BIGSOUND is back from September 3-6 in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley Live Music Precinct, with this year’s theme revealed as ‘The Artist As CEO’.
The event will acknowledge the new music industry reality where artists are now truly in the centre of the industry, making empowered creative and business choices around their music. BIGSOUND not only creates the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest new live music party, but also tools artists, managers, labels, publishers, bookers and other music professionals with knowledge, inspiration and expanded thinking around their careers.
For the first time in the event’s history, BIGSOUND will also be waving goodbye to its traditional conference home at the Judith Wright Centre and saying hello to Cloudland, providing expanded conference and meeting facilities right in the heart of the BIGSOUND Festival precinct. “Over the years, BIGSOUND has changed, with networking, workshops and other events becoming far more integral to the event, so making the move to Cloudland will give more programming flexibility as well as bringing the conference events closer to the live music that is at the heart of BIGSOUND,” said BIGSOUND Executive Programmer Maggie Collins.
BIGSOUND 2019 also sees a new programming team joining Collins, with Tom Larkin (Shihad, VVV Management) assisting the conference events and Melody Forghani (Twnty Three) and Tim Shiel (Spirit Level, Double J) joining the live music team. BIGSOUND Tech also makes its return, expanding and extending to the length of the conference, giving tech entrepreneurs the ability to showcase to the wider conference as well as gain access to greater market feedback, training and support. Applications for BIGSOUND Tech open today at bigsound.org.au.
Artist applications for BIGSOUND are open today, with the festival once again providing three nights of showcases with over 150 bands from across Australia and the world playing in front of global industry decision makers. With BIGSOUND launching international careers for alumni including Flume, Gang of Youths, Courtney Barnett, Tash Sultana, Rufus Du Sol and many more, this event is the place Australian artists come to be put on the map.
BIGSOUND is also expanding the “Hook Up” sessions to provide opportunities for artists and industry to connect through deeper one-on-one face time. With even more international delegates and decision-makers than ever before, BIGSOUND is not just your opportunity to hear from global industry and influencers, it’s their opportunity to hear from you. This year will also see the introduction of “WTF” micro-workshops for accelerated understanding of important but often daunting subjects such as blockchain or neighbouring rights as well as a focus on relatable storytellers, thinkers and innovators.
Special rate purple passes for entry to the full BIGSOUND experience are on sale from today. Purple pass access is the only way to get into the BIGSOUND Hook Ups, WTF sessions and other conference events, as well as priority access to BIGSOUND Festival events (did you miss out on last year’s Paul Kelly secret show?).
Purple passes sold out early last year, so don’t miss out!
