With the mission of “raising the volume on climate change”, it’s unfortunate that the striving intention of Circus Entertainment to promote awareness of climate issues amongst the adult youth of Australia had lost all matter of purpose by the time the third and final leg of the tour made it’s way to Brisbane. With the intent of reaching out to attract a supporting audience of 20,000 nationwide, it seems the new non-profit event company may not have even pulled a collective total of even 10% that, so therefore sadly failed in their objective of being able to donate a share of the profits to The Wilderness Society and Climate Friendly Australia.

Offering a somewhat decent line-up and eclectic mix of DJ and live performance outfits from across the globe, Climate Festival with the enlisting of media partners from TV, radio, internet and street press, seemed to have been advertised well enough. So what went wrong? Perhaps a music festival was not the most appropriate platform to promote climate awareness, especially so late in what’s considered the summer festival season? I’m certain for sure that all stakeholders will be scratching their heads for some time to come, pondering over what could’ve been, should’ve been, but sadly wasn’t.

48 hours prior to the Brisbane event, originally scheduled to be held at the Botanical Gardens’ Riverstage, was relocated “due to weather conditions” to indoors at The Arena. One can only speculate on the actual reason for the new venue, since weather in the lead up in SEQ was rather splendid in comparison to some other seasoned promoters had to contend with over the previous few months. Second release ticket sales, which had been selling for $80, were heavily discounted to $40 in the days prior, and there was also a slashing of one-third of the headline acts, which meant beloved fans of Junkie XL, DJ T, Ian Carey and Mobin Master who paid full price for tickets were dealt a double-blow. With the change in location, I wondered if the exposure to the “overwhelming environmental measures involved in running the event”, which were to include “on-site recycling, educative outlets, organic food and merchandise stalls, real time monitoring of Climate’s carbon footprint”, would still be kept in place.

I rocked up at about 2:15pm, and walking directly into the main room, daylight turned into darkness; surprisingly the natural light which wouldn’t normally emanate through the entry door or side emergency exit that was opened, didn’t detract at all from the excellent lighting and visuals that was immediately evident. With Climate Festival banners gracing the balcony of the mezzanine above the main floor, apart from the large paper Climate Festival posters sticky-taped to walls and supporting posts, there were no other decorations whatsoever. Standing in the main room I had no idea of what stage was being hosted, though my first observation was that whoever the DJ was at this stage, they were belting out decent dance tunes in front of an incredible visual backdrop, to an almost empty room. I wasn’t surprised, but I was still a little shocked, I’d never seen the room so empty.

It wasn’t until I went upstairs and recognised Murray Brown that I realised this small side room as the ‘Perfect World’ stage, which would host all the locals in the lead up to Canada’s Mark Mendes’ closing set. Heading upstairs above the mezzanine level, I deduced with a close scan of the A4 poster with set times stuck to the door, that the outfit playing in the ‘Oh-Zone’ area had to be Krtweel – sadly playing to only a handful of up-for-it punters. Back down to the mezzanine balcony overlooking who I now figured had to be Danny T playing the ‘Global’ stage of the main room, I had calculated a total of 60 people across the three staged areas and dark corners.

Over the five hours that I hug about, I watched the crowd grow to a maximum of about 150 at any one time (I did frequent head counts), with each of the dance floors varying from 0 to about 40 punters. Devoid of any atmosphere at all, the sparse emptiness was quite eerie, and without any of the aforementioned environmental measures promised to be in place, I felt completely gutted for the organisers, and somewhat embarrassed for the international artists who’d endured their commitment. Lastly, who could forget the grave disappointment of punters obligated to stay…

Each time I visited the ‘Perfect World’ stage I knew what to expect musically, with locals like Murray Brown, Dope n Dusted, Nick Galea and Baby G, and other regular club goers also showed their support. With no more than 25 on the dancefloor area, the crowd this small room attracted made it feel somewhat like any lounge area of the more popular clubs that these beloved locals play. For a moment it actually felt like the wee hours of a weekend! Upstairs Flyyn ‘n Stix, during their timeslot at the ‘Oh-Zone’ stage, played some familiar older style tracks, which in all fairness attracted a decent crowd. I missed Giv n Audun, due to the Resin Dogs downstairs and my meal time-out, and each time I wandered up to catch The Scientists of Modern Music – since nobody was in the room – they didn’t play! It was only when a small group entered the room that the live act started up.

The poor artists playing in the main room did so to a very small, and mostly indifferent, turnout. But alas, Danny T and the DJ who played after him leading up to the Resin Dogs continued to throw down tune after tune, and I have to admit they had me tapping my foot. The Resin Dogs Sound System, who in their home town of Brisbane have a massive fan base, drew the largest crowd to the floor, and finally gave some atmosphere to the place. But, about half way through their set, the crowd had resorted to unenthusiastic muffled cheers, which resulted in the front-man asking “do you wanna hear another song?” Eventually their timeslot came to an end, and they departed with an air of defeatism.

Richard Dinsdale, who for some reason was to close the ‘Global’ stage, was brought forward into Supafly Inc’s slot and part of Tommy Lee & Aero’s, playing a good 45 minutes longer than originally scheduled. His DJing picked things up a little, and (as he did the previous weekend) began his set with the MSTRKRFT remix of Justice’s D.A.N.C.E, which drew a handful of people out from the dark corners of the place. Finally having the chance to bop a bit to his upbeat set, it actually did feel like the closing to the night given its structure. By this stage I had to depart, missing out on the audience reaction to Tommy Lee. Thanks to faithful ITM Katie Dawson, she was able to file the following report…

Tommy Lee was a crowd favourite, starting a very animated set alongside DJ Aero with a remix of the always popular Daft Punk classic Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. It seemed everyone was just as amazed as I, that it was actually Tommy Lee of Motley Crüe fame, up there onstage punching his fist into the air and gyrating with excitement. Full credit to DJ Aero who seemed to be the powerhouse of the duo, dropping in chart-topper electro favourites, while Tommy was there for the celebrity flavour, not doing all that much, but occasionally hitting the drum machine and sporadically becoming distracted by the lighting projections behind him. Plenty of mobile phone photos were snapped, necessary evidence to prove that Brisbane did in fact see the ‘dude from the Bigpond ads’.

Just when I thought that the best had been on, a dark and dirty version of the Prodigy’s ‘Smack my Bitch Up’ vibrated through. A song that always evokes the deviousness in one’s dance-style, it called all remaining punters from the main ‘Global’ stage floor. The track lasted just long enough for Supafly Inc. to get their act together and keep the attention of the loyal punters who decided to stay until the end. The Supafly Inc. duo, DJ and producer Mr P (Liassi) and vocalist One (Andrew Tumi), started the set by telling the punters; “We’ve been to Sydney and we’ve been to Melbourne, now we are in Brisbane – so show us some mad noise!” The stragglers left on the floor managed to muster up some cheers and whistles, though seemingly not enough. With a further stroking of our egos, eventually Supafly Inc. were granted a much bigger crowd reaction than Tommy Lee received, and with half the numbers.

Commencing their set with the well known summer anthem ‘Let’s Get Down’, Supafly Inc. dropped in a number of hot tracks, including ‘Moving Too Fast’, ‘Sunrise’, and ‘Be Together’. The boys could read the crowd, sensing tiredness creeping in, so they launched into a punchy mix of Justice vs Simian’s ‘We Are Your Friends’, followed by the Utah Saint’s comeback ‘Something Good 08’, and even Flo Rida feat. T-Pain ‘Low’, which had the security staff getting into the groove. They could see that the loyal followers were lapping it up, so topped off the performance by handing out cans of Red Bull to pretty much everyone left. This would have only been a carton or two, mind you, but the sentiment was definitely there. It was indeed a fitting end to a very strange festival.

At 10pm on the dot the lights went up and punters were encouraged to hastily depart. By chance I was able to ask a couple of quick questions to Supafly Inc’s frontman One, as he posed for photos with fans. When comparing this venue to the other states, he remarked “Brisbane has been the best, nice intimate crowd”. On the concept of Climate Festival, “We are very supportive of this cause. Voicing the need for climate change through this mode is going to grow; it’s how you reach the people. We put up our hands to contribute; this is a movement for the best”.

Despite the lack of facilities, venue change, absolutely no information on climate change, swapping set times without notice and a seriously small crowd, many of the acts went on regardless. The people that did stay until the end were the true fans of these talented artists, and got into music and spirit regardless of the venue!