Following the wrap up of Big Day Out’s successful 2013 ‘ground up reboot‘, the festival is now giving budding Aussie innovators a chance to make their ideas into reality, announcing a brand new $20k grant for aspiring interactive, film, and music pioneers.
What does that mean exactly? Well, according to their press release Big Day Out want to find “the next level of show, stage and digital design.” Taking inspiration from revolutionary technology, such as the hologram that saw Tupac return to the stage at last year’s Coachella, it’s hoped that the grant will bring about a new kind of stage show.
Aptly named The Big Day Out Evolution Grant, aspiring Aussies are being offered $20,000 to advance their ideas when they come together at the inaugural Wide Open Road event at SXSW in Austin, Texas next week. The affair will see multimedia, film and music innovators come together on March 12th at Austin venue Holy Mountain, with Aussie hip hop act 360 also set to perform.
As the press release from Big Day Out boasts: “As premium festival producers, BDO Presents and C3 Presents in association with Sounds Australia and the Screen Producers Association of Australia are here to motivate the next level of show, stage and digital design; to help break the down the fourth wall between artists and audience.”
The grant will be awarded to collective groups who combine filmmaking, digital interactive and music production to create a new annual innovation, invention or theatrical event.
Creative groups will be looking for inspiration among other innovative ideas such as the LED wristbands used by Coldplay on their recent Mylo Xyloto world tour. The relatively simple concept saw stadiums all over the globe turned into glittering explosions of colour with every fan wearing a light-up wristband programmed to turn on at peak moments. A “desirable bloom of life and colour” as described by our Sydney reviewer of the UK supergroup’s visit late last year. “To motivate the next level of show, stage and digital design; to help break the down the fourth wall between artists and audience.” – Big Day Out
Big Day Out CEO Adam Zammit believes “we are at an important live production crossroads.” Speaking about the new initiative he says, “advances in audience engagement, encompassing feedback, physical tracking, mobile technology, and social media have the potential to bring the audience into an artists stage show in ways that we can only imagine.”
Revolutionising live performance is no small feat and Matthew Deaner, executive director of partner Screen Producers Association of Australia, commends the project saying, “it provides an opportunity for these creative industries to work together on a project that engages and excites audiences in a way they have never experienced before.”
Millie Millgate of Sounds Australia says, “Australia is a large country and full of people with amazing and progressive ideas. SXSW creates an event each year that attracts a lot of these minds into one city. Our hope is that Wide Open Road will bring creatives from all across Australia together in one room and that it becomes an incubator for new fresh and progressive collaborations across all 3 mediums.”
SXSW is already shaping up to be a colossal affair with keynote speakers including Sound City director and music legend Dave Grohl, The Animals’ prolific rocker Eric Burdon, and industry veteran Clive Davis.
Aussie artists will be strongly represented at the annual industry event with no less than 40 acts headed to Austin, Texas, with a number of the homegrown acts – including Sydney beatmaker Flume and Melbourne singer-songwriter Vance Joy – playing at St. Jerome’s Laneway party at SXSW, with the location and dates for the North American spinoff of the festival set to be announced at the event.
BIG DAY OUT – WIDE OPEN ROAD at SXSW 2013
TUESDAY 12 MARCH at HOLY MOUNTAIN
617 E 7th STREET AUSTIN
FEATURING LIVE PERFORMANCE BY 360
