WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.160 Picture a music festival in your mind right now. 00:00:02.259 --> 00:00:04.080 Just whatever pops into your head first. Right. 00:00:04.259 --> 00:00:06.459 And if you're like most people listening to this, 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:08.900 you are probably seeing the exact same blueprint. 00:00:09.460 --> 00:00:12.779 You're envisioning a massive temporary stage, 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:16.199 probably set up in a muddy field somewhere. Definitely 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.980 a muddy field. You're picturing endless lines. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:23.000 overpriced water and uh wearing one of those 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:25.760 woven wristbands the ones you absolutely cannot 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:28.820 manage to take off for three days exactly the 00:00:28.820 --> 00:00:31.339 whole experience is packed into one extremely 00:00:31.339 --> 00:00:35.299 loud highly centralized and totally exhausting 00:00:35.299 --> 00:00:37.700 weekend that is the standard globally accepted 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:41.140 model it is but today we are going on a deep 00:00:41.140 --> 00:00:44.479 dive into a short but honestly incredibly densely 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:47.320 packed wikipedia article an article that completely 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:49.729 shatters that muddy field blue print. Completely. 00:00:49.850 --> 00:00:52.369 We are talking about the Queensland Music Festival, 00:00:52.450 --> 00:00:56.450 or QMF. And our mission for this deep dive is 00:00:56.450 --> 00:00:59.789 to really track how this one organization throughout 00:00:59.789 --> 00:01:02.329 the traditional rulebook. They completely redefine 00:01:02.329 --> 00:01:03.990 what a festival can actually be. You're looking 00:01:03.990 --> 00:01:06.590 at a masterclass in scale, really. An event that 00:01:06.590 --> 00:01:09.609 claims to be the largest in the world. And just 00:01:09.609 --> 00:01:11.689 as a little teaser for you, an organization that 00:01:11.689 --> 00:01:14.250 once commissioned a piece of classical music 00:01:14.250 --> 00:01:17.750 to celebrate a supposedly extinct parrot. It 00:01:17.750 --> 00:01:20.870 is a genuinely remarkable model to analyze. Yeah. 00:01:20.909 --> 00:01:23.349 Because when you first look at the source text, 00:01:23.489 --> 00:01:26.390 it can read a bit like a dry timeline. Yeah, 00:01:26.409 --> 00:01:29.250 it really can. Just a list of who directed what. 00:01:29.370 --> 00:01:32.069 Right. And which years they held a concert. But 00:01:32.069 --> 00:01:33.689 when you read between the lines and actually 00:01:33.689 --> 00:01:35.909 unpack the logistics and the philosophy behind 00:01:35.909 --> 00:01:37.810 this history, it becomes something else entirely. 00:01:38.170 --> 00:01:40.510 It's a fascinating study of an arts organization 00:01:40.510 --> 00:01:43.629 actively erasing its own boundaries. We're going 00:01:43.629 --> 00:01:46.989 to explore how this festival evolved from a very 00:01:46.989 --> 00:01:50.510 traditional, highly centralized city event into 00:01:50.510 --> 00:01:54.180 a massive, sprawling cultural engine. An engine 00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:56.680 that spans an entire Australian state. Exactly. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:01:59.379 And the sheer unbelievable scale of what this 00:01:59.379 --> 00:02:01.640 festival evolved into is what initially hooked 00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:03.680 me. Let's just look at the numbers the text gives 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:05.879 us. The numbers are staggering. By the time the 00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:08.340 timeline reaches the 2019 festival, the organization 00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:11.900 was producing over 800 live music experiences. 00:02:12.419 --> 00:02:15.919 800. 800. And originally, this was an event that 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:18.930 happened around... late July every second year. 00:02:19.030 --> 00:02:21.449 A standard biennial schedule. Right. But over 00:02:21.449 --> 00:02:24.229 time, it grew so aggressively that it started 00:02:24.229 --> 00:02:27.129 spinning off into an entity that creates annual 00:02:27.129 --> 00:02:29.909 festivals. And standalone events, too. Producing 00:02:29.909 --> 00:02:33.270 800 events isn't just scaling up. It is a completely 00:02:33.270 --> 00:02:36.289 different logistical species. It is the difference 00:02:36.289 --> 00:02:39.689 between running a massive, single -location flagship 00:02:39.689 --> 00:02:43.330 restaurant and suddenly having to manage 800 00:02:43.330 --> 00:02:46.780 pop -up food trucks. Oh, yeah. spread across 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:48.960 a territory that is roughly two and a half times 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:51.479 the size of Texas. It's hard to even wrap your 00:02:51.479 --> 00:02:53.740 head around that. The logistical framework required 00:02:53.740 --> 00:02:56.840 to pull that off is something most standard music 00:02:56.840 --> 00:02:59.520 festival organizers simply never have to contend 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.340 with. You are not managing three stages in one 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:04.719 central park. No, you're managing hundreds of 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:07.639 separate, geographically isolated micro events. 00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:10.319 Often in places with zero existing entertainment 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:12.860 infrastructure. Which brings us to the most audacious 00:03:12.860 --> 00:03:15.360 sentence in this entire Wikipedia article. Oh, 00:03:15.379 --> 00:03:17.310 I know the one you mean. Okay, let's unpack this. 00:03:17.469 --> 00:03:20.849 The text states, flat out, that by its geography, 00:03:21.069 --> 00:03:23.830 length, participation, and attendance, Queensland 00:03:23.830 --> 00:03:26.990 Music Festival is the largest live music festival 00:03:26.990 --> 00:03:30.129 in the world. A huge claim. A massive sweeping 00:03:30.129 --> 00:03:33.460 claim. But right next to it is one of those classic 00:03:33.460 --> 00:03:36.300 Wikipedia tags and brackets. Citation needed. 00:03:36.500 --> 00:03:39.719 Exactly. Citation needed. Someone clearly looked 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:41.759 at that sentence and said, hold on a minute. 00:03:41.879 --> 00:03:43.819 We're going to need to see the receipts on that. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:46.460 I always love a good citation needed tag. It 00:03:46.460 --> 00:03:48.879 just invites us to scrutinize the claim. It really 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:51.360 does. And what's fascinating here is the specific 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:54.060 metrics the organization is using to justify 00:03:54.060 --> 00:03:57.229 that title of being the world's largest. Notice 00:03:57.229 --> 00:03:59.370 that they don't lead with ticket sales. Or total 00:03:59.370 --> 00:04:02.110 revenue. Right. They explicitly lead with geography. 00:04:02.509 --> 00:04:04.990 Geocracy. Think about the paradigm shift it represents. 00:04:05.710 --> 00:04:08.949 Queensland is an absolutely enormous state. What 00:04:08.949 --> 00:04:11.430 does it actually mean for a music festival to 00:04:11.430 --> 00:04:14.699 claim... geographic footprint as a primary metric 00:04:14.699 --> 00:04:17.980 of its success. Most commercial festivals measure 00:04:17.980 --> 00:04:20.560 their success by how many paying customers they 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:23.079 can cram into one single location. To minimize 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:26.079 overhead. Exactly. QMF is doing the exact opposite. 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:29.040 They are measuring success by how far they can 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:31.439 spread the music out. They are intentionally 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:34.720 maximizing their own logistical overhead to reach 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:38.019 more territory. It is the ultimate anti -centralization 00:04:38.019 --> 00:04:40.660 flex. They are literally bragging about their 00:04:40.660 --> 00:04:43.189 square mileage. They are. But obviously that 00:04:43.189 --> 00:04:45.990 raises a massive red flag from a purely practical 00:04:45.990 --> 00:04:49.589 standpoint. The cost. The cost. Taking a high 00:04:49.589 --> 00:04:52.910 production festival across an entire state into 00:04:52.910 --> 00:04:56.129 remote areas cannot be cheap. Not at all. Usually 00:04:56.129 --> 00:04:58.689 festivals follow the money. They set up where 00:04:58.689 --> 00:05:00.769 the highest density of paying customers live. 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:03.769 How does an event spread across an area larger 00:05:03.769 --> 00:05:07.089 than Texas actually pay for itself? That is the 00:05:07.089 --> 00:05:08.709 critical tension here. And you have to look at 00:05:08.709 --> 00:05:10.370 the funding model detailed in the references 00:05:10.370 --> 00:05:12.110 to understand it. So where is the money coming 00:05:12.110 --> 00:05:14.550 from? They have heavy financial support from 00:05:14.550 --> 00:05:16.449 the Queensland government, specifically through 00:05:16.449 --> 00:05:19.389 an entity called Arts Queensland. OK. They also 00:05:19.389 --> 00:05:21.209 receive funding from the Brisbane City Council, 00:05:21.410 --> 00:05:24.230 the Australia Council and various other strategic 00:05:24.230 --> 00:05:26.629 partners. So this is not a purely commercial. 00:05:27.550 --> 00:05:30.689 profit -driven enterprise. Not at all. By relying 00:05:30.689 --> 00:05:33.209 heavily on public funds, they are effectively 00:05:33.209 --> 00:05:36.129 declaring that access to high -tier culture is 00:05:36.129 --> 00:05:39.230 a public utility. Like water or roads. Exactly. 00:05:39.589 --> 00:05:42.370 Rather than just a luxury reserve for city dwellers. 00:05:42.410 --> 00:05:45.000 So it's heavily subsidized. It has to be. The 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.620 text explicitly notes that the festival brings 00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:50.579 new, innovative musical experiences to the far 00:05:50.579 --> 00:05:53.319 -flung communities as well as major cities. You 00:05:53.319 --> 00:05:56.560 simply do not get to far -flung, remote communities 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:59.899 on ticket sales alone. You don't. The pure cost 00:05:59.899 --> 00:06:02.420 of putting a band on a plane, shipping their 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:04.939 equipment on trucks across the outback, and building 00:06:04.939 --> 00:06:07.379 a stage in a town of a few hundred people? It's 00:06:07.379 --> 00:06:10.319 completely cost prohibitive. Right. It implies 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:13.519 a deliberate philosophical policy choice by these 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:15.920 government and council partners. They are actively 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:18.860 subsidizing cultural access. To ensure that someone 00:06:18.860 --> 00:06:21.480 living hundreds of miles from a major urban center 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:24.360 still gets to experience world -class art. Which 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:27.790 is an incredibly noble mission. But looking at 00:06:27.790 --> 00:06:29.790 the history section of the text, it wasn't always 00:06:29.790 --> 00:06:34.050 this sprawling, egalitarian, statewide behemoth. 00:06:34.129 --> 00:06:36.949 No, it wasn't. If we walk the timeline back to 00:06:36.949 --> 00:06:40.370 the very beginning, to 1991, the origins are 00:06:40.370 --> 00:06:42.550 actually surprisingly rigid and traditional. 00:06:42.889 --> 00:06:46.410 Very much so. The foundation of this organization 00:06:46.410 --> 00:06:48.990 looks exactly like the foundation of hundreds 00:06:48.990 --> 00:06:51.430 of other city arts festivals around the world. 00:06:51.670 --> 00:06:53.610 The article points out it originally started 00:06:53.610 --> 00:06:56.449 under a completely different name. The Brisbane 00:06:56.449 --> 00:06:59.290 Biennial Festival of Music. Founded by a man 00:06:59.290 --> 00:07:01.629 named Anthony Steele. Right, who acted as the 00:07:01.629 --> 00:07:04.050 founding artistic director and also directed 00:07:04.050 --> 00:07:07.930 the 1993 festival. The original name really gives 00:07:07.930 --> 00:07:11.149 the game away. By calling it the Brisbane Biennial, 00:07:11.209 --> 00:07:13.930 they were firmly anchoring it to one major metropolitan 00:07:13.930 --> 00:07:16.730 area. It was city -centric by definition. And 00:07:16.730 --> 00:07:19.329 for those first several years, the timeline reflects 00:07:19.329 --> 00:07:22.629 a very steady establishment -focused phase. The 00:07:22.629 --> 00:07:24.949 text walks us through the mid -90s leadership. 00:07:25.550 --> 00:07:28.389 Nicholas Hayward came in as the CEO for the 1995 00:07:28.389 --> 00:07:31.709 and 1997 festivals. With Jonathan Bills and Richard 00:07:31.709 --> 00:07:34.310 Mills serving as artistic advisors. Exactly. 00:07:34.410 --> 00:07:37.430 And during this era, there is no mention of far 00:07:37.430 --> 00:07:40.149 -flung communities. There's no massive geographic 00:07:40.149 --> 00:07:42.449 footprint. They are simply building a solid, 00:07:42.610 --> 00:07:45.379 reputable traditional arts foundation. Within 00:07:45.379 --> 00:07:47.839 the capital city's existing infrastructure, its 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:50.560 concert halls, its theaters and its central parks. 00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:54.000 But then we hit 1999. The big pivot. As you read 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.240 through this short text, 1999 jumps off the page 00:07:57.240 --> 00:08:00.000 as the absolute pivot point. This is the year 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.740 they essentially tear up the blueprint. Under 00:08:02.740 --> 00:08:05.180 the leadership of executive director Claire Booth. 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:07.939 And artistic director Simone de Haan. They make 00:08:07.939 --> 00:08:11.879 a massive symbolic move. They drop Brisbane from 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:15.480 the title. Renaming it. The Queensland Biennial 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:17.680 Festival of Music. And the crucial operational 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:20.220 change, the one that sets the stage for the 800 00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:22.980 event giant we see later, is that the program 00:08:22.980 --> 00:08:25.879 was officially extended to include regional Queensland. 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:29.100 That is a monumental shift in an organization's 00:08:29.100 --> 00:08:31.629 mandate. And it is easy to gloss over if you're 00:08:31.629 --> 00:08:34.090 just reading the timeline casually. Just a change 00:08:34.090 --> 00:08:36.149 of scope on paper. Right. Changing a name on 00:08:36.149 --> 00:08:38.649 a letterhead is one thing. But officially taking 00:08:38.649 --> 00:08:41.330 on the mandate of regional Queensland means taking 00:08:41.330 --> 00:08:44.669 on immense, almost punishing geographical and 00:08:44.669 --> 00:08:47.129 logistical challenges. You are completely altering 00:08:47.129 --> 00:08:49.190 the DNA of the festival. You're shifting from 00:08:49.190 --> 00:08:51.190 operating in venues that have dedicated power 00:08:51.190 --> 00:08:54.269 grids, lighting rigs, and sound engineers. To 00:08:54.269 --> 00:08:56.950 going into rural communities where you might 00:08:56.950 --> 00:08:59.450 have to build the entire performance infrastructure 00:08:59.450 --> 00:09:02.580 from the dirt up. just for a single night's performance. 00:09:02.899 --> 00:09:05.639 The Wikipedia article actually includes some 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:08.320 photographic evidence that paints such a vivid 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:10.919 picture of what this expansion really looked 00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:13.200 like in practice just a few years later. The 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:15.419 captions are really revealing. There is a photo 00:09:15.419 --> 00:09:18.120 caption mentioning performances by the Hooley 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:20.919 Wigmen in a place called Cooktown during the 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:23.759 2005 festival. And another caption referencing 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:26.919 a 2005 performance in Jimboar. For anyone reading 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:29.120 this who isn't familiar with the geography or 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:31.000 the culture, you see those... names and you might 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.720 just brush past them. But what is actually happening 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:36.039 in those photos? What does it mean to bring the 00:09:36.039 --> 00:09:39.879 Hooliwigman to Cooktown? It is a phenomenal detail 00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:42.320 to highlight because it perfectly illustrates 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:45.019 the friction and the magic of this festival's 00:09:45.019 --> 00:09:49.100 model. For context, the Hooliwigman are an indigenous 00:09:49.100 --> 00:09:51.340 people from the highlands of Papua New Guinea, 00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:54.100 and they are internationally renowned for their 00:09:54.100 --> 00:09:57.490 incredibly elaborate Culturally significant woven 00:09:57.490 --> 00:10:01.590 hair headpieces and traditional dances. And Cooktown. 00:10:01.769 --> 00:10:05.029 Cooktown is a tiny, incredibly remote town in 00:10:05.029 --> 00:10:08.009 far north Queensland. Population of barely a 00:10:08.009 --> 00:10:11.429 couple of thousand people. It is hours away from 00:10:11.429 --> 00:10:13.850 any major city. So imagine the logistical reality 00:10:13.850 --> 00:10:17.149 of that single caption. You are flying an international, 00:10:17.269 --> 00:10:19.570 highly specialized indigenous performance group 00:10:19.570 --> 00:10:21.850 into the country. Transporting them up the remote 00:10:21.850 --> 00:10:24.269 coast of Australia. And staging a performance 00:10:24.269 --> 00:10:26.919 in a tiny... isolated outback community. The 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:28.960 cultural atrocity of that must have been incredible 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:31.480 for the locals. It's not just a cover band playing 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:33.960 at the local pub. It's a globally significant 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:36.740 cultural event happening in their backyard. Precisely. 00:10:36.740 --> 00:10:39.519 And the other location mentioned, Jubor. Jubor 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:43.259 is a historic homestead situated in a vast rural 00:10:43.259 --> 00:10:46.340 agricultural area. Taking an arts festival to 00:10:46.340 --> 00:10:48.659 these specific locations requires a profound 00:10:48.659 --> 00:10:51.139 commitment. By the time Lyndon Teresini took 00:10:51.139 --> 00:10:54.039 over as artistic director from 2001 to 2005. 00:10:54.340 --> 00:10:56.240 Which is exactly when those Cooktown and Jim 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:58.980 Bohr performances took place. Right. By that 00:10:58.980 --> 00:11:00.980 time, the festival had clearly fully committed 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:03.659 to this decentralized, outback -inclusive model. 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:06.220 They were no longer a city festival that occasionally 00:11:06.220 --> 00:11:09.250 toured. They had turned the entire state into 00:11:09.250 --> 00:11:11.730 their venue. It completely breaks down the barrier 00:11:11.730 --> 00:11:14.870 between urban wealth and rural access to the 00:11:14.870 --> 00:11:17.070 arts. It is such a radical transformation, and 00:11:17.070 --> 00:11:18.990 the evolution of the brand didn't stop there. 00:11:19.250 --> 00:11:21.649 No, it kept refining itself. The text notes that 00:11:21.649 --> 00:11:24.870 in 2007, under artistic director Paul Grabowski, 00:11:25.090 --> 00:11:27.649 it got its final name change, shortening down 00:11:27.649 --> 00:11:30.990 to simply the Queensland Music Festival, or QMF. 00:11:31.389 --> 00:11:33.710 dropping the biennial tag as they expanded. But 00:11:33.710 --> 00:11:35.610 as I kept reading through the history section, 00:11:35.690 --> 00:11:38.429 looking at the years following that 2007 rebrand, 00:11:38.590 --> 00:11:41.289 a pattern really jumped out at me. The leadership 00:11:41.289 --> 00:11:43.909 turnover. Yes. I'm looking at the timeline of 00:11:43.909 --> 00:11:45.889 the people in charge, and nobody seems to stay 00:11:45.889 --> 00:11:48.289 in the job for very long. The tenure of the artistic 00:11:48.289 --> 00:11:51.350 directors is remarkably brief. Right. I was looking 00:11:51.350 --> 00:11:53.909 at this thinking, wait, doesn't that cause massive 00:11:53.909 --> 00:11:56.429 operational chaos? You would think so. After 00:11:56.429 --> 00:11:59.240 Paul Grabowski. We see Deborah Conway stepping 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:02.720 in as artistic director for just the 2009 and 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:05.659 2011 festivals. And she's out. And James Morrison 00:12:05.659 --> 00:12:08.820 takes the reins for 2013 and 2015. After that, 00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:11.759 Katie Noonan is appointed in 2016. And she directs 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:15.139 the 2017 and 2019 festivals. It's essentially 00:12:15.139 --> 00:12:18.159 a brand new visionary taking over every two to 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:21.120 four years. It is. Usually, organizations of 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:24.480 this size crave stability. They want a CEO or 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:26.779 a director who will steer the ship for a decade. 00:12:27.439 --> 00:12:30.139 Why deliberately install a revolving door in 00:12:30.139 --> 00:12:32.360 the C -suite for an event that requires this 00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:34.940 much logistical planning? So what does this all 00:12:34.940 --> 00:12:36.860 mean? If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:39.639 this high turnover is absolutely a feature, not 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:42.200 a bug. Really? Think of it less like a corporate 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:45.000 CEO and more like a guest curator at a major 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:47.200 modern art museum. Oh, that makes sense. When 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:49.240 you have a long -running festival, and remember, 00:12:49.340 --> 00:12:51.419 by the time Katie Noonan takes over, this organization 00:12:51.419 --> 00:12:54.200 has been operating in some form since 1991. Over 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:57.659 two decades. There is a very... real, very dangerous 00:12:57.659 --> 00:13:01.019 threat of creative stagnation. If one single 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:03.779 person holds the artistic directorship for 10 00:13:03.779 --> 00:13:06.980 or 15 years, the festival inevitably becomes 00:13:06.980 --> 00:13:09.200 a monolith. Right. It just reflects their tastes. 00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:11.419 It becomes a reflection of that one person's 00:13:11.419 --> 00:13:14.139 specific musical tastes, their personal biases, 00:13:14.340 --> 00:13:16.519 and their established network of friends in the 00:13:16.519 --> 00:13:19.039 industry. Ah, I see. Because Deborah Conway's 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:21.799 background, her musical interests, and the artists 00:13:21.799 --> 00:13:24.019 she knows are going to be completely different 00:13:24.019 --> 00:13:26.720 from James Morrison's network. Exactly. And different 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:30.279 again from Katie Noonan's. By structurally mandating 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:32.340 that different visionaries take control for these 00:13:32.340 --> 00:13:35.340 short, highly focused two to four year reigns, 00:13:35.340 --> 00:13:38.399 the festival essentially forces itself to remain 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:41.299 fresh. That's a clever way to avoid getting stale. 00:13:41.399 --> 00:13:43.639 Each director brings their own unique philosophy. 00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:46.779 their own completely different rolodex of artists, 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.299 and their own perspective on what constitutes 00:13:49.299 --> 00:13:51.740 an innovative musical experience. It guarantees 00:13:51.740 --> 00:13:54.519 that vastly different musical genres and artistic 00:13:54.519 --> 00:13:57.059 visions continually get a chance to shape the 00:13:57.059 --> 00:13:59.360 culture of the state. It ensures that the festival, 00:13:59.539 --> 00:14:02.240 despite being a massive, state -funded institution, 00:14:02.659 --> 00:14:05.950 never gets too comfortable or repetitive. It 00:14:05.950 --> 00:14:09.490 is a brilliantly enforced anti -stagnation tactic, 00:14:09.830 --> 00:14:13.149 which perfectly sets the stage for my absolute 00:14:13.149 --> 00:14:16.289 favorite detail in this entire deep dive. I think 00:14:16.289 --> 00:14:18.129 I know what's coming. Because when you give different 00:14:18.129 --> 00:14:21.230 brilliant idiosyncratic people the keys to a 00:14:21.230 --> 00:14:24.490 massive logistical castle, they do brilliantly 00:14:24.490 --> 00:14:27.250 unexpected things. Here's where it gets really 00:14:27.250 --> 00:14:30.750 interesting. The 2019 festival. Yes. Under Katie 00:14:30.750 --> 00:14:33.190 Noonan's leadership for the 2019 festival, the 00:14:33.190 --> 00:14:36.139 article highlights one specific. incredibly quirky 00:14:36.139 --> 00:14:39.000 commission that just blew my mind. They commissioned 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.399 a piece of music to commemorate the rediscovery 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:43.240 of the night parrot. The night parrot commission 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:46.419 is such a highly specific, wonderful detail in 00:14:46.419 --> 00:14:48.299 this text. It really is. For those who might 00:14:48.299 --> 00:14:51.100 not be deep into Australian ornithology, the 00:14:51.100 --> 00:14:54.179 night parrot is a notoriously elusive nocturnal 00:14:54.179 --> 00:14:57.159 bird. Very elusive. For a very long time, it 00:14:57.159 --> 00:14:59.059 was literally thought to be extinct. It was this 00:14:59.059 --> 00:15:01.860 ghost of the outback, completely gone. And then 00:15:01.860 --> 00:15:04.679 miraculously, it was rediscovered. The Queensland 00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:07.059 Music Festival looked at this ecological triumph 00:15:07.059 --> 00:15:09.610 and decided We need to write a piece of music 00:15:09.610 --> 00:15:12.450 about this. They did. In fact, the Wikipedia 00:15:12.450 --> 00:15:15.950 article specifically references an ABC News radio 00:15:15.950 --> 00:15:19.350 interview on RN Breakfast with Fran Kelly. And 00:15:19.350 --> 00:15:22.269 the title of that referenced interview is Night 00:15:22.269 --> 00:15:25.509 Parrot Recording Immortalized in Queensland Music 00:15:25.509 --> 00:15:28.129 Festival. That word choice is so striking. They 00:15:28.129 --> 00:15:30.289 didn't just book a famous rock band to come play 00:15:30.289 --> 00:15:33.590 a stadium. They immortalized a local, formerly 00:15:33.590 --> 00:15:36.710 extinct bird. This raises an important question 00:15:36.710 --> 00:15:39.370 about the ultimate role of a regional arts festival. 00:15:39.490 --> 00:15:42.210 When a festival reaches the sheer size and scale 00:15:42.210 --> 00:15:45.549 that QMF has, it faces a philosophical choice. 00:15:45.970 --> 00:15:48.549 It can choose to act simply as a massive touring 00:15:48.549 --> 00:15:51.279 circuit. Using its state funding to bring famous 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:53.779 international or national acts to local stages. 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:55.980 Effectively importing culture from the outside 00:15:55.980 --> 00:15:59.100 in. Right. Or it can act as a mirror. The Night 00:15:59.100 --> 00:16:01.320 Pair Commission proves that QMF has consciously 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:03.860 chosen to be a mirror. Reflecting the local area? 00:16:04.100 --> 00:16:07.120 It is reflecting the hyper -local identity, the 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:09.940 deep natural history, and even the ecological 00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:12.899 triumphs of the state back to its own people. 00:16:13.389 --> 00:16:15.990 through the medium of music. That is such a profound 00:16:15.990 --> 00:16:18.330 way to look at it. It is so beautifully specific 00:16:18.330 --> 00:16:20.830 to the region. You couldn't replicate it anywhere 00:16:20.830 --> 00:16:22.789 else. You couldn't take a classical piece of 00:16:22.789 --> 00:16:25.549 music about the Queensland Night Parrot, play 00:16:25.549 --> 00:16:27.970 it at a massive commercial festival in London 00:16:27.970 --> 00:16:31.029 or New York or Coachella, and have it mean the 00:16:31.029 --> 00:16:33.730 exact same thing to that audience. It intrinsically 00:16:33.730 --> 00:16:36.070 belongs to the people of that specific state. 00:16:36.149 --> 00:16:38.879 It is their story. It perfectly encapsulates 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:41.120 that stated mission we discussed from the very 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:43.559 beginning of the article. Bringing new, innovative 00:16:43.559 --> 00:16:47.080 musical experiences to the community. Commissioning 00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:49.500 a complex piece of music about a once extinct 00:16:49.500 --> 00:16:52.120 local bird isn't just about providing a nice 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:54.019 evening of entertainment in the park. It's an 00:16:54.019 --> 00:16:56.679 act of civic pride. It is. It is about using 00:16:56.679 --> 00:16:59.639 state resources to foster a shared sense of place 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:02.279 and shared history. It proves that the festival 00:17:02.279 --> 00:17:04.259 isn't just an event happening in Queensland. 00:17:04.579 --> 00:17:07.890 It is an event actively about Queensland. Taking 00:17:07.890 --> 00:17:10.470 the raw material of the state's geography and 00:17:10.470 --> 00:17:13.730 history and turning it into art. And that really 00:17:13.730 --> 00:17:16.089 brings the whole journey of this organization 00:17:16.089 --> 00:17:18.890 into focus for us. We've covered a lot of ground. 00:17:19.049 --> 00:17:21.470 We really have. We've traced how an event that 00:17:21.470 --> 00:17:25.069 started way back in 1991 as a fairly standard, 00:17:25.369 --> 00:17:28.470 highly traditional city -bound biennial in Brisbane 00:17:28.470 --> 00:17:31.809 managed to completely break the mold. It transformed 00:17:31.809 --> 00:17:34.190 itself from the inside out. It dropped its city 00:17:34.190 --> 00:17:37.549 -centric name. It expanded its geography to include 00:17:37.549 --> 00:17:39.930 some of the most remote communities on the continent. 00:17:40.130 --> 00:17:43.349 And it grew until it became a massive, sprawling 00:17:43.349 --> 00:17:46.150 logistical beast. That produced over 800 live 00:17:46.150 --> 00:17:48.970 events in a single... It brings high -level international 00:17:48.970 --> 00:17:52.670 performances like the Hula Wigman to tiny outback 00:17:52.670 --> 00:17:55.569 towns. And it cares so deeply about its own home 00:17:55.569 --> 00:17:58.029 turf that it spends its resources writing songs 00:17:58.029 --> 00:18:01.950 to celebrate elusive, supposedly extinct parrots. 00:18:02.089 --> 00:18:04.190 It really does challenge you to rethink what 00:18:04.190 --> 00:18:06.950 public funding for the arts can achieve when 00:18:06.950 --> 00:18:09.150 an organization decides to view an entire state 00:18:09.150 --> 00:18:11.849 as its stage. It absolutely does redefine the 00:18:11.849 --> 00:18:14.240 boundaries of what a festival can be. And I want 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:16.940 to leave you with a lingering question to ponder 00:18:16.940 --> 00:18:19.740 on your own time today based on what we've unpacked 00:18:19.740 --> 00:18:21.920 from this history. Go for it. Think about the 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:24.460 city or the state or the region where you live 00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:27.819 right now. If your own hometown were to host 00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:31.559 a massive, geographically sprawling music festival 00:18:31.559 --> 00:18:35.619 with the exact same hyper -local philosophy as 00:18:35.619 --> 00:18:38.920 QMF. What would they create? Exactly. What local 00:18:38.920 --> 00:18:42.490 legend? forgotten piece of regional history or 00:18:42.490 --> 00:18:45.069 what extinct aspect of your own community would 00:18:45.069 --> 00:18:46.730 you want them to commission a piece of music 00:18:46.730 --> 00:18:49.150 about? We will leave you to ponder that. Thank 00:18:49.150 --> 00:18:51.009 you so much for joining us and exploring this 00:18:51.009 --> 00:18:53.130 with us today. It's been great. We love getting 00:18:53.130 --> 00:18:55.369 to unpack these fascinating hidden corners of 00:18:55.369 --> 00:18:58.450 information with you. Until next time, keep exploring 00:18:58.450 --> 00:18:59.390 and stay curious.