Got a band sitting on a hard drive somewhere? The Espy wants to hear from you.
The Espy is calling on Melbourne bands to throw their name in for a brand new Battle of the Bands competition at its iconic Gershwin Room.
Twenty-five bands will be selected to battle it out across five heats, with the winning act walking away with a prize pool serious enough to give any up-and-coming band a genuine leg up.
It’s a rare shot at real exposure, a decent payday and a festival slot, all from playing the kind of room plenty of Melbourne bands grew up dreaming about.
Bands keen to throw their hat in the ring need to get their signups in before 11:59pm on 19 July, so there’s no time to sit on the fence. Once entries close, the heats will kick off, whittling the field down before the strongest acts face off in the grand finale.
The Espy Battle of the Bands
- Heat 1: 12 August
- Heat 2: 19 August
- Heat 3: 26 August
- Heat 4: 2 September
- Heat 5: 9 September
- Grand Finale: 27 September
- Sign up here
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
View this post on Instagram
The prizes on offer are nothing to scoff at either.
The winning band will walk away with $4000 cash courtesy of The Espy, plus a paid slot on The Espy Live stage at St Kilda Festival 2027.
On top of that, there’s a free promotional photography session with Indianah Hayz Photography, fifty printed and distributed posters and 1000 a6 flyers from Shout Out Loud, and fifty printed band t-shirts from OPM Designs.
The winners will also score a feature interview published here on Beat, which will run as a full page in our printed magazine.
Second place isn’t walking away empty-handed either, taking home $1000 cash from The Espy along with 100 printed a3 posters and 250 a6 flyers, again provided by Shout Out Loud.
Every finalist will also have one song filmed and recorded live at the grand final, captured by James Dominko Photography alongside Darius Papak from Mudbrick Studios and Mix On The Move.
For any Melbourne band looking for their next big break, this is about as good a shot as it gets – a legendary stage, a heap of exposure and prizes that could genuinely change the trajectory of a band’s year. Just don’t leave the application until the last minute.
For more information, head here.
Beat is a proud media partner of The Espy Battle of the Bands.
