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Chris O’Brien – Good Things Festival Promoter 'Pulling This Thing Together Has Been Nothing Short of a Minor Miracle'

Aug 28, 2024

7 min read

It's On-Sale day for the fifth instalment of Good Things Festival.

Since 2018, we've seen this alternative music staple rise from the ground up to become a key player in the Australian live music calendar; and with a jam-packed 2024 lineup consisting of KoRn, Sum 41, Violent Femmes, Electric Callboy, Billy Corgan, Mastodon, Kerry King, The Living End, Dragon, Northlane, Alpha Wolf, Reliqa, Imminence, From Ashes To New and stacks more, we're in for yet another full day of action tearing up the East Coast from December 6-8th.

But it's not been an easy trek to get here... As lingering death consumes the Australian Music Festival scene with Bluesfest finishing up next year and an already concerning list of cancelled, or 'in doubt of returning' outings such as Splendour In The Grass, Groovin The Moo and Falls Festival, it seems like all hope is lost for mainstream music banquets.

However, over here in the heavy//alternative space, the scene is thriving as fans continue to turn up in droves to support our fav bands and events. So, to get down to the bottom of why that is, we jumped on the phone with GTF Promoter Chris O'Brien for a candid chat about the lineup, the current state of touring a festival of this calibre and a challenge he's issuing Wall Of Sound readers to take part in...

Chris, congratulations again for another eclectic offering to the Good Things legacy. What was the hardest part of bringing together this year's crop?

This year was the most challenging year ever, trying to get a lineup together. I think it's just becoming more difficult globally [and] financially for the artist. Everyone's expenses have gone up again, so it's just made it really challenging for everyone; from agents to managers to us.

But luckily we've got some really strong relationships, so we managed to work through what we needed to do to get it done, but it was definitely the hardest one yet.

So in a way, we're lucky that this year's event is actually going ahead?

Yeah, I mean, it's no secret that trying to put festivals on in Australia now, it's never been harder. You've seen how many festivals have cancelled over the last 12 months due to just lagging ticket sales, not being able to get lineups together, not being able to secure headliners.

It's been so difficult, and it's difficult to explain to the punter or Joe Blow. But yeah, the team pulling this thing together has been nothing short of a minor miracle.

So we're super proud of it and super happy that we could at least get it together and put it out there. And yeah, hopefully everyone likes it.

Well, from deep in the scene and an avid festivalgoer myself, thank you for being able to put this together. Talking about those headliners, KoRn, Sum 41 and Violent Femmes all boast BIG 90s energy! Was it intentional to look to that era for this run?

I think generally that the headliners are bands that have been around for quite a period of time. Whether it's The Offspring or Parkway Drive or Deftones, Bring Me the Horizon, Fall Out Boy, Limp Bizkit. I mean, they're all bands that have actually been around for a considerable amount of time, that have huge back catalogues. So you need acts at the pointy end that have really great history of ticket sales in the country, great catalogues of music that people can sing along to and have a great day with.

It's super risky to try and put something at the pointy end of a festival nowadays that's only five or 10 years old, because it's just that, people move on with music taste really quickly. So we've just got to be super careful with how young we actually do go. I mean, there's obviously young artists that are littered throughout the bill because we want to keep developing these bands and bringing them through.

But for the actual headliners themselves - which is the case in most festivals - you really try and make sure, especially in the rock space, that you have heritage artists.

Heading into this new year, there is a change in Good Things' legacy. Astonishing news came through that Sydney, for the very first time, got the approval for 16-year-olds to attend the festival with a guardian. How did the team at HQ react to the news after years and years of lobbying?

A lot of shouting and yelling and hysterics and very happy; we'd been lobbying for years to get this thing done, and fighting the governments and licencing has always been really hard for us. But I think that our track record speaks for itself about the safety of the show that we put on, the amount of resources we put into it, and how safe the environment is.

So we're super happy that finally they listened and said, "You know what? You can have it." We've always had feedback in New South Wales from 16-and 17-year-old kids that can't attend or parents that aren't happy because they can't bring their kids. And so, it's not a matter of us not listening; we just weren't allowed to do it.

We already have so many parents that have their children come along to the festivals, and it's just so cool to see that it's generational through families, and it's something very endearing and something that we're really passionate about.

Yeah. Good. Don't ever change that mantra. This next one's pretty simple. Yes or no? Will Electric Callboy bring their antics to the main stage this year?

Yes... It's going to be pretty wild.

I know the guys have got some tricks up their sleeve, and look, they have just exploded globally. This is going to be something that people will be talking about for a very long time, watching Electric Callboy on the main stage of Good Things.

Agreed. It's going to be huge given what they've done overseas. Back home though, which three lineup acts would you get out of Mosh retirement?

Oh, jeez. Well, obviously KoRn. Mastodon I would be in there for. Jeez, you said only three. That's really difficult... I'm going to say, I mean, look, I've always been a massive Sum 41 fan, but I love the idea of Dragon, to be honest.

They've just got some of the most iconic songs in Australian history, and I just have this sneaking suspicion that there's going to be a lot of people watching them, a lot of people going pretty crazy singing along to those anthems, mid-afternoon, and I think that'd be pretty cool.

I can imagine myself there with a shit-tonne of my friends screaming every lyric to 'Rain' in the pit. Yeah, I think they'd be my three.

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned them because in every post we've done so far, a lot of people were surprised by, "Oh, is that Dragon? The band that does Rain?" So, much like events from previous years of Good Things Festival, maybe we try and organise the very first Dragon circle pit during 'Rain'!?

Oh, yes. See, now you're talking! See, that's the ultimate karaoke song too, 'Rain'. As soon as the first chords come out, you just can't help but sing along to it.

So yeah, if Wall of Sound can incite a circle pit to Dragon when 'Rain' comes on, or maybe a wall of death or something like that, you would have my 110% support.

Mate, I love a challenge. Let's see what we can muster up.

I love it. Challenge accepted, he says.

Awesome. Well, with that, I'd love to get a final thought. You touched on it a bit earlier, in Australia we've seen the demise of mainstream festivals like Splendour, like Falls Festival... Why do you think alternative//heavy festivals are continuously successful when these other ones are drying up?

I think that, probably what I touched on a little bit earlier with the programming side of it, where the acts on there, generally, have been around for quite a while and have a great history here. Whereas I suppose a lot of the acts at other festivals, like the ones you mentioned, are acts that haven't been around that long. So people tend to move on quite quickly musically in that TikTok space.

We really try not to programme Good Things around anything that's on TikTok or trending through those social media influences. We try and stick with great music [and] what numbers are they doing overseas if they haven't done it here before. So we really drill down super hard on every band that's on the lineup, and no spots are given. Every spot's got to be completely earned, and I think that's why we tend to get the support we do.

It's certainly the hardest it's ever been because there's so many bands that I put offers out to that just couldn't do the festival for a number of different reasons. So, like every year, you never end up with exactly the lineup you want.

But I sat down the night before we launched and looked at it and thought we just couldn't be prouder as a team to be delivering it and giving people in that sort of old rock space; something to at least go to and attend, because there's not many festivals left in the country.

If people don't support them, well, then that'll be the end of it.

Exactly. And I think Good Things is great because it's a fantastic way to wrap the year up - from someone who grew up with festivals like Big Day Out and Sounds of Spring and others, I think there's no better way to do it - so kudos to you and the team, and thank you again for stopping by Wall of Sound.

My pleasure, Browny. Thanks for your support, mate.

Interview by Paul 'Browny' Brown @brownypaul

Good Things Festival 2024 is ON SALE NOW – Tickets Here

See you in the circle pit for Dragon!

For all the latest updates and news, check out our Rolling Coverage!

Good Things Festival 2024

Friday, December 6th at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne (15+)

Saturday, December 7th at Centennial Park, Sydney (16+)

Sunday, December 8th at Showgrounds, Brisbane (15+)

Tickets Here

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