Australian Indie Music Festivals As "Scenes"

Music festivals are scenes that are made up of festivalgoers with strong affinity
networks. The term scene describes the social milieu within which groups of
producers, musicians and fans ‘collectively share their common musical tastes and
collectively distinguish themselves from others’ (Bennett and Peterson 2004: 1). A
scene is different from a music community, which is understood to be a relatively
stable group of people, whose association with music is grounded within a
‘geographically specific historical heritage,’ such as in Seattle, USA (eg., Pray 1996).
A scene is a ‘cultural space’ within which different types of musical practices coexist.
They interact with each other within a variety of processes of differentiation
and according to varying paths of change and cross-fertilization (Straw 1991; 1997:
494). Scenes are generally thought of as consisting of situations in which people come
together to create music for their own pleasure. An example of this can be found in
the camping grounds of Australian indie music festivals like the Falls Festival or
Splendour in the Grass where festivalgoers break into spontaneous jam sessions by
strumming a guitar and starting a sing-a-long.

In this article I am particularly interested in music festivals as integrative scenes
which simultaneously exist on local, translocal and virtual levels. They are local
because they occupy an enclosed physical space such as that of the Sydney
Showground or that of the Domain. They are translocal as well because festivalgoers
come from far and wide to participate in the scene. Lastly, they are virtual because
they are advertised, reported on and broadcast through various media, including radio,
fanzines, TV and the internet (Bennett and Peterson 2004: 8-9).
The characteristics of the Australian indie music festivals studied as part of my
ethnographic research varied in terms of their: 1- duration, from one-day, to three or
four days, to touring festivals; 2- location, both urban and rural; and 3- degree of
commercialisation. However these festivals are united by the dominant presence of
the indie-guitar scene. The recurrent festivals studied for this research included: the
Big Day Out (1992-present), Homebake (1996-present), Livid (1989-2003),
Splendour in the Grass (2001-present) and the Falls Festival (1993-present). Big Day
Out is an annual touring festival, which has been described as ‘...a musical version of
the Royal Agriculture Show as it often features rides, skating, markets, films and
exhibitions’ (Sound Check 2002). Whereas, Homebake is a one-day event held in
Sydney that showcases only Australian artists. Similarly, Livid is a one day event held
in Brisbane, although it did occasionally tour, visiting Sydney and Melbourne. Whilst,
Splendour in the Grass is a three day camping festival held in Byron Bay, New South
Wales. Finally, the Falls Festival is another three-day camping festival held
simultaneously in Lorne, Victoria and Marion Bay, Tasmania over the weekend of
New Year’s Eve.

But what is it about the indie music festival scene that allows total strangers to come
together in celebration, putting their arms around each other as they sing out loud
united by the moment, as the opening quote of this article suggests? It is, I will argue,
the intensity of the experience of attending a festival and the ‘atmosphere’ that give
festivalgoers a sense of connectedness and belonging to something larger then
themselves.
The symbiotic relationship between intensity and atmosphere is a key aspect of any
music festival. Creating the balance between these two aspects is fundamental to the
on-going success of a scene. Festivals are intense experiences for the festivalgoers,
which it can be argued compensate for their infrequency (Dowd et al. 2004).
Furthermore, intensity allows festivalgoers to immerse themselves in the cultural
aspects of the scene and enables them to experiment with different identities. The
atmosphere of a festival describes not only the feelings experienced during a festival
but sums up the totality of the experience, from the mood of the crowd, to the
weather, to the decorations, to the music. The following interview extracts highlight
this:
I think sometimes [the atmosphere is] really good and sometimes it’s bad.
Like Splendour was really good cause everyone was just like having such
a good time and there wasn’t like any rough things… Like sometimes I
don’t like it when just say Big Day Out 2004 Metallica were playing and I
heard that some of the crowd were giving crap to some of the bands
playing before Metallica. They’re just like yeah ‘get off, bring Metallica’
and stuff and I don’t really think that’s very nice (Kara aged 19, female,
festivalgoer, 8/10/2004).
It’s not just the music. It’s the whole experience of the crowd and you feel
the music going, like the vibrations in your chest if you’re too close
(Nathan aged 23, male, festivalgoer, 12/2/2005).
Just in the atmosphere with like-minded people where it just doesn’t
matter and you can just be yourself and you know like you always have a
good time (Heather aged 23, female, festivalgoer, 4/2/2005).

Part of the festival organiser’s role is to create this ‘atmosphere’ by weaving ‘a loose
social fabric which the individual may embroider in different ways’(Purdue et al.
1997: 661). The decisions made by the festival organisers such as the setting up of
multiple sites, stages, bookings or whether there should be hot tubs, or compost
toilets, engage a specialist network (Purdue et al. 1997: 661). As Falls Festival
organiser Naomi Daly explains:
It’s very deliberate. We consider atmosphere to be a really critical part of
our festival and there’s a lot of things we do that people probably have no
idea that we do and that that’s our motivation for doing it. Part of it is the
line up. Part of it is the infrastructure on site, I mean putting shade tents in
the main arena … I’d say Splendour a great one for that they have
fantastic décor in their environment and that’s all part of atmosphere. Falls
is lucky in that we’re got such a stunning natural environment that alone
creates a lot of the atmosphere. But definitely I think just our format that
everyone does stay on site and that it’s pretty cruisey kind of schedule
(Interviewed on 12/9/04).

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