Federation Square Live

Federation Square Live

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Posted 2011-11-28 by Rod Whitfieldfollow

Thu 08 Dec 2011 - Fri 27 Jan 2012

Returning for its second year, Youth Network The Push 's Fed Square Live series of showcase concerts in the heart of Melbourne city provides valuable exposure for the up and coming young acts from across the country that are being featured. In an age where, despite Melbourne's illustrious history and culture of live music excellence, live music appears to be dying a very slow but sure death, such opportunities are absolute gold. With live music venues dropping like flies to make way for more apartments and pizza shops, funding for young musos being slowly eroded away and a growing ambivalence of a public who would rather stay home on their comfy chairs and watch a bunch of puppet wannabes, organisations like The Push and safe, fun, alcohol free events like this are vital.



And artistic director of Fed Square Live Shane Wickens agrees whole heartedly. "Yeah," he concurs, "I think that's what's really important is that these type of programs provide a free opportunity, and there are some live music fans that can't attend shows at licenced venues or late night venues, Fed Square provides an accessible space and time, and it's a free gig so everyone can come and get involved at Fed square. So certainly it's a really great opportunity we've got to present these shows and to keep them free as well.

"With the audiences we're working with, which is kind of young professionals that are coming through," he continues, "whether they're 'names', or whether they're working behind the scenes, as promoters or whatever, we see a lot of people coming into the industry and forging their careers in their chosen field, and that's really important to us to see those generations of young people to go on to become the professionals who are running the industry that we all enjoy. Hopefully through Fed Square Live it's another opportunity for developing artists to perform but also for young people to come and be part of the event management part of that too, with staging the shows, so we're trying to support both sides of the industry in that way."

The shows kick off in early December and runs right through until late January, and feature an extremely broad range of young Aussie acts, from the silky and soulful sounds of Perth based indie pop/rock queen Felicity Groom to 'audio visual DJ', Sampology, who will light up Fed Square and its big screen with his visual and sonic mash up.

"It's a summertime program," Shane explains, "we're gojng to be running the shows starting on December 8th, through till January 27th, and they're generally on a Thursday evening...we've got three in a row, as kind of like a grand finale (on Australia Day weekend), it's a really interesting opportunity, with the space, we're really trying to challenge the way people see live music. For those who might go the Hi Fi or The Corner or The Palace, it's an opportunity to experience and discover some new music. It's a new space that's free and accessible in the middle of the city."

And so how do you go about deciding which acts are to be featured in the series? "We look at a number of things," he states, "first and foremost it's acts that have been playlisted, so people have a good awareness of a song they have on the radio, at least. With all the supports, making sure they're an Unearthed artist, somebody that's making their way, in terms of their career development, and coming up through the ranks. And we also look at things like community feedback, we've got a group of young people at The Push that give us advice on music choices, and we look at Facebook and general community feedback on artists as well. We also look at who's touring and who's coming through, if there's an opportunity for an interstate artist who might be playing at the Corner or the East Brunswick Club or wherever, to come and do a Thursday night with us."

Fed Square Live is a fantastic initiative, the only possible drawback may be the insane Melbourne weather.

#bands
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#shows
!date 08/12/2011 -- 27/01/2012
%wnmelbourne
154316 - 2023-06-14 09:08:02

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