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THE HEARTS OF OPERATIONS

An Interview with Rod Little and Steve Halpin

Australians love their festivals and regional excursion Groovin’ The Moo is one of the most beloved. Promoters Stephen Halpin and Rodney Little are to thank for that, writes Scott Fitzsimons.

At some point during the 2003/2004 period, statistician Stephen Halpin and good mate, teacher Rodney Little, were brainstorming, looking for a new challenge. “Over a bottle or two of red wine, we had a few ideas about what we could do, to do something different and Rod came up with the idea of a regional music festival,” explains Halpin. “Rod has a farm at Gloucester. We thought that would be a great place for a music festival, which it was. We had the Screaming Jets, Killing Heidi and Evermore.” “Evermore before they were huge,” Little pipes in with a smile.

The two are hardly your typical festival promoters and besides Halpin’s involvement in a band or two and their mutual love of music, they really had no background in the industry. But that first event went ahead and even though it ran at a loss, they “caught the bug” and really haven’t looked back, as it’s a full-time occupation these days. The initial venue was moved to Maitland and other locations were launched in Townsville and Albury (now Bendigo). With the addition of Canberra and Bunbury this year (ironically classifying the nation's capital as a regional city), Groovin’ The Moo (GTM) is undoubtedly the nation's premier regional festival.

The two promoters compliment each other well and though there’s no set outline of their roles, they each have their own strengths. Halpin has, probably, the better music knowledge, so takes the main duties regarding planning and booking the line-up, while Little has a self-proclaimed love of organising, so naturally has the infrastructure under wraps. The two are, however, bound in their aim to bring “something of city quality to the country,” as Little puts it.

Groovin the Moo Gloucester stage. Photo Ross Carroll 2005

In achieving that goal they're not only serving deprived music fans, but also the towns themselves. “They’ve all recognised that the festival brings a lot to the town, so they’ve embraced it, which means that we can return that hospitality by staying,” Little continues. “Most of the event is sourced locally in terms of infrastructure and admin, so it generates a lot of revenue for the businesses.” But it's hardly for those catchments only. “It brings a lot of the city’s young people out; a chance for them to get away,” Halpin identifies. Little adds, “People make a weekend of it.”

Surely, with this year's line-up (and tickets under $100, one of the few festivals left to do so) there's going to be punters coming from all over. Silverchair’s return to the live scene is big news, while Empire Of The Sun have become one of the nation's most sought-after live acts. AMP winner Lisa Mitchell's quickly becoming a darling of the scene and hugely underrated internationals Spoon are about to explode. But – and with quality all the way through the ranks – international ‘it’ band Vampire Weekend are the festival’s biggest ever coup.

“To be honest when we first put in our bids, we thought we had probably a ten percent chance we would get it,” says Halpin. “But it kept going and going and the difficulty was we’d kind of reserved a spot for them because they hadn’t said ‘no’. And if they’d said no later in the piece, who were we gonna get?” GTM is indeed an attractive prospect for touring internationals, with no restrictions placed on the bands it means they can play all the capital cities whilst tapping into a regional audience they may not have before.

One of the other defining aspects of the festival is the most obvious – a less than traditional name, Groovin’ The Moo is nonsensical but unforgettable. “I remember being at work, I had about ten or 12 names and I was thinking about rocking this, doing this and Groovin’ The Moo was one of those names that popped into my head.” Gloucester is a dairy farming community and Rockin’ The Cow didn’t quite stick as well, Halpin admits. And though he can’t really stand it anymore, everyone’s got their own variation of the name, further evidence of the community spirit.

Groovin the Moo at Dusk. Photo Ross Carroll 2005

With the five dates this year, GTM has really evolved from a boutique festival into the big league and it continues to sell out its dates – while Maitland and Bendigo put up the signs early, it's a fair bet the rest will do the same, even if it's on the day itself. The focus is on this year, but while further expansion plans aren't on the horizon, you wouldn't discount it. “Well we always say no,” say Halpin, laughing. “But it just depends; it’s grown organically. We haven’t forced things that didn’t feel right. But at this stage, we’ll just concentrate on this five.”

With each community giving each location a distinct feel (all have a capacity of 15,000 – not massive, but enough to give it a sense of being 'big'), the spiritual home in Maitland is the wild child of the run. Bendigo’s a little more experienced and Townsville patrons are still finding their festival feet. “The first year, during the afternoon everyone was there and kind of excited, but they didn’t know what to do,” Halpin says. “There was a buzz around but they weren’t sure what they should be doing.” But they've since learnt how to make the most of the day and you can expect that trend right around the nation. It really is true, that out of little things, the best things grow.