Sapwood Projects
Community – Connection – Creativity
A Festival is Born
Dreaming – Overcoming – Creating
“Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.”
Erich fromm
Do you ever look at places, things or people and see a grand vision in play. A piece of land as a venue for an event, a band that fits a setting perfectly or even just how someone has weaved sticks together to make an arch and it just sparks a fire within you overflowing you with creative motivation. Enough so that in an instance you could quit your job and invest your life into the path you see unraveling in your mind?
I’d like to dive a little into how Bulga Beats Festival came about and what was going through my mind at different stages of building an alternative festival from the ground up. But please note, BBF is not my creation. I had guidance, support, leaders and friends who along this journey poured their heart, soul and money to make this event a reality. The event is forever in their debt as without that small group of driven people, none of it would have happened. And for me, my dreams of running a festival would never have been reached.
Lets set the scene a little in a very brief way: I grew up totally off-grid in a time not that long ago but at a time where teachers wouldn’t believe me and said it was impossible to live without mains power… With a Folk musician as a father we would listen to him practicing while going to sleep and curl up around camp fires while Irish jigs gallop away in the distance. My teenage dreams of being an AFL star ended when I quit my time with the Sydney Swans. This decision was made after a year of getting a taste for the industry playing with the Swans Reserves. I quit Sport, I quit Uni and I surfed for a few months, after which I moved home. This is when I found my drive to start a festival in our little town of Bulga. With no experience and not much of an understanding for what I was taking on, but knowing within myself that I love live music and making people happy. I set out to start a festival at 19. Firstly, I knew this was too big to tackle alone and I had heard that the local Progress Association was looking into attracting more youth to the area. I attended a meeting and proposed the idea, from there we formed a small committee and spent a few months brainstorming what this festival was going to look like.
At this time Bulga and the Progress Association were coming to the end of a 7 year battle against the nearby mining giant. When sacred Wonnarua Bora grounds, Burial sites, habitat for endangered swift parrot and a legal document saying the mine cannot come any closer to Bulga isn’t enough… It’s understandable that the community was divided, worn out and depressed. With this new drive for a community event we set out to create a festival for community building, tourism and as a celebration / protest to our spirits being broken.
We had support from all over the country, and over the first two years we had signed guitars and artworks from people like; John Butler, Peter Garret, and even had Actor Michael Caton attend the festival. After the first two years, as a committee we realised that it was time to evolve the event. It’s purpose had changed, It now needed to become more of an “attraction” rather than a protest. We changed how the festival ran a little and it was at this time that Sapwood Projects took over management of the event.
It’s a hard task to run an event while trying to incorporate all the values, ideas and dreams you want for it. Like everything there are always sacrifices, financially and of control. The financial support from the founders allowed this event to achieve its current success, but building a long term festival comes with financial hardships, losses and struggles. We are not in this for money, but costs need to be covered and slowly we are building a system that allows all walks of life to attend while supporting our performers the best we can.
After cancelling 2020 – 2022 due to Covid, we are looking to relaunch the festival in 2023. Aiming to keep the same feeling we have built over the years we also look to change how the festival operates. We are looking into meal times and eating together, different ways of offering food to be more communal, healthy and homely. Bulga Beats is my passion project, a hobby more than an income, a love more than a why. I want to create spaces for people to come and enjoy, to feel how I felt as a child listening to folk musicians around a camp fire. It brings me so much joy to offer this space and I hope it will continue to run for many years, growing and changing.
Bulga Beats Festival is still very young, we aim to support local artists and performers while bringing a small homely feeling to a festival built on community. Community isn’t always connected, joyful or without struggles and this is why we are a community festival. We will work through our struggles, highs and lows together, connected and understanding!
With gratitude
Vahid,
Director: Sapwood Projects.
Sapwood Projects 