Blueprint promoters talk

Thu 12th Nov, 2009 in Local News

MIA Blueprint promoters Tristan and Aaron Gray have finally spoken out about their catastrophic attempt to establish a new festival in regional Victoria.

Currently hiding out “somewhere in regional Australia” to avoid creditors who are chasing debts totally $500,000, Tristan admitted in an interview on Triple J’s current affairs program Hack, that they “should’ve understood the industry a little better” before attempting to launch a new event in an already bloated festival landscape.

Tristan talked in detail about where it all went wrong for the brothers, revealing, “We expected the ticket revenue to pay for everything, and then the money we made from the food and beverage sales to go into the bank so that we could out it on bigger and better next year.

“We knew it was going to be a bit tight. We didn’t think far enough to go: sound, lighting, stage, toilets, water, electricity, security, staff, food, marquees, the list keeps going. We didn’t really think about any of that stuff. It just blows your mind the sort of costs involved.”

Publicist Sarah Dalgleish, who works for Chrissie Vincent Publicity, one of the many companies still owed money by the brothers, had a different take. “They were too cocky. That started off too ambitious and didn’t follow anyone’s advice and dropped off the face of the planet because they knew they were going wrong.”

Tristan concluded the interview with a plea of sorts. “I recently started using a different last name as well because I don’t want people to find me I just want to move on, I don’t want to talk about the festival, I don’t want to be harassed anymore, I don’t want to be scared anymore.”

You can listen to the extended interview here.