To the completely uninitiated, give us a little background into Soul Flats. Where did the idea to run this festival stem from, and who is working on it?
Soul Flats is a laidback and intimate celebration of some of the amazing music and art coming out of our cities and towns at the moment. The idea for this festival was firstly just to hold a party up in Deni, where my fellow director Andrew Clapham is from, with a few bands playing.
The town doesn’t get much exposure to some of the up and coming bands that we see playing in pubs every weekend so we thought it would be cool to pay some mates who are in really hot bands to come. Things just escalated from there and next thing we had artists, tickets, partners and vendors on board. There’s now three of us pretty much working full time on it and a broader team helping out. It’s been a crazy couple of months.
Soul Flats boasts a great lineup of artists who’ll be performing over the three days. Can you give us some hints about who we should check out?
That’s a bit like picking favourite Simpsons episodes. I can honestly say they are all worth checking out. Of the first lineup announcement though, I really recommend Mondegreen. They play that future soul/jazz kind of style with amazing vocals; King Puppy and the Carnivore have a freight-jumping swampy deep south sound that I love; Teddy Lewis King make raucous hip hop and have some really cheeky lyrics; and Rambutan Jam Band got that psychy reggae sound downpat and are amazing live. The Pretty Littles have been my favourite Melbourne band forever now so couldn’t miss them, and then Destrends bringing their post-punk hard rock back to their hometown for the first time in ages is going to be next level. They all play completely different styles and have so much character. Definitely worth a listen.
It ain’t all about the music at Soul Flats. What else will you be offering to punters during the festival?
Our festival is going to be an interactive and inclusive experience. A huge part of it is about involving up and coming artists as well as musicians in creating an immersive and stimulating space. We are working with visual projection artists, sculptors, painters and installation specialists to transform the festival space into an Australiana, outback adventure. As we have a small capacity of 700 people everyone is going to get the VIP treatment and be a part of creating this event from the ground up.
Why should Melburnites make the trek to Deniliquin to check this festival out?
Tickets are $65 for three days, full BYO, amazing music, amazing art, some of Australia’s best sunsets and the chance to have a little road trip with your mates before summer sets sail. It’ll be the best trek you’ve had since Leonard Nimoy wore those prosthetic ears.
SOUL FLATS MUSIC FESTIVAL takes place from Friday February 12 – Sunday February 14 in Deniliquin, NSW.
