicative and positive.

What are your perceptions on the new crop of boutique festivals in Australia?

The new crop are heading in a really great direction, I’m excited for a new level of collaboration and to be able to take the lessons learnt from festivals in the UK/US and define our own style of events, and to reinvigorate the public about what a proper festival can be.

The Pleasure Garden Festival lineup:

The Cat Empire
The Opiuo Band
Tash Sultana
The Correspondents
Dub FX
Spoonbill
Jakubi
Mista Savona
Boogs
Steve Ward
Kodiak Kid

Saturday, 10th December 2016
Catani Gardens, St Kilda Foreshore, Melbourne
Tickets:The Pleasure Garden