A note from Festival Founder

It's so easy to sit on our hands, complain, be negative and just look at our town with an almost "what has happened to our live scene" attitude and I will admit that I have been one of those people on occasion but figured if I am being negative, I should also be prepared to do something about it in a positive way. I'm not saying we don't have a scene but it is something that we should always be trying to improve.

When we see 2 corporate chains owning almost 500 hotels in Queensland it doesn't take a lot to work out that our suburban pub culture has suffered, pushing everyone into the entertainment precinct hence the amount of people and merging the city with The Valley... I believe this has affected the live industry. How many of us over 30's actually frequent the Valley these days to go to a pub or see a band? Be honest now!

Sooooooo, what do we do about it? Yes we should still go and support our live scene but we can also use our knowledge, experience, networks and skills to stage boutique events. The Gathering Festival is one of those events. 18 acts that are all seasoned professionals, some very new music and some more seasoned, 3 stages and at a venue that we don't believe has ever staged an event of this kind before.

The Old museum is such a beautiful space and to think that most people remember it as somewhere they used to go to on school excursions. We are very lucky to be able to use this venue and without a doubt it is the perfect venue for our event. I have always driven past The Old Museum wondering what it would be like to stage a festival there and on Saturday September the 17th we will find out.

In closing I'd like to think people will walk away from The Gathering Festival saying that they had a fantastic time, it sounded great, it looked great and most importantly... It felt GREAT!

See you there,

Jason Castle (Founder)