15/11/2004
Why Participate in the Fuse Festival & Conference? - Nov 04
Thanks to everyone who came to MusicSA's Re-launch and Info Night - I got quite a few good 'Ask Eliza' questions submitted to me that night, and they are waiting in the wings…But in the meantime, I want to continue our focus on the Fuse Festival - the hot topic around town.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the Festival is taking over the West End at the end of Nov, with bands galore and an expected crowd of 8,000. The streets should be crawling with industry folk, so it is not an opportunity to miss if you're a band who wants to become better known.
We've had a question in a recent forum topic about making the most of these types of events, especially for artists who aren't actually on the Showcase or other live performance programs.
Firstly, you have hopefully signed up for at least part of the Conference sessions. An expense, yes, but consider it a marketing fee. You will be sitting in a room with hundreds of delegates - other bands you might get gigs with, media who may have received your press releases but have never met you personally, A&R reps who might seem a bit intimidating or inaccessible under other circumstances - all very handy that they're in one place, and expecting & wanting to meet artists. And of course you'll learn something at the actual session itself!
In between sessions is a pretty good time to meet and greet, too. Everyone probably has nametags, so no worries about calling a VIP Mark instead of his name Matt; and you're not competing for attention over music or drunkenly making the wrong impression - unless you've kicked off early…
If you just can't scrape up the money to go to the Conference, you have no excuses for not attending the free live music events. Sure the bands performing are getting the most interest, but again, there are lots of potentially useful folks standing around at the bar, chatting in between sets, etc.
Bring some bios, demos, flyers to your next show and see what happens. No need to be pushy or annoying - let people watch the bands after all! - but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. The SA Fuse artists are representatives of our local music scene, but you can rest assured that Festival goers are interested in what else the state has to offer, too. Some of our best acts have already played the event before - or it could be their big chance next year. The important thing is to demonstrate that you ARE part of the scene right now.
I could go on and on - but let's turn this over to the forum for now. Logon to any of our Fuse topics and let us know what you think about the whole scene. Success stories - or tips on what not to do - are especially encouraged.
If this has sounded like one big ad for the event, you're missing the point. A huge amount of people are in Adelaide just to enjoy / talk /learn about original music.
You're crazy not to participate in some way. Whether you're playing in the Festival, going to the conference, both, or neither, at least get out and support as many performing artists as you can, and be open to meeting new faces. The worst that can happen is you'll have a good time.
