Mess+Noise interview: ‘BAM! Festival’ founder Sarita Beavis, July 2010
A Q+A for Mess+Noise about a new Queensland festival, BAM!
BAM!: ‘We Don’t Want To Rip Off Bands’
BAM! Festival founder and creative director Sarita Beavis sits down with ANDREW MCMILLEN in a Brisbane cafe to set the record straight about her fledgling event.
After a week of “malicious and nasty gossip, untruths, half-truths and fear mongering”, I had every reason to suspect that BAM! Festival founder Sarita Beavis would have sharpened her knives ahead of speaking to M+N. Our insider report, which detailed a compulsory artists’ meeting, articulated many of the concerns felt within the Brisbane music scene and beyond, namely that Beavis and fellow organisers were out of their depths.
However, over a Diet Coke in a West End cafe, Beavis emerges admirably. She answers questions candidly and is willing to admit mistakes. As a first-time event promoter, she’s learning – and fast.
Full interview at Mess+Noise.
This one was a bit funny to research and plan for. The festival had become a bit of a joke among Brisbane’s independent music scene since the first line-up announcement. It was greatly misunderstood by most people I know, who thought that they were trying to become a massive festival with a line-up that consists of dozens of little-known Brisbane bands… priced at $200 for a 3 day, round-the-clock camping event.
I thought that, too. Turns out they’re starting (reasonably) small this year, with hopes to attract 1,500 payers. And the people behind it are serious about trying to make this work on a pretty small budget. So it was cool to approach this hot topic – the ‘insider report’ on M+N attracted over 700 comments in just a few days – with an open mind, to allow my subject to speak her mind and set the record straight. Which she did, to her credit.