Sydney electronic duo The Presets were due to play THIS THAT in Newcastle in November and VANFEST in Bathurst last weekend. The former was cancelled – with organisers citing market saturation,supply chain issues,labour shortages,insurance premiums and infrastructure costs – while the latter was rescheduled after the Central West floods.
“Every second festival we get booked for will either get cancelled ’cause they can’t sell tickets to it because of inflation[or postponed],” says the Presets’ Julian Hamilton. “It’s not quite the bounce back we thought we were going to see after COVID. It’s getting there,but it’s still a little dicey.”
Next year,Smirnoff will host a run of intimate,one-night-only gigs at smaller venues that helped give live music acts their start,kicking off in February with the Presets at Sydney’s legendary Club 77. Emerging acts can apply to open for the headliner in each city via Smirnoff’s Instagram page.
“That is the biggest challenge at the moment. Staffing is just a massive,massive problem.”
Club 77 owner Dane Gorrel
Hamilton and Kim Moyes,the Presets’ other half,say the local music scene is as strong as ever in output. But it is harder for emerging artists to build on early successes by turning a streaming hit into a tour,or experiencing real-time feedback from a dance floor.
“I couldn’t imagine us starting our careers in 2022,” says Moyes. “The first tour you do in the[United] States,or that time you get one song on the Hottest 100 in the top 10 ... those little opportunities come and go for bands,and if you can’t jump on them at that time,it’s difficult.”
Club 77 owner Dane Gorrel says confidence is slowly returning to the city’s nightlife;enough that his venue now opens until 4am seven nights a week. Fridays and Saturdays are “flying”,he says.