Could Canberra host a Big Day Out in 2011?

I am not overly shocked at all the people saying “No, you can’t do that” and “it will never happen” as there are just as many who say “nothing ever happens here” (maybe your the same people 😉 )

All good, i’ll just be spending my money in another city AGAIN.

Chop71 said :

peturbed_but_pretty said :

How about we continue to grow our own identity rather than be the poor cousins…..

We lost some of “our own identity” when we lost the fireworks

Please tell me you are kidding

So, let me see if I understand the OP’s question: Why doesn’t this city of 350,000 people (less than 3 hours drive to Sydney) attract a show that other cities of 2 million, 3 million, 1 million, 1.7 million or 1.4 million people get? Hmm …

Fnaah et al, agreed. I liked Trackside, even though they hired a PA company too stupid to check the weather forecast, and put a tarp over their amps when it rained.

peturbed_but_pretty said :

How about we continue to grow our own identity rather than be the poor cousins…..

We lost some of “our own identity” when we lost the fireworks

It would be a feasible idea, most of the crowd would be from people who missed out from the Melbourne and Sydney concerts so I hardly think that a BDO would be short of ticket sales.

busgirl said :

I went to the first Trackside Festival and thought it was crap. Nothing but drunken teenagers and no ‘festival’ atmosphere at all. Don’t know if the second one was any better…

It would be great if Canberra could host something similar to the Woodford Folk Festival…now THAT is what music festivals should be like.

Woodford?
Yeah hippies sitting around smoking weed, that’s what music festivals should be all about.

I remember a few years ago “A Day at the Green” held one of their dates at Commonwealth Park Canberra. Ticket sales were poor and in the end they were giving them away 2 for 1.

The festivals held locally Trackside, Corin, Foreshore (as well as the Folk Festival etc) are about the right level for our sized population.

and we could build another runway here to cope with all the Sydneyers whose flights can’t get in to Sydney Airport!

How about we continue to grow our own identity rather than be the poor cousins…..

I went to the first Trackside Festival and thought it was crap. Nothing but drunken teenagers and no ‘festival’ atmosphere at all. Don’t know if the second one was any better…

It would be great if Canberra could host something similar to the Woodford Folk Festival…now THAT is what music festivals should be like.

Could easily be hosted in Canberra and it would sell out, but unfortunately nobody thinks Canberra is “cool” enough to host an event like this.

I’m with Lilli and Justbands – grow the local event/festival scene slowly, with the population.

Mad props to Friction/Lexington for their stellar work with Warehouse, Foreshore and Trackside. Their smaller events (such as the ones at OPH and the now-sadly-defunct Block Party @ dickson) are also well run.

Corinbank looks to be going from strength to strength, as does the Dragon Dreaming event.

Makes you wonder why Stonefest is going downhill, really. They used to be the only game in town, perhaps they’ve been shown up, or perhaps they’ve lost interest.

> Foreshore, Trackside, Corin Bank.. let’s hope Canberrans continue to support by attending and that this allows these events to grow and develop.

Exactly. We don’t need a BDO…we just need these ones to continue to go from stregth to stregth.

Hmm.. I’ve thought about this previously but I just don’t think Canberra would have the infrastructure to support an event of this scale. Imagine 30,000-40,000+ people travelling to/from the event. It’s nice to dream, but at least in the mean time we have festivals like Trackside to look forward to.

Canberra’s ‘festival’ scene has really come leaps and bounds over the last few years – Foreshore, Trackside, Corin Bank.. let’s hope Canberrans continue to support by attending and that this allows these events to grow and develop.

Plus the Luddite flat earth groups would complain about the noise, the traffic, the environment impact, might scare a particular breed of native xmas beetle away. This in turn will make the local government charge the promotors more and have their influence and branding upon it. It will be taxed to hell and then there will be other issues arising. This will make the tickets more expensive than in Sydney.

ahappychappy said :

Not enough people… enough said.

I mean, sure you could probably get the remnants of the Sydney crowd that didn’t get tickets… but do we really want all the Sydneysiders too stupid/plain unlucky to get tickets here for a weekend?

And even if we did get one hosted here, could the city cope with the amount of people which would flock in? These events aren’t like Foreshore/Warehouse with 10,000ish people (90% from Canberra)… these are mammoth events!

Given that, we could have a “Day Out” as opposed to a “Big Day Out”.

Not enough people… enough said.

I mean, sure you could probably get the remnants of the Sydney crowd that didn’t get tickets… but do we really want all the Sydneysiders too stupid/plain unlucky to get tickets here for a weekend?

And even if we did get one hosted here, could the city cope with the amount of people which would flock in? These events aren’t like Foreshore/Warehouse with 10,000ish people (90% from Canberra)… these are mammoth events!

It should happen in 2013 … as part of the centenary celebrations

Good idea, but would probably never happen. I would think it would be an attractive alternative for those in western sydney and wollygong as well.

However, just by raising it here, you have probably got some people already organising a public meeting to oppose it due to too much noise, traffic, people, excitement

I hardly think that being the national capital automatically qualifies us to host every big franchise event… especially when we’re within cooee of the biggest metropolis in the country. Just buy your tickets earlier (going interstate for a music festival is fun anyway!).

Still, it would be nice to have one here: I’d go (and I’ve never been to a BDO).