Festivals: ‘It’s Not Music Promoting, It’s Music Punting’

Fat As Butter promoter Brent Lean says all promoters “run the gauntlet” and get a little nervous, as he looks towards his festival this weekend.

“I think any promoter who's promoting festivals, we all run the gauntlet to a degree,” Lean said. “Even with our wealth of experience over the years doing a lot of things, I think you'll find that with a lot of promoters – you're still nervous until that day we go on sale.

“And really that first two, three days of sales, you can pretty much do your ticket modelling off there for where you're gonna end up.”

He added, “I don't know too many promoters who wouldn't be sitting on the end of their seat waiting for the first sale report to come in after the first day of sales – 'Where are we gonna end up? How's it gonna go?' What we do is running the gauntlet, definitely, and as a few of us say, 'It's not music promoting, it's music punting'.

Newcastle-based festival Fat As Butter, promoted by Lean's Mothership Music, has become one of the country's most recognisable regional festivals since its inception six years ago. Taking place Friday 26 October, the festival team are currently in the middle of final preparations from both an admin and infrastructure point of view.

“Do we get nervous? Yeah we do, but its' probably more excitement. We've got such a good team and everything's so well established that on the day on the event, I definitely don't get nervous about that anymore.”

Announced back in July this final week is one of the festival's key ticket periods.

“It goes nuts now. More so with regional-style festivals, it's the last week that goes nuts, it's one of our biggest selling periods,” said Lean.

The festival's had a busy year outside the day-to-day running of the event, with a high-profile court case and sustained council lobbying over camping sucking a lot a time from the full-year cycle the event has become.

“It's exciting. I think most promoters do what they do because they enjoy the thrill. It's also about clever business and minimising your losses and having a platform below you – I wouldn't go out there throwing everything at an event and losing everything based on one event, that's a bit too much to cop for most people I think.

“It's about working appropriate business models within your overall business so that things you're taking more of a risk on and underwritten by other parts of your business that aren't as risky. I definitely thrive on the excitement of it.”

Mothership did their own balancing of entities earlier this year to ensure the safety of the festival's future following a major court case.

In August Fat As Butter finally put its dispute with American Flo Rida, real name Tramar Dillard, to bed after he proved a no-show at their 2011 event. While the judgement appeared to be on the festival's side, the rapper's team won an appeal and escaped a $400,000 plus fine.

“Obviously the Flo Rida issue leaves a sour taste in our mouths, without a doubt,” Lean said. “It was proven and it wasn't ever debated or questioned from their side that he did the wrong thing. He effectively stole money and wouldn't pay it back. To go through that whole process, we did it as a matter of principle… we won the judgement and then it was appealed on a technicality, which is very frustrating.

“It doesn't have an ongoing [impact on the] commercial viability of the event, that's not the issue, but we fought very hard for what we thought was right because in too many situations artists are allowed to behave like that and get away with it.”

Even though Dillard seemingly escaped the punishment, Lean hopes the festival's pursuit of him will leave a lasting impression.

“We've been enough of a thorn in his side or its cost him a lot of money here,” he said. “[Australia has] been a profitable touring market for him and we haven't seen him since then. And we've still got a few tricks up our sleeve to make life difficult for him should he decide to come back down here again.

Fat As Butter also put its camping plans on the backburner this year after support for the scheme came in too late.

“By the time the final full approval came through for the camping it was five weeks out from the event,” Lean said. “We've been given approval in principle to move forward with it, but unfortunately we pulled the camping a bit before that because it's such an integral and crucial part of an event – particularly the planning, its impact city-wide and the lobbying you've got to do to get in the frame in the first place.

“So we thought we're not gonna rush that and let's just get it spot on for next year. When you're putting 1,000 people in tents in the city you've got to have everything running your way.”