The Patron Of Mullum Fest Wants You To Ask All The Stupid Questions

When you hear the title 'Festival Patron', you either think of a diehard fan who attends an event year in, year out, or something akin to triple j's Mayor Of Splendour. Suzannah Espie is both, attending "probably around five" out of nine Mullum Music Festivals, which nabbed her the coveted title of Festival Patron for this year's event. But even Espie isn't sure what the role actually entails. "It's not something that happens all the time at music festivals, so there's not a set agenda about what it means," she laughs. "When I got asked to do it, I said 'Great! What does that mean?'"

"I just love working with women whenever and wherever I can. It can be a sort of unique, sometimes a bit of a lonely experience being a woman in the music industry..."

"Mullum is a really heavily community based festival and I think they like to have people as patron of their festival who understand that and get behind that. I'll be doing some mentoring with young musicians, collaborations with other musicians at the festival but also with members of the community and musicians from the area, and just sort of being a face of the festival really, a like-minded artist who shares the ethos of the festival," she explains. Kinda sounds like her face should be blown up on a huge banner and strung up over the streets of Mullumbimby. "Yes!" she laughs "I'll be talking to them about that!"

In the role, held by Harry James Angus and Mama Kin before her, Espie will be working closely within the community and bolstering its budding talent. "I'll be doing performances with a choir - a singing group of women from the area... I've had a little bit [of experience conducting a choir]. I've got a teaching background, so I've done quite a bit of that stuff with kids, so yeah the grown-ups are easy!" she jokes. "I just love working with women whenever and wherever I can. It can be a sort of unique, sometimes a bit of a lonely experience being a woman in the music industry, we're surrounded by blokes a lot of the time. It's just really affirming."

The festival isn't until November, so Espie hasn't been forced to brainstorm what she will be sharing in the Youth Mentorship Program until she's asked about it. "It's interesting because when people ask you those questions, 'What have you learnt?' you go 'God, I dunno'," she protests with a giggle. "I'm just really looking forward to talking to them and seeing where they're at... I've got to think about that! I've got a couple of months to hone all my pearls of wisdom," before inadvertently coming up with a good 'un: "Arm yourself with as much information as you can, ask the stupid questions, that's what I would say. Being a musician can be a bit solitary and lonely, because ultimately you do a lot of stuff on your own... but there are always people out there who are willing to help. So even if you feel like you're asking a stupid question and you should know what's going on, don't ever think that."