This weekend will mark the 16th annual HOPE event in Wollongong, an event that serves to raise awareness and funds for suicide prevention.
Started in 2002 as a way to remember the life of local musician Belinda 'Binni' Deane (The Unheard) who committed suicide, the event is organised by Binni's partner Peter Conran.
This is the 16th year you've staged HOPE, an event you first staged to honour your former partner, Belinda Deane, who committed suicide. What type of a journey has it been organising HOPE throughout the years?
[Peter] A strange one. It's a combination of necessity and respect. There's always bands who want to play so finding acts is is easy. Often I have too many and I can't put everyone on which sucks because there's only so much time which means only so many bands. I tend to give priority to bands with members who knew Binni and then fill in around that.
It keeps with the initial reason the night was set-up but then expands to include others who wish to support it or have also been touched by a similar tragedy. In the end the community strongly supports it which is good. After all, there's always that niggling thought of 'What if you threw a party and nobody turned up' but it's always well attended, which I'm thankful of.
You must be brimming with pride with what you and others been able to achieve?
Pride? No, not really. Although it raises money for charities that deserve it, and it keeps Binni's memory alive, unfortunately the day itself doesn't give me pride because of what it's based around and it's hard to break that away from the fundraising side of it.
Tell us a little about the background/ history of the event?
Initially, it started out as a memorial show in Binni's memory and it was her best friend Rebecca Mayhew (Baby Machine) who suggested turning it into a fundraiser. The first one went well and it has just continued on since then.
All money raised at the event is shared with a range of charities… who are the some of the organisations you've been able to assist with donations and what type of work do they do?
At the beginning, we donated to Centacare, Lifeline, and The West Street Centre. A few years later Centacare changed its name to Catholicare to try and emphasise the church's role.
When the child molestation scandal gained more and more publicity in the late 2000s and the church began to distance itself from it while offering less than fair compensation amounts to victims of the damage it had been party to, I made the decision that the church has more than enough money to be funding these sorts of programmes without needing to fundraise, since the Catholic Church brings in approx $15 billion per year in Australia alone. I think they can handle it and take responsibility.
At the same time Headspace was opening up, however it was experiencing funding problems with successive cuts. So Headspace became our replacement for Catholicare. We also give to Lifeline, who are well known for their work in suicide prevention, and The West Street Centre, who deal with mental issues in woman of all ages.
Obviously, these charities offer important services to the local community… does that drive you each year to continue organising the show?
My drive is really to celebrate the day and not make it a mournful affair. So I'll always do that until the point when I'm not around to do it anymore or people just give up on supporting it. Both of those options don't seem to be anytime soon. I'm sure that even if I'm not around, someone else will take over.
Everyone involved donates their time… that must generate the goose-bump feels?
It's great that people want to help out. I've kept it very grassroots so often it runs smoothly with a minimum of fuss, but it also means that there's not roles for everybody. In that case I tell people that it's more important to be there to support the show than it is to work during it.
Patrick Lyons
This year's event; who do you have playing? What sort of day can punters expect?
This year we have Patrick Lyons and the band of American Creek, Baby Machine, Night Goat, Nice Folk, Rukus and The Dark Clouds. Five out of those six bands have members that knew Binni, which is great. Whereas we were initially aiming to go from three til midnight with more bands, apparently the TAB punters in the pub don't like it so we were given six til midnight instead. It is what it is, but when we get to 20, we'll do another big one (maybe 2 stages).
Tell us a bit more about a couple of the acts… any newcomers we should know about?
Well, they're all good and I'm not just saying that because they'll hit me. The only one I haven't heard is Night Goat, but I know the guitarist so I know they'll be good, or to someone like me who has heard many, many live bands, moderately tolerable. :)
Away from HOPE, what other projects do you have in the works?
Me? Nothing. I gave up playing and mixing music a few years ago when I realised I wasn't enjoying it anymore, which is quite sad. But this year I'll be mixing HOPE, so it'll be interesting to see how I feel being behind the desk again. Only time will tell.
The Dark Clouds, Nice Folk, Night Goat, Baby Machine, Rukus and Patrick Lyons & The Band Of American Creek play HOPE 2017 at Dicey Riley's (Wollongong) Saturday 1 July.
For suicide prevention support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit www.lifeline.org.au/gethelp
