Busselton One Night Stand festival drives push for more regional gigs

Australia Broadcast Center

25-05-2025

Music festivals were a rite of passage among Australian millennials, with tales of moshes battled and portaloos survived becoming friendship folklore.
But until this weekend, many teenagers in WA's South West had never stepped foot on the hallowed turf.
According to one group of mates from Bunbury who attended triple j's One Night Stand in Busselton on Saturday, it was worth the wait.
"It's really great. We usually miss out," Ruby Maratea, 15, said.
The region's youth have ridden a rollercoaster of event announcements and cancellations, with the area's flagship annual festival Groovin the Moo and new entrant You & Me both pulling out last year.
On Saturday night, triple j's all-ages One Night Stand brought the beat back with a line-up that featured Perth-based headliners Spacey Jane and New South Wales act Ruby Fields.
Head of triple j, Lachlan Macara, said all 15,000 tickets sold out in less than six hours — the fastest in its 20-year history.
"There's a huge appetite for live music in regional areas," he said.
But Mr Macara said the main challenge was to keep the momentum after the lights had faded and the stage was packed away.
Eight South West teenagers have put their hands up to help maintain that momentum.
They were selected by youth music organisation The Push to receive music industry training while helping the triple j team prepare for the event, learning the ropes in audio engineering, social media, video production and radio broadcasting.
The Push chief executive Kate Duncan said it was incredible to watch the teenagers develop their skills and confidence.
Dunsborough 15-year-old Lachie Cole said he was keen to explore a career in audio engineering after the experience, which gave him the opportunity to help mix a live set.
"I've learnt so much [about] how to work these giant events and how they all get put together," he said.
"A lot of people don't realise how hard [it is] and how much team work gets put in."
Riley Morrant, 17, said he could not believe he was not just attending his first ever festival, but working behind the scenes on it.
"I'd already done some volunteering for the local theatre but this is just on another level," he said.
The teenagers have already begun planning their own event in the coming months with ongoing support from The Push and the City of Busselton.
The event also gave local artists a platform.
Busselton band Fool Nelson opened the event after winning triple j's Unearthed competition.
Lead guitarist and singer, Tom Broadbent, said it was the biggest gig the band had played.
He said the band was keen to pay it forward to help grow the area's music scene.
"If we're doing a show down here, it's cool to try and get local bands and support them and get them some gigs," Mr Broadbent said.
Bunbury artist Molly McKenna, 20, has already been organising her own live music events for a few years.
They have included Ruckus, one of the only recurring all-ages live music events in the area.
But she said there were a huge amount of hurdles she encountered putting on the self-funded gigs, including "a lot of surprise costs" and paperwork.
"Nobody's really willing to put their neck out … to dedicate time or money into something that's a slow-establishing or slow-growing community event," she said.
Ms McKenna featured on one of three free industry panels triple j hosted in the lead up to the festival.
She has called for more time, money and trust to be invested in young people to shape a sustainable music scene that they actually wanted to be a part of.
The West Australian government contributed $60,000 to The Push's industry training program.
But WA Minister for Creative Industries, Simone McGurk, said there was still work to be done to make regional live music events economically viable.
"In smaller towns, it's really hard to make the economics work," she said.
"We really want to encourage people to go to live music gigs."