No Sleep Til festival promoter chats to TMN

06 September 2010

With the No Sleep Til festivals going on sale this Thursday, promoter Jaddan Comerford discusses getting into the festival game for the first time, the team behind the event and why having less acts can be a good thing for a festival.

This is the first music festival Destroy All Lines and Blue Murder have undertaken. What made you decide to it with No Sleep Til?
We just felt there was room to do something, so we did. The time is now for us. It’s getting harder and harder as a tour promoter with festivals becoming more and more of an option, especially for the heavy music genre. Up until a few years ago, there weren't really festival options for these kinds of bands.

NST is a national festival which is no mean feat for your first go. What expertise have you enlisted to help with the project?
There's a bit of a team that makes up No Sleep Til. It's a three way joint venture between the below parties.

Blue Murder: Chris and his team work with DAL to deiver to artists for the event. Chris does 99% of the negotiation with the agents here and overseas.

Destroy All Lines: We look after marketing, promotions, publicity, branding. We’re owned by [youth-focused marketing company] The Staple Group, which between me and Ben (directors), we do a lot of different things that compliment the festival.

Richie McNeill and Dror Erez: These are two of the guys behind Stereosonic, Creamfields and Solar Festivals. Between them there are year of experience in venues, events, festivals, operations, etc Even though we have our key responsibilities, we all also cross over and help each other where needed.

How did the idea first come about?
Nigel Melder, who works for Destroy All Lines, has been good friends with Chris Moses for years. He actually used to be a tour manager for him.

Ben and I had started talking to Richie and Dror and in the meantime, Nigel let us know that Moses was thinking similar things. We called Chris, he got on a plane to Melbourne, we all sat in our boardroom for an afternoon, and 6 months later, we announced a festival!

Homebake recently announced it was going on hiatus, reportedly because they couldn’t secure enough acts due to the festival boom. Did you have any problems?
Well, it definitely hasn't been easy, and Chris Moses has done an amazing job piecing together what we feel is a fantastic line up.

With so many festivals out there, what’s NST’s point of difference to all the others – and most specifically, to Soundwave which has a very similar metal/punk audience?
One thing also we really focussed on was a strong bill from top to bottom. No filler, all great acts that can stand alone in their own right.

We have less acts than a lot of people which in our mind allows people to see the bands they want to see, and not spend most of their day running and back and forth between stages to avoid clashes.

There will also be a strong focus on enjoyment not only for the punters but also the acts. Every festival says it but this is definitely going to be a key focus. No cutting corners.

Was it hard to get the Descendents on board?
Let's just say it was a bit of right place and right time when it came to Descendents. It was really a dream come true when that locked in. We were all pretty speechless when it came through.