When you speak of the Summer festival season, there is one festival that reigns supreme: The Big Day Out. Now in its 18th year, it’s a festival which indeed lives up to its name. The biggest acts in the world, under what feels like the hottest sun in the world – it’s Australia’s time to shine.
And the upcoming Big Day Out tour, headlined by Muse, brings with it the status of holding the 100th Big Day Out in Sydney! We know we don’t need to tell you much more about the festival – most of you will have plenty of your own stories to tell! As such, I’d like to pass the rest of this article over to the Big Day Out team, who put out the following statement in regards to their 100th show.
Congratulations guys! We’ll see you at the celebrations.
————————————–
Who would have thought this day would ever happen?
On Saturday Jan 23 2010, the tireless Big Day Out team, an army of workers and a 747 full of musical gods, goddesses and misfits from around the world will deliver the 100th Big Day Out A milestone rarely achieved by any festival in the world.
Over 17 years the BDO has grown from its initial chaotic plan of uniting the shambolic independent music scene for a day to become the largest travelling festival in the world. This year we have over 700 people on the road. In 1993 it was less than 70. And for the first show in 1992 only a handful of people made up the BDO team.
It was the right event at the right time. It was and still is delivered to you by passionate music fans and we work hard to keep the event true to its’ original vision.
In 1992 it was described on our first council permit as a Youth, Music and lifestyle event. It still is. It is also known as ‘the big day off’ by international artists ‘controlled kaos’ by the crew and even ‘the notorious BDO’ by the media.Created in a time before Australia had music festivals, when independent music was exactly that and summer gigs were indoors. For anyone under 30 it would be hard to even imagine the idea that there were no modern festivals, let alone summer festival lift outs or guides in the street press or on the internet.
The Big Day Out existed before the internet ran our world. It began when Grunge music exploded, has seen Djs became superstars, Techno and Rap go mainstream and Sports Metal and Emo come and go.
Most importantly it has and will continue to deliver the ultimate platform for Australian and NZ artists to play to massive crowds alongside some of the most important acts in the world to the best audience in the world.Only in Australia do fans ‘go off’ and that energy is the fuel that drives the show and inspires the bands to deliver incredible performances. With over 3 million people through the gates we have had plenty of euphoric highs and heart breaking lows. From victory to tragedy, one year or even one show is never the same as the next.
From Soundgarden to Neil Young; Metallica to Bjork; Chemical Brothers to Nirvana, Nick Cave to Nine Inch Nails. The list is overwhelming. We have seen Australian acts grow from humble beginnings to stadium fillers like Powderfinger and we believe that our support of great artists both local and international is best served by supporting them over their whole career.
We believe these shows will be wonderful events, uplifting, spectacular and above all fun. And in keeping with the Big Day Out ‘bigger the better’ philosophy we have prepared a Sound, Flame and Fireworks spectacular like no other to close both Sydney shows.
None of this could have been possible without the support of real music fans, from the ones that work on the shows to the fans that buy the tickets.
On behalf of the whole team, thank you for your support, we hope you will continue to support us in years to come so we can deliver to you the best day possible.
Ken West, Vivian Lees and the team.
