Australasia News: New Festivals; McCartney To Newcastle; NZ: Global Summit Speakers

AUSTRALIA

New Festivals Warming Up Spring

With Australian music fans prepping for warmer weather, five additions were made to the 40-strong list of existing spring music festivals, some tapping on way-out locations.

The Eighty-Six will October 28 see 200 acts play for free in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, on High Street along the high profile 86 tram line.

Funded by Victoria’s state government, these are in music venues, restaurants, bowls clubs and record stores, and includes a live show of US pop culture podcast How Long Gone.
“Melbourne is one of the world’s greatest music cities, and the Eighty-Six’s goal is to celebrate and elevate our grassroots scene,” said co-founder and artistic director Woody McDonald.

Latest from the Music & Boozer Company and Bad Friday is punk and hard rock Off The Rails. It’s held Sept 30 in Newcastle’s Bar On The Hill and Oct. 1 in Sydney’s Railway Parade with a dozen acts headed by Amyl & The Sniffers, now touring Europe, and The Mark of Cain.
Mary’s In The Park is Adelaide’s first queer pop music festival produced Nov. 4 at Adelaide Parklands by LGBTQIA+ club Mary’s Poppin.

Acts are a mix of charting female singers, queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race USA and Down Under, and rising LGBTQIA+ names.

Melt OPEN celebrates queer music, art, culture, sports and ideas Oct./Nov. at venues through Brisbane. Organized by Brisbane Powerhouse, the first year is expected to bring 4,000 from across Australia and overseas injecting $8 million ($5.2 million) into the city’s economy.

Soulsters Solange Knowles and Sampa The Great are among 27 performers booked for Volume, held Sept. 22 to Oct 8 at Art Gallery of NSW. Among the venues hosting free and ticketed events is a World War II oil tanker.

Paul McCartney Third Coup For Newcastle

Frontier Touring’s six-date Oct./Nov. 2023 Australian leg of Paul McCartney’s Got Back world tour sees the legend bypass capital cities Perth and Canberra to play regional centers Newcastle and Gold Coast for the first time.

The Oct. 24 set at Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium is the third coup in a major events partnership signed last year between City of Newcastle and NSW Venues, the New South Wales government’s stadiums operator.

The idea, to turn Newcastle into a global entertainment and sports events city, and generate tourism dollars, has been successful.

Two Elton John January shows injected $14 million ($9.19 milion) into the local economy with 75% of 50,000 attendees from outside the region.

Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes forecasted McCartney’s show would deliver $9 million ($5.9 million), similar to P!nk’s sell-out show next year.

Major Events Gold Coast revealed it “supported” the Nov. 4 show at Heritage Bank Stadium but provided no further details.

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate plans to paint a zebra crossing outside the HOTA (Home Of The Arts) precinct and rename the street Abbey Road for a day explaining, “Life’s too short to take ourselves seriously.”

NEW ZEALAND

First Speakers For Going Global Summit

SXSW senior music programmer Dev Sherlock, The Great Escape’s music programmer Adam Ryan, Riot Games music supervisor Jackie Palazzolo and Hallie Anderson from US artist services hub Rareform PR were first speakers confirmed for the two-day Going Global Music Summit in September.

The meet at Auckland’s Roundhead Studios is organized by the Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ) and NZ Music Commission.

IMNZ chair Pippa Ryan-Kidd said past summits “led to our artists signing with international record labels, music licensing deals, being booked for US and European festivals, and showcases at SXSW (US) and The Great Escape (UK).

“Looking outward, Going Global has also been directly responsible for connecting music production co-writes and collaborations between delegates from Singapore and Chile.”