Ahoy mateys and set sail to roam the high seas in search of adventure with promoter Andy Clark as he travels his pirate-themed festival juggernaut, Wallapalooza, across this fine land with a crew of minstrels hell-bent on entertaining you.
Now in its sixth year, Wallapalooza will hit the road nationally for the first time bringing with it all the fun and madness of this year’s theme which is based on pirates, dungeons and dragons. “The whole tour is about the journey and I always wanted to do a pirate show,” Andy says.
“If I was going with a single city, the Gold Coast was always going to be a big pirate show this year. But then I started talking to some of my friends about the journey and what we do and every year Wallapalooza’s had a different theme, so it seemed like a good extension on that for every show to have a different theme.”
For the Brisbane event, Andy and his team from Killer-FX are transforming the entire New Globe Theatre into one big dungeon. Yes, I said dungeon. “Brisbane ended up being the dungeon just because The Globe for me has that old-world charm and it’s underground,” Andy explains. “That’s where it came from, I thought, ‘let’s turn it into an underground dungeon’. Why not?”
After running Wallapalooza successfully for five years on his home turf of the Gold Coast, Andy has been given the push to take the local music, arts and culture festival to the national level. “This year is pretty crazy,” Andy says, “it’s the first year I’ve taken it national, so obviously it’s five years we’ve been on the Goldie [sic] now and it’s become very successful within its own right there so I just wanted to share the message we send at the Gold Coast shows a bit further to a bigger audience.
“The key element for Wallapalooza is that I grew up playing in bands and used to go to venues like The Playroom and Bombay Rock when there really was… I don’t think scene’s the right word, but there was a genuine appreciation for musical artists and what they put into their work.”
Andy’s passion for live music is what drives him to organise Wallapalooza, which this year will have a greater focus on bringing younger, aspiring musicians to the forefront. “I was born and bred in Melbourne then moved up [to the Gold Coast] when I was 13, so I’ve been here for more than 20 years, but my whole musical career has been based on the Gold Coast.
“I started playing, as you all do, in a little, garage band through high school, then had the opportunity to work with a lot of older musicians in my late teens because I played drums and I played sax. So I had an opportunity to work with a lot of older musicians and that got me into the mainstream scene a lot quicker. From the day I left high school I was a full-time musician.”
As a career musician, festival organiser and a father of three, Andy stresses the importance of mentorship and a sense of community in the music industry to foster encouragement and provide pathways for young musicians and artists. “I think that’s definitely lacking these days and it is the scene, it’s the environment; it’s so hard to get a show, then it’s so hard to get a quality show and it’s so hard to get people to it, unfortunately people tend to be working in silos rather than working in a community at the moment.
“Wallapalooza for me is about the musical community … it’s about the music, it’s about art in general and having all the senses involved in the show. Not just the one-dimensional chuck bands on a stage and turn up, so that’s why I do all the quirky shit I do each year, there needs to be something, it needs to be an experience that people go to see as much as they go to hear.”
With Wallapalooza achieving a national run, this year’s event will shine a strong spotlight on the creative talent abundant on the Gold Coast, which means exposure for local bands. “Probably my proudest thing is that I’ve given opportunity to a lot of Gold Coast bands to be seen in front of large crowds and people get to experience their art and their message in the way they intended it to be shown … if one person can connect with a band and their song, my work is done.”
Wallapalooza Tour Dates
Fri 5 Jun - Great Northern (Byron Bay)Sat 6 Jun - New Globe Theatre (Brisbane)
Sun 7 Jun - The Wallaby Hotel (Gold Coast)
Fri 12 Jun - Yah Yahs (Melbourne)
Sun 14 Jun - Frankie's Pizza (Sydney)
