Bluesfest Melbourne Neil Croker is the Director of the new Bluesfest Melbourne. By Brian Wise.

CIS U M NE WS

COMES TO MELBOURNE

The legendary event makes a foray down south under the guidance of Neil Croker.

By Brian Wise

“It’s actually been a dream of mine for quite some time to do a festival in Melbourne, in the city,” says Neil Croker when we meet to talk about the arrival next Easter of Bluesfest in the city. “One of my favorite festivals in the world is Montreux Jazz Festival,” continues Croker, who has had substantial experience running events and venues (he managed The Palais for a decade). “It’s on the edge of Lake Geneva and it’s got some permanent buildings around it. It’s all quite central. Every time I walked past Geoff’s Shed [The Convention Centre], I felt it was the same except it had a brown river instead of a blue lake to look at.” While the Yarra River might not seem quite as romantic as Lake Geneva and the event might at first seem to be an abbreviated version of the festival, when you add all the Bluesfest touring acts who will be in town around the same time Melburnians are going to get a substantial Bluesfest experience. Also, it will be all indoors, to allow for the city’s occasionally unpredictable weather. “The facilities around it are great. There’s the plenary theater, which is a permanent theatre and then there’s spaces where we could build other stages. So, I’ve been looking for a couple of years for a way to do that. Finally, the penny dropped that Peter Noble’s got an amazing array of artists up at Bluesfest and a lot of them tour after Bluesfest or before Bluesfest, so let’s concentrate it all together and let’s put on a smaller version of Bluesfest in Melbourne. He jumped at the idea. He loved the idea of doing a city show. It’s really come together quite quickly. Now, we’ve got 30 artists already locked up and we’ve got three stages allocated and two days’ worth of blues and music locked in for the convention center over the Easter weekend. “This is an indoor festival and given sort of the environment we live in these days, you’ve got to have air-conditioned comfort when you see your act but still have a festival feel. We’ll have a lot of activations in the foyers, and you’ll be able to move around and it’ll feel like a festival, but you’ve got to be very comfortable.” Of course, one of the riskiest jobs in the world at the moment would have to be running a music festival, something that doesn’t daunt Croker, given his experience. “It Is probably a bit silly,” laughs Croker, “but I’m getting old and silly at the same time. The aim is to make it work this year and create a brand. I know people will enjoy it and then we can grow it in the years to come and add some stages and a day, maybe. So, we’ll see how we go.” “I started off working with Garry Van Egmond who was a great promoter,” explains Croker when I ask about his experience. “I joined him just at the time that he was touring Dire Straits for the Money for Nothing tour, which

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was the biggest tour ever in Australia. I did tour management for a long time and promoting, did a bit of theater and some strange things. I ran the merchandising program at the Barcelona Olympic Games, looked after some Australian pavilions and world expos. So, big event stuff. “Then, I was really quite tired of travelling and the opportunity to tender to lease the Palais Theatre came up and we won that tender back in about 2006. We built it up and we were doing about 130 shows a year when our 10year lease expired and it went to tender. When it went to tender one of those big multinational companies swooped in and outbid us and took over the theatre. But it’s been an opportunity. It’s allowed me to go back to my roots and I’ve spent the last five years promoting and producing theater, which is fantastic. This is just one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever done.” Melbourne Bluesfest, which will run on Saturday April 8 and Sunday April 9 on three stages, will start in the early afternoon and run through until late in the evening. At the same time people will be able to buy separate tickets to the larger Plenary for shows by The Doobie Brothers (who Croker tour managed in the ‘90s) and also Paolo Nutini. “So, we’ll have a nice feel, but everybody will still be in a quite intimate environment,” says Croker of the indoor festival site. “We’ll have food trucks indoors. We’ll have breakout areas with banana lounges. We’ve got actually some enclosed outdoor space with barbecue facility. I hope it will have a really comfortable village, music festival type feel around the stages.” Of course, two long-time favourites - Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams - will also be at the festival. “They’ll be performing separately but they’ll be following one another,” explains Croker. “So, Steve will be the first act and Lucinda will be the second, and they’ll be a late afternoon, early evening act on one of the stages.” “I’m loving Southern Avenue as my sort of working day background music these days,” says Croker, talking about some of the festival acts. “I’m playing a lot of them. Of course, we’ve got some great local acts as well, and we’ve got a few more local acts we’ll be announcing just after Christmas to come into the bill as well. Robert Glasper’s sort of that jazz crossover sound and will be fantastic. Of course, it will be Buddy Guy’s last performance in Melbourne. He’s announced this as his last tour. Even though he is getting old, someone who saw him a couple of months ago said they couldn’t believe he did a 90-minute set that just blew them apart. So, he’s still in fantastic form.”

Melbourne Bluesfest runs on Saturday April 8 and Sunday April 9.