A3 Festival challenges the idea of Australia's "festival crisis"

It feels like only yesterday that Australia was addressing its “festival crisis”. The cancellation & postponement of many larger, more legacy brand festivals was enough to shock the country into debate and action.

The causes of this were surprising to no one close enough to see it coming. Cost of living, insurance costs, overpolicing, it was all enough to make some festivals simply too expensive to run. The NSW Government has even gone so far as to rework its own Festivals Act, and create an emergency fund for festivals over 15,000 in capacity.

While that conversation, applicable to the likes of Splendour, Groovin The Moo and others is all too relevant, 2024 has seen a trend that many lawmakers may not have seen coming: dance music.

Dance music isn’t new, but the popularity it currently enjoys is, particularly within Australia.

Recently, SoundCloud stats showed that Australians listen to more dance music, on a per capita basis, than any other country in the world.

So while the narrative has been that Australia’s “festival problem” needs addressing, many people within dance simply see this as a ‘changing of the guard’. One such group is Naarm-based Novel, one of the country’s most experienced, well respected and established promoters.

Originally founders of Pitch Music & Arts Festival, Novel has spent the last few years perfecting the large-scale shows and collaborations it does on a near weekly basis. Now, obviously ready to re-enter the festival game, they’ve launched A3 festival, set to happen next weekend in Victoria’s countryside, around an hour South of Naarm.

Boasting one of the most stacked lineups for a local festival to have ever launched with, and a focus on design and art set to carry through everything the festival has to offer, A3 is shaping up to immediately be one of the country’s premier festival experiences.

As the Novel team prepares to invite punters to Lardner Park on Bunurong Land, from November 29th to December 2nd, we sat down with Stefanos Makroyiannis, one of Novel’s core team, to understand how the festival fits in our current understanding of the industry and the broader dance music landscape.

Q: What do you think of the idea that there is a festival "problem" in Australia?

STEFANOS: I’m not sure if I’d say there’s a festival ‘problem’. To state the obvious - we have an economic problem, and unfortunately, that has led to our festivals being affected.

-

Q: Why do you think that larger-scale festivals have had to either cancel, postpone or scale down?

STEFANOS: I’ve heard a theory that larger festivals are cancelling because there isn’t as much appeal for multi-genre, huge-named artists - but I’m not sure if I agree. I think that it’s simply a change of the guard, people are looking for something more intimate and relatable, events they can connect with.

-

Q: What made you & Novel want to start A3?

STEFANOS: We’ve been discussing the idea of getting back into the multi-day festival scene ever since we finished up at Pitch. It took a while, but we finally got here. We really feel like we have something unique and special to bring to Australian music and art lovers, so we bit the bullet.

-

Q: Was there any thinking behind not doing it? Particularly given the current climate.

STEFANOS: There is a lot going against running a camping festival these days, a key reason being extreme weather conditions. We took great care to ensure our festival was the right time of year, and the right location to minimise as much risk as possible.

-

Q: What are some of the biggest hurdles you faced in setting the festival up for its first year?

STEFANOS: Launching a new festival is a daunting task, you prepare the brand identity, book the lineup and put it out there, and really just hope people like it. We’re fortunate to have received amazing feedback.

-

Q: We're seeing a huge number of promoters popping up in dance music all the time, & yet hearing that we have a live music & festival problem. What do you make of this?

STEFANOS: I think we’d all love to see our cities and continent buzzing with more live music, but we have it really, really good in Australia, especially in Melbourne/Naarm. We get to run and attend some of the best events in the world, it’s important we don’t lose sight of that.

-

Q: To many, Australia is still culturally lagging very far behind when it comes to accepting & supporting dance and electronic music. What would you make of this idea?

STEFANOS: I am very optimistic about the Australian dance music scene. The talent here is incredible, and more and more people want to express themselves either through events or their music. As we see the interest to continue to grow, I think the culture will follow.

-

-

Q: What do you think Australia needs to be doing to change the way that people interact with & profit from electronic music?

STEFANOS: As event organisers, we need to connect more with our community and break down the concept of the ‘other’. Our scene is going through a period of change and the ones that last are those that provide authentic experiences with soul. I’m looking forward to being a part of that process.

-

Q: A3's lineup is absolutely huge. What was the goal you set for yourselves musically with such a wealth of experience already behind you?

STEFANOS: We set out to host a broad range of artists, some you might be familiar with, but also some you might not be. We’d love people to stumble upon a stage with an artist they’ve never heard of and leave being their new biggest fan.

-

Q: How has Novel's experience up until this point prepared you for A3?

STEFANOS: We’ve taken learnings from our 1-day festivals and events; LTEC, smalltown, Days Like This - we learnt a lot, but in 2017, we launched Pitch and continued to run the festival for 4 years. We took a lot of what we had learned and experienced into A3.

-

Q: Musically, where do you think A3 sits not only in Australian dance music, but when compared to the world at large?

STEFANOS: I think we’ve carved out a great spot for ourselves in Australia; even though it’s just the first year, there is a really strong sense of identity to A3, and I’m looking forward to seeing it in action next weekend.

It’s interesting to think about this on a global scale - we’ve taken inspiration from what we think are the best bits of festivals worldwide and made it our own. That’s the best part about being in Australia, there is only 1 Australian bush, and I honestly think it’s the best place in the world to attend a festival.

Q: Dance music has never been bigger worldwide or in Australia. How do you think that's a positive or a negative on the culture as a whole?

STEFANOS: I think it’s a positive. Even if some of the most popular music isn’t quite to my taste, trends change, people’s taste develops and they go looking for something new. In turn, if you find yourself among a group of people who are really there for the music, who are dancing with their eyes closed, banter is flowing, you’ll begin to understand what dance music culture is all about.

-

Q: What were your main goals when looking at the way in which A3 will function & look? Can you give us a detailed rundown on stage design, performance, etc?

STEFANOS: Visually, we want people to have something to look at and engage with everywhere they go. Whether that’s through spatial installations, lighting, projections or just engaging with the beauty of the festival site.

Our stages are all unique in their own way; the main stage (A1) focuses heavily on production, our warehouse stage (A2) has a more stripped back, cavernous feel, and stage A3 is on a natural amphitheatre among the trees.

The performance and cinema program is something I’m really excited about; our Director of Performance and Audiovisual - Harrison Hall - has put an incredible lineup together of world leaders in digital contemporary performance - which is going to be supported by a rolling 4-hour looped cinema program throughout the festival. It’ll blow people’s minds.

-

Q: Visuals are a huge focus for A3, with artists clearly mentioned on the lineup. Can you run us through what this will mean for the festival & why it's been so important?

STEFANOS: The festival was named after our 3 pillars - Audio, Art and Architecture. We really wanted to ensure that everyone had an understanding of the emphasis on the art and architecture aspects of the festival, so sharing the full lineup at once felt like the natural thing to do.

To us, the visual art is really just as important as the music and sound, it's important that people feel as though they're experiencing a multi-faceted offering, as opposed to linear. We hope to give people an experience they haven't felt before, to push the boundaries of how they think about art and the relationship it plays in our lives. Full immersion is really the only way that is going to happen.

-

Q: What are you personally most excited for with A3?

STEFANOS: I’m really excited about the performance and cinema program, it’s going to be incredibly unique to Australian music festivals and I’d wager that it’s never been done in the way we’ll be presenting it. Also the sound across all 3 stages will be elite.

-

Q: What are you most excited for punters to see & experience?

STEFANOS: I’m excited for punters to experience and connect with something new, a lineup they might not be fully familiar with, stage designs that might surprise them - i.e. a festival experience they’ve never had before. I’m hoping they leave A3 with a sense of wonder and excitement - the feeling they’ve just been to something special.

-

Tickets to A3 are still available via the festival’s website, though close to running out.

Jack Colquhoun is Mixmag ANZ's Managing Editor, find him on Instagram.