Sounds Australia reacts to Big Day Out cancellation
SOUNDS AUSTRALIA, the music development initiative largely responsible for our heavy local artist presence at international music events SXSW at MIDEM, has reacted to yesterday’s announcement that Big Day Out will not go ahead next year.
At SOUNDS AUSTRALIA we observe the recent ownership changes and cancellation of the Big Day Out from an Australian music exporting perspective.
We acknowledge the iconic history of the Big Day Out and the emotive coming-of-age festival mantle it held for hundreds of thousands of young Australian audiences and thus empathise with why the news of its cancellation has hit so hard, for so many.
We applaud, congratulate and thank all those incredible people that have played a role, both big and small along the way that made the Big Day Out one of the greatest festivals in the world. We do however see the many exciting possibilities and even more opportunities for Australian artists to reach the international arena with the reincarnation of the festival and we genuinely look forward to what the future for the event holds.
One of the best outcomes of a travelling festival of that size are the many relationships formed between the international artists and the local Australian acts. These relationships not only lead to long term friendships amongst local and international crews and musicians but also to reciprocal touring internationally for the Australian artists and connections with the music industry from around the world. Under the new ownership, this core benefit wouldn’t be affected and in fact might well be enhanced.
C3 Presents are a very progressive and respected company and it’s no doubt a strategic move for them to take the festival off the road in 2015 in order for them to reassess the internal structures, festival branding and audience evolution – all of which hopefully means returning with a stronger and more solid foundation, so that the festival can run for yet another 20+ years.
From our perspective there are very real benefits to having C3 Presents even more actively involved in the Big Day Out, especially with respect to programming. Our artists are having a significant impact overseas at the moment and C3 are already demonstrating that they are not opposed to booking them.
Take the 2014 Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits line-ups as examples, both of which C3 Presents operates. There’s 10 Australian acts on Lollapalooza Chicago, including Cut Copy, Iggy Azalea, John Butler Trio, Flume, The Temper Trap, Vance Joy, Jagwar Ma, Courtney Barnett, Betty Who and Anna Lunoe, whilst Iggy Azalea, Jagwar Ma, The Preatures and Falls who have all been announced for Austin City Limits.
With a US-based company responsible for multiple international festivals, concert promotion, event production and artist management at the helm of the Big Day Out, this surely bodes well for the Australian artists in North America, not to mention the many new relationships that will be forged directly with the wider Australian music industry. There’s no question that C3’s involvement with the festival to date has already introduced them to so many of these Australian artists and this should only amplify with their increased ownership.
C3 Presents know there’s amazing talent here and they’ll want to continue to be at the coal face of discovering and breaking the next Australian acts through the travelling music festival that they’ve obviously invested a substantial amount of money and resources into already.
In addition, Lollapalooza’s more recent move into South America may also present an even greater opportunity for Australian acts to gain access to this enormous emerging market. It’s possible too that with an international mandate, the “new” Big Day Out or equivalent might expand to include shows in Asia in the coming years, in tandem with Australian dates – which would again provide further opportunities for the Australian artists on the touring line-up to access new and important international audiences.
We certainly don’t want to discount the emotional outpourings of loss for a well-loved festival, nor do we want to engage in the “who destroyed the Big Day Out debate”, rather we feel that the bigger picture impact of the 2015 cancellation will allow all Australian Festivals to take stock, regroup and ultimately prosper from lessons learned and more-so that the longer term return of the original touring Festival will potentially offer greater opportunities and benefits for Australian artists both locally and overseas.
– SOUNDS AUSTRALIA