Get your calendars out and lock this one in. The brainchild of Andy (Grizzlyshark), and in conjunction with the team from Deaf Cult Initiative, PolarFest is coming to you Brisbane. PolarFest will be held at The Brightside in Brisbane on 14th August and the line-up is huge!!
YOUNG LIONS TAKE US TO VEGAS APATE CLOSURE PAPERWEIGHT
WOLF AND CHAIN RARE WORDS EMPIRE WITHIN GRIZZLYSHARK
CHELSEA DRIVE NERVOUS LIGHT IN EYES SENTIMENT STRANGE FICTION
PolarFest is an all day festival bringing the best in local hardcore, punk and alternative music to Brisbane. Here at PolarFest, our aim is to showcase the best up-and-coming Brisbane hardcore, punk and alternative bands, alongside the most epic of our Australian scene. PolarFest will be at Brisbane’s one and only The Brightside. As an endeavour in conjunction with Deaf Cult Initiative, we look forward to bringing Brisbane’s scene back to it’s A-game and beyond. Whether you’re a die-hard fan, or want to meet some new alt mates, come join us in the Valley on August 14th. Welcome to PolarFest.
Andy and Luke from Deaf Cult Initiative swung by via zoom to spill the beans.
What are you guys up to now??? You just don’t seem to stop!
Luke: No rest for the wicked.
Andrew: Apparently not!
Now you are running a music festival.
Andrew: Yeah so it seems!
How did that come about?
Andrew: Honestly it came about at The Bavarian drinking a tonne of apple schnapps two years ago. It was meant to happen last year and a week out from us announcing the festival covid hit.
God damn covid.
Andrew: I am sure my students that were in my class as covid hit saw me go from happy Mr Taylor to grumpy Mr Taylor and had no idea why! I was sitting there thinking ‘I have to cancel the festival; I can’t go to Download’. They were like Mr Taylor are you okay??? Noooooo, I want to go home, I’m done.
Luke: It was pretty bad to have Polarfest and Download cancelled in the one swoop. No My Chem, no Polar it was really sad.
Andrew: It was not a vibe. Having to move Polarfest back once and then we tried move it again and a bunch of bands were like nope we are out.
Luke: I remember last year when we were chatting about, the line-up looks a lot different now.
Andrew: Oh yeah, way different.
When is it happening?
Andrew: It’s going to be on August 14th. So Polarfest kind of started with me and a mate who is a sound engineer talking. He wanted to know how he went about getting into sound engineering and providing his own gear at shows. I said every good venue has their own tech and audio engineer so I don’t know what you are trying to do. His reply was ‘What if we put on a show’. I used to do shows way back, sone good some not so good! It took over from just being this little thing to help a mate out to this idea of what if we turn this into a yearly festival.
More festivals is always good. You can never have enough!
Andrew: That’s the power of Apple schnapps, it just builds ideas. The idea of Polarfest now is to take the smaller bands and that next tier of bands and get them to network together and bridge the gap a bit. I’ve kind of noticed in the local scene right around Australia there is this kind of jump up from small fish to big fish and then another jump up to ‘people actually know you around Australia as a whole’.
Luke: It took a lot of work to brainstorm a line-up that met that sort of criteria while we are trying to marrying those bigger bands with a lot of the smaller ones to build that network relationship. The idea is that they tour together long after Polarfest is done, it opens up some opportunities for them.
Something similar has been happening here for a while with some of the Melbourne bands teaming up with Adelaide bands and playing both states.
Andrew: It’s weird, five or six years ago everyone would have said Adelaide had no scene and out of nowhere Adelaide has come back and been like Yoooo! We Back!
Absolutely we are. And its right across all genres too. We have some damn fine bands over here.
The Brightside is the place to be to see all these amazing bands?
Andrew: Yeah we managed to get the two stages for it. Inside and outside and because it is Polarfest they are aptly named The North Pole Stage and The South Pole Stage.
So are Aggies and Anticline part of the line-up seeing as you have put them out on vinyl?
Luke: Unfortunately neither can play that date. We just couldn’t quite make it work.
Andrew: There were a few bands that were like that. We had some interest from some big bands, they were like this sounds sick when is it, but the date didn’t work for them. If this year goes well there is huge potential for the following year. We have had a lot of interest in it. We have managed to get Take Us To Vegas to come back and play one more show for us which is amazing.
You also have a new addition to your team.
Luke: Yeah we do, I was hoping that she would be able to join us but unfortunately she couldn’t. Jacqui has joined our team which is really cool. She has been with us for about two months but she has been moving down to Melbourne so she’s been a bit busy. We are giving her some time to settle in.
Luke decided that he would take over the interview for the final question.
Luke: If you could have any band in Australia headline Polarfest next year who would it be?
That’s easy The Gloom in the Corner. I don’t even have to think about that.
Luke: That was quick yep! What about you Andy? Kisschasy?
Andrew: Yeah ( with a massive grin on his face) I want Kisschasy.
Luke: I’d kill for Kisschasy.
Tickets for PolarFest are available HERE from next week.