Ipswich has a new Battle Of The Bands competition.
Ipswich City Square in the Ipswich Mall will see 20 bands from all music genres and all age groups, take to the stage 4 July (from 11am) for the launch of a new annual event, the Ipswich Battle Of The Bands, with major prizes and an opportunity for huge audience exposure on offer.
From rap and hip hop, to metal, screamo, Top 40 and more, each competing band will receive a 10-minute performance slot where they’ll try to wow both the judges and the audiences in a bid to win a 5-hour recording session, a music video shoot, and media exposure in local and metro media.
Producer of the event as well as Marketing Manager at Ipswich City Square, Rachel Vickary has been overwhelmed by the response to the competition.
How rewarding has the response been?
Insane! We’ve got so many bands from all over the place wanting to get on board for the first Battle Of The Bands! We’re really excited to see so many cool new bands popping up!
Battle of the bands have been around since rock & roll was invented... how does the Ipswich event standout from the crowd?
There’s nothing really similar in the area and since the traditional battle format is such a great event, we didn’t want to mess with a classic. You know what they say: ‘if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it!’. Besides, there’s a huge, local arts and music scene emerging so we figured, if we’ve got the space, why not give new bands a chance to strut their stuff?
The event is a day-long affair... is there a major, community aspect to the day?
For us, the community aspect is about utilising an existing space for a whole new purpose. We also want to bring new visitors to our town and to our Centre to show them what a great space we have here. Sometimes, there’s a bit of negative press about Ipswich, so we like every opportunity we can find to show people how great it is here. Plus, we would LOVE to have the next Powderfinger or Hilltop Hoods start off right here in our Centre!
Prizes on offer will have bands salivating to win... what is up for grabs?
We’re giving the winning band a five-hour session at Studio 188, mainly so that a new band can get some studio experience, plus we’ve got a pro videographer on-site for the comp who will also shoot some footage of the band in the studio. And of course, they’ll get a feature in the awesome Scenestr!
The future of the event... will you be looking to expand the competition to extra days next year?
LOL. We’ve already been talking about doing a two day Battle Of The Bands event next time, purely based on the reaction we’ve had to this first one. So stay tuned peeps!
Now it's time to meet some of the 20 bands who'll be battling to be the inaugural Ipswich Battle Of The Bands champion.
"Also as far as the prizes on offer go we are still yet to record an EP so winning this competition would be great for us to help get our music out there to the public and develop our sound further to a more professional level."
Dethwish
"We are excited to get the word out for our local music scene; there’s a lot of talent and it’s good to see it surfacing. We can’t wait to get Ipswich City Square dancing and having a good time."Fourth Mantra
"We feel very excited to be one of the many bands picked for this showdown! It's our first battle of the bands completion we've entered and first times are always special! We hope, obviously to win because studio time isn't cheap but more than anything just the chance to play to new people in new places, exposure is everything in this industry. Plus just getting to play live is a thrill. All in all we're excited to play and to listen to other bands! Live music is so underrated these days!"Blind Operation
"We're looking forward to playing an unforgettable show for all the beautiful music-lovers in the audience … This is a first for us, so we gotta give it everything we got and try our best to leave an impression."Until Home
"We look forward to being a part of Ipswich City's Battle Of The Bands and sharing the stage with so many other local musicians. We feel that one of our strengths as a band is our live performance. With our presence on stage and carefully planned dynamics we love to take our listeners on a journey when we perform and hope to do just that when we play our set. We hope to achieve some good exposure from this competition."The Stray Selection
"Music is all about enjoying what you do and the experience you gain from sharing the stage with fellow musicians and bands. This will be a great format to test where we stand, as a band, amongst everyone else in the industry."We're so excited to show Ipswich how much fun live and local music can be, and any reward that comes from this is just a bonus. We just love to make noise!"
Tesla Coil
"I'm excited to be playing at the Ipswich Battle Of The Bands as it will give us a chance to play to people in a new city. it's also great to know that events like this occur within the community … I'm looking forward to meeting the other bands, and seeing them perform."The Ipswich Battle Of The Bands takes place 4 July (from 11am).
