From the evidence of the stricken music festivals, Movement and Supafest, it seemed last April that hip hop tours were well and truly cursed.
Following severe setbacks, including losing headline acts 2 Chainz and Angel Haze and downsizing venues, Live Nation and Niche Productions’ entry into the festival market, the Nas-curated Movement Festival was cancelled entirely. A few days later, the all-ages urban event Supafest postponed amidst controversial rumours that it had been dumped by venues and couldn’t secure acts for their 2013 lineup, both collapsed events finding an unlikely defendant in the promoter for the embattled Heatwave Festival.
In a lengthy online ramble, Heatwave promoter Patrick Whyntie stated “Hip-Hop as a genre [shouldn’t] be pigeon holed as impossible to tour or pull off in the format of a festival in Australia.”
An Australian festival that’s quietly proven that point is the all-homegrown lineup for Sprung Hip Hop Festival, which after a successul second showing at Brisbane’s RNA Showgrounds last year, has announced plans to expand to Melbourne for this year’s edition, according to TheMusic.
Clockwork Entertainment promoter Greg Connors says that after two years of exponential grown, the all-Aussie hip hop event will once again take place in Brisbane, likely to be held on Saturday 21st September, before heading to the Victoria capital for date in October.
Connors says that in terms of capacity and lineup, the Melbourne leg would be a “mirror image” of its Brisbane brethren. “We try and make a carnival in Brisbane and we’ll do the same in Melbourne,” says the Clockwork Entertainment promoter, who says that the festival’s interstate expansion was a hope of his and business partner Anthony Edward’s since Sprung debuted in 2011. “We try and make a carnival in Brisbane and we’ll do the same in Melbourne… Growth has been right where we need it to be, so we’re very happy.” – Greg Connors, Sprung
“We’re a very small company so growth has to be dictated by how successful we are. Growth has been right where we need it to be, so we’re very happy,” enthused Connors, who said the Melbourne expansion “was a logical choice… they love hip hop [there].” The promoter also hopes the southern visit will draw other hip hop heads from interstate. “Adelaide fans will travel to Melbourne and Sydney will be able to pick their poison and choose either one.”
As for Sprung moving to a broader national presence, Connors said discussions had begun for a Sydney leg, but that while a Western Australian visit was “on the cards,” the extra costs of touring Perth presented a major financial hurdle for the growing festival.
Commenting on Sprung’s growing success bucking the trend, despite the failures of the Live Nation-backed Movement and Supafest in April, Connors says, “we’ve either had really good line-ups or we’ve jagged it two years in a row.”
“We’re hip hop fans so we look at it from the punter’s headspace,” he added. Sprung Festival’s all-important 2013 lineup reveal should arrive next week, on Tuesday 11th June, and Connors isn’t letting slip any hints, teasing to expect: “A really fresh youthful vibe, with some of the respected older crew for the old school fans.”
Last year’s Sprung Hip Hop Festival featured a veritable who’s who of Aussie hip-hop, featuring Hilltop Hoods, Seth Sentry, Thundamentals, Spit Syndicate, Grey Ghost, TZU, M-Phazes, Pez. Plus, as our Tone Deaf reviewer noted, a few special guests throughout the Brisbane one-day festival, saying Sprung “wasn’t merely a linear progression of artists, but an inter-weaving of all of them… Hardly any act performed alone and even those who weren’t even listed on the bill decided to show up anyway and do a guest verse or two.”
“If you had told an industry professional 10 years ago that thousands of people would travel from all over the country and pay good money to attend a festival based purely around Aussie hip hop, they would have laughed you out the door – now, watching a mass of loyal fans gather in an arm-pumping army of appreciation, it’s hard to imagine the movement getting any bigger.”
Another Aussie hip hop festival has also bucked the ‘hip hop curse’ trend, and is in fact celebrating its 10th anniversary this Saturday 8th June, as the Come Together Festival sees Drapht, Illy, The Herd, Dialectrix, and more taking over the Big Top at Sydney’s Luna Park (full lineup details and ticket info here).
