Following on from today’s exclusive report that Michael Gudisnkis’ Mushroom Group were looking at purchasing Future Entertainment, the company behind the annual Future Music and Summadayze festivals, the Mushroom Group have now issued an official statement confirming their involvement with the company.
The statement confirms that Mushroom Group has bought into Future Entertainment flagship Future Music Festival and its associated under 18s event, Good Life, though there is no mention of Future’s other events, including Summadayze, which was implicated in today’s report.
“With only weeks until the highly anticipated announcement of the 2014 line up, Future Music Festival (FMF) is very proud to announce a strategic alliance with The Mushroom Group, Australia’s largest independent music and entertainment group, and its subsidiary Frontier Touring, Australasia’s #1 concert promoter,” reads the press statement; issued just hours after Tone Deaf reported on legal documents that had named Michael Gudinski and his son Matt, as sole directors of a new company called Future Music Pty Ltd registered on the 27th August.
The statement continues:
From September 1, FMF will team up with the Mushroom Group and Frontier Touring to present the flagship Future Music Festival tour along with its little sister Good Life Festival (under 18s) plus a number of affiliated artist tours. The arrangement will also introduce new ventures in 2014 that are expected to significantly impact the festival and live music landscape in the Australasian region.
The relationship with the Mushroom Group will reaffirm the position of FMF as the largest 100% Australian-owned and operated major touring festival. Whilst FMF has expanded from its roots as an EDM-heavy event into one of the most diverse music festivals in the region, the relationship will continue to amplify this diversification through access to Mushroom’s well-established resources and experience.
…For Mushroom and Frontier, FMF continues to complete the picture of what is already Australia’s most eclectic group of music specialists by adding Future’s expertise in electronic dance music, currently the world’s fastest growing music category. It will also provide a valuable opportunity for Mushroom to continue their push into Asia through the annual Malaysian FMF instalment.”
Interestingly, there is zero mention of Future Entertainment in the press release, despite the two being linked according to legal documents as previously reported.
What the new venture means for audiences, says the Mushroom Group, is a partnership that ensures an “even bigger and brighter future” for FMF, using their extensive industry recognised skills, contacts, and global reach to present a festival with “the world’s biggest and most diverse talent consistently and to a standard worthy of world-wide recognition.”
“Our involvement with the festivals will fill a gap within the Mushroom Group that has existed to date,” said an excited Mushroom Group chairman Michael Gudinski of the new merger. Mushroom has tried its hand at entering the music festival market before to various degrees of success.
While the recent Smokescreen Music Festival turned out to be simply a front for a national health awareness campaign to demote smoking, Gudinski was a key figure in putting together the 2009 Sound Relief charity benefit concerts to great success; especially compared to the previous festival venture the the ill-fated Alternative Nation touring festival put together with fellow Aussie promoters Michael Coppell and Michael Chugg.
Of the new venture with Future, Gudinski notes: “Future Music Festival was an early pioneer of the EDM genre and I believe our combined forces can take the festival to new heights, with an even greater focus on the fan experience and the addition of some exciting new innovations.”
Meanwhile, Future Music Festival Director Brett Robinson added: “The Future is very bright indeed! With the confidence of a brand new alliance the Mushroom Group, Future Music Festival is poised for its biggest ever season. The strength of the relationship will become apparent when we announce our 2014 line up in a few weeks time.”
The news of the venture arrives with confirmation that the first of Future Music Festival’s “blockbuster” 2014 lineup will be announced in mid-September, closely followed by the lineup for the Southeast Asian edition of the festival which will be held in Kuala Lumpur in March, 2014. Additionally, the ‘little sister series’, the under 18s Good Life Festival, will expand to Brisbane and Perth in 2014 with the lineup to drop in the coming months. The dates for all three events have also been confirmed (see below).
The rumour mill for Future Music Festival 2014 is well underway, following on from Iranian born producer Dubfire telling a fan on twitter that he’d be in Australia “March 2014;” likely for his third ever Future appearance. There’s already been plenty of whispers about other artists too, including the million-dollar-earning Deadmau5, the disco-dubstep of Skream, and a hopeful return from those South African purveyors of ‘freeeky’ goodness, Die Antwoord.
Future Music Festival 2014 Dates
Australian Tour Dates 2014
Sat 1 Mar Brisbane
Sun 2 Mar Perth
Sat 8 Mar Sydney
Sun 9 Mar Melbourne
Mon 10 Mar Adelaide
Future Music Festival Asia 2014 Dates
Kuala Lumpur Tour Dates 2014
*NEW 3 DAY FORMAT*
Thu 13 Mar Day 1
Fri 14 Mar Day 2
Sat 15 Mar Day 3
Good Life Music Festival 2014 Dates
Australian Tour Dates 2014
Fri 28 Feb Brisbane
Mon 3 Mar Perth
Fri 7 Mar Melbourne
Sun 9 Mar Sydney
