Bluesfest boss Peter Noble is confident of delivering a world-class Bluesfest 2021 line-up and is working on all of the potential scenarios to make sure the event goes ahead.
“It’s very hard for me, other than speculate, what an event is going to look like,” Peter Noble tells Noise11.com. “Everything about an event in the future, from where you enter it to when you leave it and everything about how you enjoy the event has to be considered deeply. That’s right down from the initial line you enter to get wrist-banded”.
To plan for 2021 Peter has to deal with forever changing rules for a post-Covid world. “There has been so much talk, but it is talk. My impression from the Department of Health is that they are not happy with standing events because social distancing will be hard to maintain. Seated events were what we were discussing three or four weeks ago. It is so fluid that when I come out and do an interview and say its’ going to be seated and socially distanced, all you know about the pandemic is that you don’t know. Being in the industry and making a decision about doing Bluesfest next year is like being a musician in the old days … improvise”.
The 2020 Bluesfest event was literally cancelled as trucks carrying equipment were turning up at the Bluesfest site. “We had to make some very fast decisions while still dealing with the shock of the cancellation. Within 72 hours we said ‘we’re doing next year’”.
Part of Peter’s forward planning is in an alternative line-up if international acts are still not allowed into Australia. “If it becomes obvious that our borders won’t open up we’ll have to have future discussions with those people,” he said. “We said from the beginning that if the Americans or English can’t come then we will book the best Aussies on the bill. As much as I can’t tell you today what Bluesfest is going to look like next year, for me it is not about anything other than being part of the return of the live Australian music industry for everybody’s sake”.
The refocus to more Australian music is a big win for the Australian music industry. “It made me think ‘Peter, you’ve been a bit remiss over the years’. Blues started in America and we always thought having the overseas bands as headliners were good for business (and they genuinely are). I should always have been booking more Aussies”.
The third Bluesfest announcement adds in:
The Church
Kate Miller-Heidke
The Living End
The Angels
Ross Wilson And The Peaceniks
Blue King Brown
Jeff Lang
Kara Grainger
Other Aussie acts already announced for Bluesfest are other Aussie acts Jimmy Barnes, The Teskey Brothers, John Butler, Xavier Rudd, Kev Carmody, Troy-Cassar-Daley, Ian Moss, The Cat Empire, Briggs, Russell Morris, Kasey Chambers, The Waifs, Hiatus Kaiyote, Weddings, Parties, Anything, Nathan Cavaleri, The Black Sorrows, Harts, Ash Grunwald, Mama Kin Spender, The Bamboos, All Our Exes Live In Texas, Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission, Pierce Brothers and Henry Wagons.
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