the decibel festival Glenn Oakes issue 1 - march 1994

The Decibel Festival Update

For those of you who don't know, RAS Inc. is organising a two day rock extravaganza called "The Decibel Festival". It will be held at the Geelong Racecourse on the weekend 8 & 9 October 1994. This is an event organised by RUSDEN students for RUSDEN students.

Tickets for Rusden students will be about $12.00 total for the two days and includes an un-powered campsite in the carpark of the racecourse. Anyway, a bit more about what is happening... There will be a main stage about the size of the one they had at the Big Day Out earlier this year. For those who don't know how big this was, let me tell you it was HUGE.

There will be 15-20 known Australian acts performing on this stage over the two days. The bands we are negotiating with are: TUMBLEWEED, DEF FX, HUNTERS AND COLLECTORS, CLOUDS, FRENTE, CALIGULA, THE HARD-ONS, SWORDFISH, SWOOP, SPIDERBAIT, TISM, MR FLOPPY, THE MEANIES, TIDDAS, PETER WELLS, PAINTERS AND DOCKERS, COSMIC PSYCHOS, THE BREADMAKERS, THE AUSTRALIAN DOORS SHOW and a few others. I can report that negotiations with these groups are going well and it looks like we'll get ALL of them for the dB Festival. Next to the main stage will be a secondary show which will feature up and coming bands, comedians etc. who will perform in between main acts.

There are currently 15 people working on this project, and this number is expected to swell as more people hear of the project and decide to get involved. Each of these people are researching cost areas, such as lighting, PA, facilities etc. and would have delivered their first reports by the time you read this. These reports will then be handed to a production manager who will follow them up.

We are selling 12,000 tickets to this event, mostly through AUSTICKETS for around $20.00. This price is for the general public, but is still bloody cheap for a two day drinking, music, smoking and campin' festival. Around 4000 tickets will be offered to Uni students, with Rusden getting approximately 1000 tickets. My ultimate goal is to sell these 1000 tickets for $10.00 each just for Rusden students. But I can assure you, no matter what happens, they will be no more than $15.00.

The committee is negotiating with JJJ FM, trying to get them to broadcast live from the event and the discussions that have been held have been very positive, to say the least. The committee is also about to embark on a PR blitz for the dB Festival, getting posters up well in advance of ticket sales so as to build up some hype and positive feeling about the event. We will be advertising in the music press, giving interviews about the dB Festival to magazines and newspapers etc.

We plan to make tickets available from ,July and expect them to sell very quickly at the price. In fact, we expect that all the tickets will be sold within 5 weeks from the release date. When the tickets do sell out, we plan to add an international act to the bill, but no one is going to know who they are until they appear on stage (Violent Femmes, The Breeders, Bodycount, Matthew Sweet, The Cult, The Ramones - I'm not telling). That's about all from me for now. If you're interested in joining the committee for this event, just come along to one of the meetings (they'll be announced in Whimper). But just think, you'll be able to attend the biggest Uni activity ever put together and jump around in the mosh pit with 11,999 others. Look out for the next update.

Glenn Oakes
Activities Officer