BIGSOUND FESTIVAL

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF AUSTRALIAN MUSIC:

Creeping up on its second decade as Australia’s premiere utopia for anyone whose heart belongs to music, BIGSOUND (or “Schoolies: Music Industry Edition”) returned for another raucous and riveting jaunt in 2019.

Creeping up on its second decade as Australia’s premiere utopia for anyone whose heart belongs to music, BIGSOUND (or “Schoolies: Music Industry Edition”) returned for another raucous and riveting jaunt in 2019. The sun was on our side as we scuttled through the mazelike streets of Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley precinct, navigating boundless rendezvous for chinwags and bevvies, makeshift classrooms for industry wisdom, and more live music venues than you could swing a mic lead at (not to mention all the hustle and bustle that went down on the streets themselves – some of the best acts we caught all week were the buskers).

Moreso than ever this year, BIGSOUND took full advantage of Fortitude Valley’s surplus of new developments. Where in previous years, industry events would be strewn across a handful of venues throughout the precinct, 2019 saw a new hub of Cloudland – a notably bougie, seemingly endless labyrinth of venues – established as the official gathering grounds for almost all of the conference happenings.

Bakery Lane and Netherworld became favourites to meet up with peers. The former is one of the Valley’s many hidden gems – an unsuspecting alleyway that, once inspected a level deeper, presents a wonderland of kitschy cafés and quirky bars. The latter was a paradisiacal playground for nostalgic minds, spouting homemade sodas and a jungle of retro arcade games. There was also an enshrined PS1/CRT setup, where our editor came painfully close to beating the high score on

TonyHawk’sProSkater (the Warehouse level, naturally). By day, BIGSOUND was a haven for learning. Hook-up events put us one-on-one with colleagues from all corners of the music industry, and through a jam-packed array of panels and keynotes, we took a glimpse beyond the walls that often keep behind the scenes of music an elusive enigma. There was an A-list roster of personalities on deck, from label heads, touring agents and publicists to cog-turners at the ABC, artists themselves and largerthan-life luminaries like feminist punk legend Vivien Goldman and eccentric viral star Andy King (please, if you have not already, watch the FYRE documentary on Netflix; it is downright essential viewing).

As it always tends to be, the all-out highlight of BIGSOUND ’19 was its festival section, where once the sun had set and temperatures dipped, 18 of the city’s best and most beloved bars and clubs transformed into hotspots for the next generation of starry-eyed musical stalwarts to strut their stuff onstage. And though every act is obviously vying for as many eyes as they can draw, there’s no competitive element to the showcase: bands were always quick to shoutout their fellow shredders, and there was a palpable sense of camaraderie that defined the week at large.

Perched at the top end of Brunswick Street in all of its grungy, lowkey intimidating glory, the Crowbar quickly became our defacto checkpoint for the week – in part for its next-level lineup of live acts, (including a program-unofficial surprise set from the local luminaries in WAAX), and in part for its ingenious signature cocktails, our favourite of which met homestyle lemonade with butter-infused vodka… Yes, to answer your burning question, things got very messy by the end of the week.

All in all, we left BIGSOUND ’19 with more great memories than our brains could possibly hold, a tonne of knowledge about where the music industry in Australia (and abroad) is headed, and literal days worth of new music to sink our teeth into. Read on as we riff through all the highlights!