The Smokescreen Music Festival has been dubbed ‘the most dangerous music festival on Earth’. It’s also proving to be one of the most secretive.
The rumour mill has been in overdrive since the announcement of the new addition to Australia’s festival circuit, with those in the know tight-lipped regarding specific details about the event.
Musician Ella Hooper has been selected as a roving reporter for the festival and has been busy helping to promote the event. “Well, I think things that are dangerous are often secretive,” Ella says. “When you reveal all your tricks it's a bit like magic: it doesn't hold the same mystery and mystery is attractive. Danger is sometimes attractive and to be honest, they haven't let me in on everything either so I’m doing my best to walk through it one step at a time.”
With marketing for Smokescreen emphasising the festival as ‘the most dangerous on Earth’, many are asking: what makes it so dangerous? “They like to get very edgy or outside-the-norm headliners,” Ella explains. “I know they’re going to be looking at some local talent and they're also bringing out two internationals.”
Without revealing any specifics, Ella gave a couple of clues as to the sort of acts you can expect at the inaugural festival. “Not that I know a whole lot about them either, but they are apparently very much on the cutting edge. One is hip hop. A very real, very raw hip hop act and the other is more like a rock / glam rock/ arena act but very famous, very old, almost from the school of The Sex Pistols.”
The identity of the promoter, credited as 'Michael Mike Michaels' on the initial press release, has also been shrouded in secrecy. But with the Smokescreen Music Festival registered as the intellectual property of the Mushroom Group, speculation is rife that the event promoter is none other than the legendary Michael Gudinski.
“He [the promoter] said he felt like rock music had gotten too polite and too safe,” Ella says, “and that he thought he needed to inject a bit of danger and a bit of edge back into the touring circuit … I think he's been around since the rock 'n' roll dark ages as well, so he's kind of longing for those days when things weren't quite so nice.”
