Indyfest has a mottled history. In previous years, the festival has attracted so many
punters that the streets of Civic were full of hungry lines awaiting entry. Previous
organizers had attracted local and interstate bands by putting on conference events with
industry experts doling out information and advice. In some years gone by the festival
benefited from a major headline act (such as The Superjesus) to ensure crowds who
wouldn’t normally venture out to enjoy local talent came along.

This year’s Indyfest took a distinct departure from history and relied on neither of these
elements. Instead it was a purely local focus – local bands, skate enthusiasts, graffiti artists
and merchants. Did it work? Well….

Outside – The set-up was impressive. Driving through Belconnen on Saturday, motorists
would have to be deaf and blind to miss all the activity in the parking lot across the road
from The Basement. A skate ramp was set up in one corner, the stage in the other and the
carpark was littered with tattoo artists, CD sellers and various other merchandise vendors.
The one important ingredient missing on Saturday was the crowd. At around two o’clock
there were probably fifteen audience members outside – the lack of shade cover in the car
park meant some people were at severe risk of developing a nasty sunburn and quickly
retreated into the cool darkness of The Basement.

Caressing Inanimate Objects, Early Warning System and The Dark
Violence of Beauty gave it their all on the outside stage. The stage itself wasn’t ideal.
It sloped perilously away at the back and it seemed entirely possible that some drummers
could have fallen off the edge and rolled down the hill toward Belconnen Mall. The sound
outside was not the best either. The sound guy was of the turn-it-up-to-eleven variety and
it resulted in some guitar combinations sounding like a wall of white noise.

Inside – The Basement is a cosy place. Space in front of stage for anyone whose
preference is to dance, couches in the middle for the lazy and pool tables at the back.
The PA inside was run much more effectively than the outside stage and the sounds coming
from Gilf and Julia and The Deep Sea Sirens were beautiful, vocalists in
both these acts should be commended. One small problem was that Gilf’s set kept
getting punctuated with Johnny Cash and Neil Young covers from Dark
Violence of Beauty on the outside stage – in future it would be a positive to perhaps set up
the outside stage facing away from The Basement (also might prevent any possibility of
drummer-roll-due-to-steep-incline mentioned above).

Once again though, the success of the afternoon was marred by the lack of a crowd. By
the time Looking Glass, The Chuffs and Super Best Friends hit the
stage later in the evening numbers had pumped up a little bit, perhaps 80 – 100 people in
all. These bands are well worth it in terms of the high energy and musically impressive
performances they put on.

Indyfest is a great idea carried out by people with a passion for local artists. The effort
was certainly there this year – their public relations campaign spanned most Canberra news
services and the time and effort put into organizing the day was impressive. Indyfest is put
on by a group of volunteers who do it for the love of music. The rain early in the morning,
the heat in the afternoon, the Belconnen location (not as central as Civic, maybe running
buses could be an idea for next year?) and the ditching of the Conference and headline acts
for this year may have all contributed to fewer numbers at the show. Despite this year’s
problems, the day was still an excellent showcase of some of Canberra’s best local acts.