The once loved Parklife will not return in 2013. If this wasn’t big enough already, the organisers, Fuzzy Entertainment , gave more;
“Surprise: Fuzzy is not holding Parklife this year. Why? To focus on creating a new event that is desperately needed. Australia does not have a national intelligent dance music event – until now. Listen Out brings quality dance music to four spectacular inner city venues across Australia this spring. Listen Out is the antidote to many of the things you don’t like about big music festivals. It is a carefully handcrafted party, with a killer lineup of the dance music that matters and a philosophy of best, not biggest. Say goodbye to endless timetable clashes, long hikes to the 12th stage and spending your day with several thousand people you can’t relate to. Listen Out is the right party, and we mean party not festival, for the right people.
“A straight up, quality dance-off in beautiful surroundings,” says Fuzzy director, John Wall , “that’s what Listen Out is.”
I couldn’t quite believe it myself – they openly admitted that Parklife is no longer relevant.
Electronic music is the plaything of subculture and more than ever, the commercial music world. It twists, evolves, mutates and permutates, creating and absorbing trends in its path. The tastes and preferences of artists and listeners change and so too do the preferences of party attendees. While Parklife was once new ground for witnessing emerging electronic acts and exploring trending electronica, it has slowly come too far into mainstream light. However, this can hardly be surprising for a festival that would have been entering its 14 th year.
Fuzzy have clearly listened to the preferences of partygoers around the nation. Underground electronic aficionados want to move out of venues, but they don’t necessarily want to endure mammoth city festivals or hell-like bush raves for the experience. On the other hand, independent festival attendees are developing a greater taste for computer sounds. This explains Laneway Festival and Meredith meandering towards a larger IDM component in recent years. They are not alone in bringing a new form of boutique electronic spread. In Victoria, Strawberry Fields and 2013 new comers Let Them Eat Cake and Inner Varnika have also gifted audiences with an eclectic digital platter in an intimate setting. While in Sydney, Astral People ’s Outsidein festival was welcomed with open arms. Outside Australia, even more organisers realise the potential for small, palatable all-electronic festivals. If I were to name them all, we’d be here all day.
So what can we look forward to at Listen Out 2013? They will release the lineup this Friday, 21 June . My bet is that it will have acts up the same alley as this year’s Summadayze . Listen Out tickets will be $89 + bf (first round) and go on sale at midday on Thursday 27 June.
In the meantime, watch this space –
WORDS BY Sonia Miles-Khan
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