Electric Playground closes its doors for the last time this Saturday, March 1, but don’t expect it to go quietly, says co-owner and V8 Ute driver Wayne Wakefield.
“The final Electric Playground night will be the Ultimate Festival After Party on March 1,” he says. “It's the last time the venue will be known as Electric Playground. The Ultimate Festival After Party is our strongest brand and they've been massive events over the years. In the past we've let everyone come covered in mud and whatever from the festivals when most other venues would only accept smart clothes. We changed the mindset of a lot of places and they copied us and let people come in their festival gear. We used to call it 'Come As You Are'; you could turn up in thongs and a pair of shorts and keep the festival vibe alive.”
Since 2002, the Warner Street club in Fortitude Valley has hosted some of the biggest names in electronic music. “One of the best nights we had was Roger Sanchez,” Wakefield says. “He played a five-hour set, which was pretty awesome. Porter Robinson tweeted that his gig at Electric Playground was one of the best in Australia when he toured the first time. R3hab really loved it as well; we had them when they were still making their way up and now they're one of the headliners for Future Music. Previously [the venue] was a jazz and blues bar. 4ZZZ used to use it as a venue for new bands; I think Powderfinger and Regurgitator might have played there at one point in their early careers, so it's got a bit of history.”
A return to motor racing has seen Wakefield shift his focus, and with the nightclub scene evolving every year, the V8 Ute driver has no regrets about the venue’s closure. “We're just closing the Electric Playground brand as I'm going back to motor sport,” he says. “It's what I was doing before I started in the club. I used to DJ as well as being the main promoter, and since I don't do that any more, it hasn't been going as well as it used to, so we're changing direction with the venue and going back to live music with different promoters.“I need to free up my time to focus on motor sport; we'll still own and operate the venue, but won't have to worry about it as much. We might have some one-off electronic events, but it'll be predominantly about live bands.
“I'm doing my second year in the V8 Ute series. I used to race V8 Supercars up to 2007 before focusing on clubs and DJing, but I'm going to have one last crack at motor racing, try to get back to where I was in V8 Supercars and hopefully get a full-time drive with a front-running team. The plan is to move back into Supercars by the end of the year. My goal is to win the Ute championship this year. I can't have many distractions as there's a lot of fitness involved and [I] can't be worried about the business as well, so I have to clear the deck, so to speak.”
Wayne also points to a shift in club culture as another reason to close the Electric Playground chapter. “The [club] scene is changing; it's not about the music as much as it used to be. That's probably another thing that makes me happy to be going back to motor sport. The passion for the music is not there like it was five or ten years ago. It's very, very commercialised now in a big way. People come out when they see a big name, but I don't think they actually appreciate the culture of it. Things change and move on.”The Ultimate Festival After Party will be the final act at Electric Playground this Saturday March 1.
