“I tell you, busy doesn’t cover it,” Patterson chuckles. He has knocked off work about half an hour ago, and despite finding himself at the tail-end of a long week, his mind is still whirring with activity. “When I’m not doing the festival I’m running a café. It means every day is busy, but otherwise I’ll fall behind and it just won’t get done otherwise. But we’ll take it slow. I’ll see what we can learn from this year, and if we make mistakes, we’ll know what to avoid next time. You just need to listen to what people want. If we’ve grown, it’s because we’ve been able to give people just that, and that gives them a reason to come back. Our budget doubled this year, but my ticket prices went up ten bucks. Hopefully, that will let us break even, and if we don’t, well, it’s back to WA to work in the mines and get it running again.”
I laugh with him, but Patterson is deadly serious. His passion for Swagger Music Festival is remarkable, and it’s not difficult to understand why. At most of the large scale festivals – the likes of Splendour In The Grass and Future Music – punters’ favourite performers are going to remain distant, indistinct figures on stage. But the Wandiligong weekend strips away that separation, and the sense of intimacy and community it fosters is the reason it’s become so adored.
“My biggest focus is involving all the ticket holders with the artists,” says Patterson. “We’ve built this massive tepee that we light up, put in couches, cushions, hammocks, a baby grand piano, and that can kick on until the wee hours of the morning. We did it last year and didn’t promote it, but this year, it’s something that people are already really looking forward to.”
With Swagger 2015 including folk like Woodlock, Timberwolf, Emilee South and Benny Walker, it’s already set to be a vivid weekend. Each year has brought more interest and greater accolades, but with that greater demand comes greater responsibility. Patterson is already moving so fast it’s a little bewildering that he hasn’t caught fire, and with one eye on how the show will expand in years to come, it’s enough to make you collapse in bed and never leave.
“We’re getting there,” he says. “In the past we’ve relied a lot on word of mouth, but now we have a portable station which streams live footage, and that’s going to expose us that little bit more, allow us to reach people who might not be familiar with us yet. I’d like to tour it – take the festival and travel through small communities. The concerts that we have here are definitely worth taking around and showing to different communities, also because we’ve always kept our costs down. We might make a little bit of money to help fund the next year, but each year I’ve increased my expenses as well. This year we’ve moved to a new twenty acre property, and had to put in the infrastructure. But that’s how we’ve grown – selling out the festival, and improving it year by year.”
With its focus on community, respect and imagination, Swagger Music Festival is quite possibly the most pleasant gig you’re going to find any time soon – a kind of mini-Woodford Folk Festival in rural Victoria.
BY ADAM NORRIS
