A four-day outdoor festival, based in south-east Queensland, Earth Frequency Festival brings together many cultural niches such as: transformational festival, tribal gathering, doof and boutique festival.
But the aim of Earth Frequency is to go beyond these traditional tags and exist as a multi-faceted gathering focused broadly on creativity, community, connection, intention and inspiration. With an inclusive, community-minded spirit Earth Frequency offers people from many different backgrounds, ages and walks of life the opportunity to come together with the shared interests of music, nature, technology, culture, community and peace.
Across the four days you can expect a full range of music, performance, arts, lectures and workshops, creative activities and market stalls. For those attending, it may just be the defining weekend of your summer.
With the 2015 event only a month away, we sat down with the festival’s promoter Paul Abad.
Firstly, does it feel like a decade has passed since you first began piecing together the inaugural Earth Frequency?
Ten years sounds like a long time, looking back it doesn't feel that long, I must have had some fun along the way :)
What inspired you to put on your own dance festival?
Interestingly, Earth Frequency didn't start out with the aim of being a festival, it was one in a series of small scale, one-night landcare/ doof crossover events in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, but it just seemed to get its own life and evolved beyond its original format. At the time, most outdoor events around these parts were.
What were some of the core elements you wanted to implement with Earth Frequency when you first began; have you managed to maintain them throughout the decade?
The key aspects of the event have always been maintaining a sense of community, holding an outdoor event in a way that is sustainable and respectful of the earth, bringing together a wide range of music and not just catering to one particular niche, and mixing up the music and entertainment with workshops, performance, art and other inspiring content. Over the ten years it's been an amazing evolution and growth process, but fortunately all these aspects have been maintained quite well.
The first Earth Freq had about 300 revellers... can you recall much from that first weekend?
The first Earth Freq was a particularly interesting one as we had a last minute venue change due to damage to the road at the original venue a week before; crazy process relocating on short notice... who knows, Earth Frequency might have not exist if some awesome friends down the road had not helped us out on short notice and offered their property!
Let’s talk about the 2015 line-up... you’ve collected a wonderful assortment of international, national and local acts across all forms of electronic music as well as a few bands straddling the reggae, folk and hip hop worlds. Piecing together the music aspect... what do you look for in an artist you want to play the festival?
The music programming is always a big challenge; getting the right balance between all the different styles and formats, the right balance between regular festival favourites and emerging acts, established genres and new trends. One thing I've never wanted to do is be a slave to fashion and as a result end up with no identity other than what happens to be 'in' on any particular summer, so building the music line-up around all the different communities and crews that support and attend is the way I usually approach it, making sure we have enough good music across the board and some interesting picks to push the boundaries a bit!
Beats Antique, Opiuo Band, Dub FX, Perfect Stranger, Dubmarine, Kingfisha, K+Lab, Desert Dwellers... the list goes on; who are Paul Abad’s personal picks to see? You can’t name all your children now!!
For this year I'll be making sure I am front and centre for The Opiuo Band, Desert Dwellers, Combat Wombat, Dub FX and Dose!
As promoter, how hands-on are you with artist relationships/ requests?
At this point I do every music booking myself and wouldn't have it any other way, but I do get some help from my awesome girlfriend with ideas for acts and some of the admin work involved.
Away from the music, Earth Frequency also offers lectures, workshops and other creative activities... you really can escape from the grind of life and dive headfirst into another world, right?
Absolutely. Being an event that runs over 4 days, 24/7, there is plenty of time to take a break from the dancefloor and soak up some inspiring content. This has been part of the event since the early days and each year we're able to pull together a bigger line-up of lectures, workshops, arts, movement, yoga and the like. This is not unique to Earth Frequency, and it's great to see events all over Australia and overseas embracing meaningful content to help festivals move beyond just providing entertainment, but providing a platform for personal development, community building and social change.
Highlights/ low-lights... I’m sure there have been plenty from each camp to keep you on your toes promoting/ running a festival... anything that stands out?
Highlights? Pulling off the ambitious Pha-Droid show in 2012 with Android Jones on a troopy in the middle of the dancefloor with a 6k projector, live painting light waves on his wife as she does her movement performance, with Tipper providing a live soundtrack. I think that was pretty much a peak moment of fusing so many aspects of the festival together in one moment.
Live jam PHADROID + TIPPER @ Earth Frequency 2012 from NOli GANDA on Vimeo.
Lowlights? Not too many to mention really; the worst it gets is having to make a stack of difficult yes/ no decisions each year when doing all the selections, and I guess quite a number of years of sustaining the financial burden of a young festival, but I guess it's all a test of dedication.
The term ‘bush doof’ has been used by the mainstream media to describe outdoor electronic music festivals held in country locations; there’s stigma associated with the term. With Earth Frequency, you provide more than a location to ‘party’. You’ve built a strong sense of community, providing a family-friendly atmosphere that everyone can enjoy – it must be an important part of the message you are wanting to deliver, right?
Without a doubt. Although Earth Frequency has certain elements of doof/ rave culture – certain music styles like techno, psytrance and progressive, the outdoor setting, late night music – the focus is definitely broader. To me it's very important to provide a safe, accessible, family-friendly space, and by including other genres of electronic music, bands, performance, live art, markets, talks and workshops, it ends up as a much more diverse event. The message has always been about different walks of life coming together with a sense of respect, and it's been amazing to see how much this intention can manifest if you put it out there.
The community aspect you have managed to foster with Earth Frequency... you must be proud of the world you have created?
I feel very proud to be doing what I am doing, and to see Earth Frequency grow in to what it is now, but it's actually also very humbling! I think I'm just a catalyst and the festival would be nothing without the amazing people, crews and communities that support it. We're on a crazy ride together and who knows where it will end up!
All walks of life are welcomed at Earth Frequency; an inclusive attitude permeates throughout the festival; how do you manage to achieve this when reality says you’re going to come across dickheads and people looking to be a nuisance everywhere in life?
I don't know what it is, and I am actually surprised each year when the numbers go up, but the dickhead ratio is still very low. We just don't have big issues with fights and unpleasant behaviour. When you have 3-4,000, there will always be a few idiots, but it’s minute really, and we have a very friendly and professional security team who manage to deal with the few incidents that do come up. This is one of the main reasons I am still doing the festival to be honest; if I had to have security breaking up fights all over the place, or a messy and careless attitude to the festival space, I would be thinking twice. I think it's probably the remote locations and the fact it’s a four-day ticket price – generally it's attended by people who really want to be there, and who actively contribute to the awesome vibe, rather than mess it up.
Earth Frequency for children... if you want to bring your kids, there’s plenty to offer the younger generation?
Since Earth Frequency started as a very community-based event, we have done a kids space since 2008, and it's turned into a big space with workshops, activities and performance for kids from toddlers to teens. Everything from clown shows to tech workshops to outdoor-survival skills. One of the biggest compliments for me is when people choose to bring their kids to the festival so we try and give kids and their parents a nice space and some good content.
The new friendships, networks established, connections made with artists; is that one of the most rewarding aspects of the job?
Definitely. Each year the circle grows wider, bookings get easier, new contacts are made. Now I just need to find a way to take few months off mid year to go couch surfing overseas to visit all the awesome people I've met!
Tell us one thing you never thought you would have to do as a festival promoter?
I don't want to gross your readers out so I'll pass on that question... but it's something that you'd normally call a plumber for!
Ten years in; what motivates you today that has changed from the first event?
Ten years ago I was doing three, four events a year and had a certain momentum with that but no master plan and it was all a bit more chaotic and experimental. Ten years on, I'm now thinking ten years ahead and working hard to perfect the festival around it's new venue, to eventually fine tune our systems, cap numbers at a certain level and make it as sustainable as possible in every sense of the word.
The last five or so years has seen many festivals – both national and boutique/ fringe – disappear from the calendar, never to return. How have you managed to navigate through the volatile landscape to nurture your own festival?
Good question! I nearly burnt myself out midway through the process, working three jobs to sustain the festival losses as well as doing most of the organising and planning myself. Midway through I took a step back and did what you could call an energetic sustainability audit and although the steps it has taken to get to more solid footing have been full of risk, it has been worth it. The key things for me have been to learn effective delegation, to choose a good team and to listen to them, and to work really hard on the line-ups each year and push some boundaries, treading that fine line between ever changing music fashions and a core sense of community. Plus those around me know I'm stubborn as a mule! So giving up has never seemed like a good option, and hopefully it won't ever come to that.
The next ten years for Earth Freq... what’s the long-term plan? Would you look at expanding the festival to include events in other states?
Definitely no plans to franchise the festival as it simply doesn't make sense without it supporting local community. The plan is to hopefully stay put for the long run at our new venue, Ivory's Rock; to grow to about 5,000 in attendance and then cap numbers to make sure we maintain the right level, and not grow to the point that the core experience and vibe is lost. There's a bunch of interesting projects I hope to get going too including turning the festival to clean energy, feeding the festival from the organic farm at the venue, and setting up charity/ social investment streams. That's all a few years off though; we're still stabilising after a big transitional year moving venue this year.
Earth Frequency’s tenth anniversary event takes place at Ivory’s Rock, about a 45-minute drive southwest of Brisbane, on 13-16 February 13-16.
