UniversAlley is a boutique music festival that will unveil a new world of underground, alternative acts in a spaced-out street setting at Umbrella: Winter City Sounds in Adelaide.
“We’re having three interstate bands and a bunch of locals that we are really keen on,” says Sam Szabo, who has co-curated the event with his partner from the local PAK collective, Jessi Lou Tilbrook and Gerry Bain from Swirl Records.
“Two of those interstate bands so far will include Jaala and Press Club who are both from Melbourne, then locally so far we have Towns and Zen Panda. It’s going to be in a CBD location in Adelaide, in a street that’s never seen a live music event before.”
Audiences will get the chance to hear some of the freshest alternative music while enjoying cosmic vistas created by local visual artists.
“We’re tying in a space theme, so we’re looking to have a visual artist put together a loop of visuals that will run over the course of the event thrown up against one of the walls close to the stage,” Sam says.
“We’ll have filtered lighting to fill out the dressing of the venue as well. We’ve got a few creative ideas revolving around space and the universe, and tying in the ‘universally’ meaning of it being all-welcoming and inclusive.”
UniversAlley is being presented by PAK and Swirl Records in a collaboration that Sam says has allowed he and Jessi to fulfil PAK’s charter of providing new, performance opportunities to emerging artists.
“These are bands that are not massively established yet but are on the cusp of big things,” he says.
“We feel we can recognise that and the PAK ethos is to provide platforms for bands that we dig and that’s what we’re trying to push along here.
“Umbrella affords us this opportunity, that initial kicker to get involved and take that jump into something different.
“So this is to definitely expand ourselves, but to add a different flavour to other events we have seen this year; just a slightly different flavour and an experiment for us.”
The event will also be broadcast live on Three D Radio as a way to further the reach of the festival and its message of coming together. “It’s going to be an event for everyone; we want to promote inclusivity and a universally-appealing event in a never-before used space.”
UniversAlley takes place at 230 Flinders Street in the Adelaide CBD 14 July.
