Excited about the Groovin The Moo 2014 lineup? With such a strong mix of local favourites, international heavy-hitters, and emerging artists, we don’t blame you.
But take another look at the rural touring event’s bill – featuring Aussies such as Vance Joy, Violent Soho, Karnivool, The Jezabels, and Illy – notice any particular trend?
Those artists, along with Groovin The Moo 2014 acts Kingswood, Thundamentals, Andy Bull, Wave Racer, and The Kite String Tangle, all performed rather well in a certain radio station’s annual music poll.
We’ll spell it out for you, they’re all bands that are pretty popular with Triple J. So is there appearance together on a festival lineup purely coincidence? Well, obviously no. Everybody knows that Triple J airplay is synonymous with the rise of a band’s career (as well as – supposedly – the end of it, as End Of Fashion’s frontman lashed out last week) and therefore an influential barometer for festival bookers.
But there’s a more explicit correlation between the booking of the Groovin The Moo’s lineup and those bands that are popular with audiences of the national youth broadcaster.
In an in-depth interview with Music Business Facts Steve Halpin of Cattleyard Promotions – the team behind Groovin The Moo and spin-off event The Plot – says that Triple J plays a big part in booking the bill, as FasterLouder points out.
“Yeah, basically we work really closely with Triple J,” replies Halpin to a question about the influence of genre on bookings. “So any band that gets Triple J play fits our bill, so we have everything.” “…any band that gets Triple J play fits our bill.”
But don’t break out the tinfoil hats just yet conspiracy theorists, Triple J don’t dictate the bill, they simply inform it. “We do have bands like Parkway Drive, Amity Affliction are hardcore bands. We have indie-pop bands, we have hip-hop, we have electronic, so anything that fits the Triple J line-up,” Halpin adds.
Halpin also explains the Groovin The Moo lineup is booked and programmed in association with Way Over There’s Richard Moffatt, saying “there’s no formula, we’ve got a few things we’d look at but a lot it’s gut feel, when it looks like a band might be breaking. We basically have the lineup finalised 6 months before…”
Meaning, for example, that Vance Joy was locked in long before he trumped Lorde and Daft Punk to the coveted Hottest 100 crown.
Other picks for the Groovin The Moo flock are down to “certain slots during the day that we are looking for a band to fit,” Halpin explains, while “a lot of it is to do with bands coming on cycle, like if they’ve got an album coming out, so they’re keen to tour it.”
Halpin also touches on the inflating costs of booking big name festival acts, saying the regional tour is “quite strict” with keeping capacities, and its $100 ticket price, fixed, ensuring its budget don’t blow out when booking headliners. “there’s no formula, we’ve got a few things we’d look at but a lot it’s gut feel.”
“We tend to put a figure and say look this band is going to cost X dollars, so when we approach, like last year we approached The Temper Trap and say okay ‘You’re going to be our headliner, you’re playing last and this is the fee’ and then it’s up to them to say yes we’ll do it or no,” says Halpin.
As for the growing success of Groovin The Moo in a climate where bigger corporate-sponsored festivals have been struggling, Halpin notes; “we got in just before there was a flood of festivals. When we started [in 2005] there weren’t as many festivals around, and I suppose having a niche, being in regional Australia we weren’t competing with Big Day Outs and Stereophonics that were in the capital cities.”
The full interview covers everything from Groovin The Moo’s inception to its innovative can refund economy and its expansion into South Australia for the first time this year, and is well worth a read. View it over at Music Business Facts.
Read our Groovin The Moo 2013 coverage below.
REVIEW: Bendigo | Maitland
PHOTOS: Bunbury | Bendigo | Canberra | Maitland
Groovin The Moo 2014 Lineup
ACTION BRONSON (USA)
ANDY BULL
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI
CULTS (USA)
DISCLOSURE (UK)
DIZZEE RASCAL (UK)
HOLY F**K (CAN)
ILLY
THE JEZABELS
THE JUNGLE GIANTS
KARNIVOOL
KINGSWOOD
THE KITE STRING TANGLE
LOON LAKE
THE NAKED AND FAMOUS (NZ)
PARKWAY DRIVE
PEKING DUK
THE PRESETS
ROBERT DELONG (USA)
THUNDAMENTALS
VANCE JOY
VIOLENT SOHO
WAVE RACER
WHAT SO NOT
+ more to be announced.
Groovin The Moo 2014 Dates & Tickets
Fri 25 April – Oakbank Racecourse, Oakbank SA (ANZAC Day Public Holiday)
Sat 26 April – Maitland Showgrounds, Maitland NSW
Sun 27 April – University Of Canberra, Canberra ACT
Sat 3 May – Prince Of Wales Showground, Bendigo VIC
Sun 4 May – Murray Sports Complex, Townsville QLD
Sat 10 May – Hay Park, Bunbury WA
All tickets on sale now.
Cost: $99.90 + BF
Available from www.gtm.net.au or www.moshtix.com.au
And a special addition for 2014 ….
Fri 7 March – Sun 25 May
Groovin Presented by Cattleyard Promotions and Maitland Regional Art Gallery
Maitland Regional Art Gallery – Entry to the exhibition is free
230 High Street, Maitland NSW
