2011 was the year that saw Future Music Festival go from big to enormous, with record crowds in each city rolling up for a bill that spanned the Chemical Brothers to Plastikman to Pendulum and, yes, even Ke$ha. Looking at the full list of acts for the fast-approaching 2012 tour, it’s clear the festival was keen to upsize again.

“When we’re booking Future Music Festival, it’s happening 12 months in advance,” says Future director Brett Robinson when we get him on the phone for this feature. “We’re as surprised as anyone at how big the festival has become. It’s an amazing position to be in. So now it’s a question of, how can we deliver more for the ticket price?”

From the marquee names at the top of the bill like the Swedish House Mafia and New Order through to a considered undercard, there’s certainly bang for buck in the line-up department. Here we quiz Robinson the evolution of Future Music Festival, the logistics of staging the show, recruiting Aphex Twin and much more.

Securing the Swedish House Mafia was obviously a significant get for Future Music Festival. It seems like they’ve really got behind it with their own channels as well.
Well, it was only yesterday that I was out at Randwick Racecourse planning for Future Music Festival, and one of the staff found the flyer from 2006. It had David Guetta fifth down the bill and Steve Angello we added because we thought he was a cool guy coming up. There was also Erick Morillo, Tocadisco, Armin van Buuren…I mean, having David Guetta and Armin van Buuren on the same flyer for a gig that did 6000 people is pretty unbelievable.

The Swedish House Mafia has developed at the same rate as Future Music Festival; neither David Guetta nor Steve Angello were that highly regarded in a commercial sense then. Now they’re some of the biggest forces in dance music now.

Here’s the set times sheet for the very Future Music Festival at Sydney’s Randwick Racecourse in 2006 – we remember it like it was yesterday (seriously).

What can you tell us about the production they tour with?
I’ve seen the show a couple of times and it’s really quite mind-blowing. If you look at the scale of production you see for the likes of the Chemical Brothers; this is the next-level. It’s amazing how much technology there is to utilise if you can afford to! From our point of view, it’s great that they’re not going and booking themselves on every festival in the world. They’ve been very calculated: Madison Square Garden, Milton Keynes Bowl, one show in Brazil and Future Music Festival is all I’ve seen in their diary so far.

We’re working through how we’re going to build their shows; there’s tons of equipment, lighting, video. They’ve got technical staff for days coordinating all their special effects and synching video to what they do.