Big Day Out dead?

[Dory_77]

http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/no-big-day-out-2015-anywhere-in-australia-report/

Apparently BDO won't be happening next year; no bookings or arrangements have been made thus far and last year they had huge losses. It's struggles are hardly breaking news, but now that it's been canned completely does anyone think it will it ever come back? How badly will people miss it?
I think it'll be gone forever now and I'm not overly fussed. I've been a couple of times, and it was fun, but Soundwave was always much more in line with my tastes and I've grown pretty weary of the 'festival experience'.
What does everyone else think?

 

[MelbourneCrow]

I still enjoy it, and have missed only one of the past 8 or so. Remember the days of having to choose UNKLE and Battles, or LCD Soundsystem/Rammsteen/Primal Scream all on at the same time. The last two years you would struggle for a clash like that.

I like Soundwave far more. Reckon I could see 40-50 bands on recent line ups there and enjoy them all.

 

[DapperDon]

BDO died around 5 years ago, only now have the promoters realised.

 

[wally funk]

What will probably happen is they'll take a year off to review the festival - what went right, what went wrong, what changes they can make to attract people back - and be back in 2016. Whether it continues beyond that will rely heavily on whether the things that have gone wrong continue to go wrong or even get worse. Also nowadays there are loads of music festivals, both single-day and multi-day and most of them more or less genre-specific. When the BDO began, there was hardly any competition. A year's break and a return will let us know whether or not the public wants it any more.

 

[Damon_3388]

BDO died around 5 years ago, only now have the promoters realised.

Pretty much the case IMO.

Not sure there's really the market for it anymore TBH, with the more specialised festivals (Soundwave, Stereosonic, Laneway) attracting big acts in their respective genres and niches. BDO just seems a bit unweildy and without a direct target market, kind of like the now-defunct Parklife was. There's only so many days off you can have from work and so much money to spend each year on festivals. Can't really justify the cost from a consumer perspective without the great line-ups of old.

 

[ComicSansHumour]

good riddance

 

[Jack Stevens]

I don't see why you'd buy a festival, and then immediately cancel it, so me thinks they have something big planned for 2016.

It could the festival a world of good to take a year off, settle the hoards of angry punters a bit, and then come back with a really solid line up.

AJ Maddah pulling out can only be a good thing.

 

[blackshadow]

The Big Day Out lost its way - it started out presenting the best alternative rock acts in the world. It evolved into something that was trying to be all things to all people.

I think I've been to 14 BDOs including the first 5 in Sydney. In those days the music was cutting edge - acts like Nirvana, Violent Femmes, Iggy, Ministry, Soundgarden, Primal Scream, The Jesus Lizard etc and the cream of Australian underground rock music - back then there was nothing like it.

Then they started adding things like the Boiler Room and becoming more corporate - yes there were some good acts but something was lost from those first magical heady days.

The writing was on the wall when Viv Lees left several years ago - and it sputtered out after that.

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[Dont be a lemon]

McDonald's of festivals.

The name has value so could come back some day.

 

[Dory_77]

I don't see why you'd buy a festival, and then immediately cancel it, so me thinks they have something big planned for 2016.

It could the festival a world of good to take a year off, settle the hoards of angry punters a bit, and then come back with a really solid line up.

AJ Maddah pulling out can only be a good thing.

They'd racked up some hefty losses over the past few years though so I think they'll struggle to pull off anything too big. It'd also be far riskier trying that which I doubt the new investors would be keen on. I doubt it'll return as a 'big' festival. It'll have to be more focussed in what it's trying to be if it wants to come back; i.e. pick a couple of fairly similar musical niches and make that its target audience.

 

[blackshadow]

It's worth noting that the American promoter who has bought the BDO does things pretty well so it will be interesting to see what they do with it down the track.

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[West Coast Weasel]

If this is the end, then so be it. Tried to cater to too many different genres. Remember my first festival in the late 90's and also the first place where I ever volunteered. Hopefully they can come back, even if it is as a smaller niche festival like the awesome Laneway.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I don't really think it's the fault of anyone. I don't think punters are being frigid and I don't think promoters are clueless. It's a combination of lots of things. This is an entity that's over 20 years old, in an expensive country, working within an industry that has changed more than any other in that timeframe. To run into issues is expected. Glastonbury and Coachella have an allure that's fair enough, they have much more to work in, but even if they were touring, would you seriously be able to trot Coachella from the Californian desert, to Austin, to New York, to Chicago, to Portland or Seattle or Vancouver?

The Big Day Out started when music culture in Australia, and the world, was a lot more aligned and cohesive. How did you get music? You saw a local band get big and that toured everywhere and its CD was everywhere. So there's a big market. Then, international bands got to prominence via Triple J and the few music magazines that existed, as well as Rage. What you were presented with was what you got. The bands kids found in record shops through posters and Cobain interviews was usually so little followed in Australia, not bringing them out was expected – and the kids into those tiny acts were also interested in what everyone else was. It was easier to dictate to the masses. The pool was shallower but everyone wanted to swim in it.

Now, you have so many little groups and cliques because of the internet. Catering for everyone is impossible. Back in the early 2000s, if rap was big, then you brought rap and could survive off rap. And even if it wasn't, and the trend was far more open and less genre-exclusive, then you could still bring out these 15 totally different acts but still sell them to the same(ish) group. Now, how are you seriously going to do that? No one wants to see two bands for $200.

You have to remember how great the one-two-three of Arcade Fire, Blur, and Pearl Jam was. I don't like the latter, I decreasingly but still quite dig the former, and the middle is profoundly important to me. But all three are capable of headlining a festival. They are headliners. That's what they do. To have those bands on a single day is a seriously awesome feat. Even Coachella or Gov Ball or Reading couldn't manage to pull it off.

I just think the beauty of the Big Day Out was the zeitgeist. It could tie together something and present it and that's what was in. The people who thought otherwise were in a demographic so much smaller to what exists now. It was easier to pigeonhole and say "this is the sound, these are the bands of 2002." How can you do that now?

 

[Julius Seizure]

Big day out, like a lot of other festivals, got hit by the abundance of festivals these days, especially as one that didn't cater to a specific niche. A lot of bands that would have previously been headliners, or high on the BDO bill ended up at more specific festivals.

It was my earliest festival experience, and I used to love it. Last went about 3 years. Im sure itll come back repackaged as something else. The name carries a lot of weight.

 

[crownie]

if it comes back, maybe throw some serious cash at Silverchair to do a reunion.