For those of you who are punk, metal and hardcore music enthusiasts, Nevermind Ya Face Fest! is aiming to make your ears bleed and your hearts race with a jam-packed day of bands.
Punters can wander between multiple stages at Spotted Mallard and Bombay Rock in order to witness the ripper lineup of live acts.
“We’ve got Topnovil coming from Wollongong and the Vee Bees coming from ACT,” festival director Kacey Da’re says. “They’re the two out-of-towners, and then we’ve got Australian Kingswood Factory, and some heavier bands such as Atomic Death Squad, Maniaxe, the Fckups, Glen and the Peanut Butter Men, Beyond Contempt – there’s about forty bands and we’re actually just putting it together now.”
Da’re curated Nevermind Ya Face Fest! with festival co-director Pat Simkin. Since they had both run separate festivals previously, the two decided to combine their resources.
“The festival is actually a combination; we’ve both run separate festivals. Mine was the Nevermind Warp’d Festival tour, which ran for five years and finished about a year and a half ago,” says Da’re.
“I ran a festival called Melt Ya Face, which was on for the last two years. So we thought ‘yeah slap the two together’. [Nevermind Ya Face is] a pretty catchy name,” adds Simkin.
The duo originally discussed their plans around November and have been working on organising the festival solidly since January.
“It’s all free entry and starts at midday,” says Da’re. “The Spotted Mallard is going to have two stages: their upstairs stage and then downstairs, and then Bombay Rock is going to have one stage downstairs as well. There’ll be people crossing the road back and forth to see the bands.”
“Yeah, it’s growing and growing. We wanted it to engulf the street a little bit, get people back and forth since there’ll be two venues,” says Simkin.
Simkin also elaborates on the diversity of the festival which comes as the result of he and Da’re pooling their music tastes together.
“We literally have something for everyone as well, like Kasey has a real punk background whereas I have more of heavy hardcore background, so it’s really good to merge the two and merge our two crowds,” says Simkin.
“The good thing about this, as well, is that the two of us have different backgrounds of bands that we booked, and half of the bands that are here, I haven’t seen before,” Da’re continues. “I love checking out new music and I think other people feel the same. So it’s a good day to find new things at a festival like this, because it’s combining so many different genres.”
Da’re also expands on the reason why music festivals are prominent and highly valued in Melbourne.
“I’d go with the punk scene of the community, everybody hanging out with each other and catching up with mates,” says Da’re. “A lot of people travel from far away, not just to see the bands but to see each other as well.”
“There’s just so much diversity and there’s always something for everyone. It all works together to make the whole community,” adds Simkin.
Nevermind Ya Face Fest! has also been structured specifically so that people can literally see every single band play for the day. That’s forty bands to witness live, which is pretty impressive.
“Yeah, you can see fifteen minutes of every band for the whole day. They’re all half hour sets, two lots of half hour sets and one lot of 45-minute sets,” Da’re says. “But we’ve staggered them so that you can actually see every single band without missing any. They still clash but there’s 15-minute gaps where you can go from the Spotted Mallard to Bombay Rock and then back to Spotted Mallard again.”
Nevermind Ya Face Fest! is happening from midday until midnight on Saturday March 30 at Spotted Mallard and Bombay Rock. Entry is free so you have more money for beer.
