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Last summer, mous magazine attended the debut Jungle Love Festival. As avid festival goers, we had a pretty clear idea of what to expect: great bands we had hopefully never heard of, a relaxed camping experience, sweltering heat, probably mud. What we experienced, however, was unlike any boutique festival we’d ever attended. And now it’s happening again. We spoke to Raymond Williams, co-director of Jungle Love, about event and festival planning, cracking the business and what we can expect from Jungle Love number two.
“When I was 17 I went to Woodford Folk Festival,” Raymond began as I settled myself in for some afternoon storytelling. “It wasn’t until a year later and I attended my first Big Day Out that I realised I wanted to get involved. Also, the thought of making a career out of putting on great parties was really appealing at that time,” he laughed.
One of the founding values behind Jungle Love was the importance placed on actively scouting the festival’s lineup. “We’re only after what we see as the best of the best, so a lot of bands that we pick don’t get the national media attention, and they might not get the Triple J radio play,” Raymond explained.
“And not that we have anything against anyone like Triple J at all, because we think that they do a fantastic job, it’s just that most festivals seem to follow the same model of just taking whoever’s getting played. Whereas we focus on bands we see as being really kickass regardless of any other factors. Whether they’re in the media or not is irrelevant to us.”
So undoubtedly there will be a large group of acts you mightn’t recognise at this year’s Jungle Love Festival, as there was for us at the last, but Raymond explained it’s all about the trust. “We’re bringing a band over from New Zealand, one from the UK, ones from all over Australia that we’re pretty confident some people will have heard of, but regardless, they’ll be there watching and they’ll go ‘holy shit’.”
This year’s Jungle Love Festival has four stages, BYO alcohol, an awesome boutique bar program and an electronica marquee, all situated at the beautiful Burrumba Deer Park on the Sunshine Coast. Raymond explained the choice behind the setting, “Location is really important to us. From the beginning, the idea was that we’d pick a location that you would want to spend time in if there was nothing happening, let alone if you put a festival there.
“And people will notice that when they come to the location; it’s pretty well paradise. Water was a huge thing too. Being in the summertime, I’ve been to so many festivals where during the day you’re just like ‘kill me’, but now you’re just chilling in the creek.”
I wondered how it felt to put so much of your heart and soul into an event that came and went in an instant, but Raymond was optimistic. “It’s thrilling. That’s what makes it so exciting, because the only way you can create these special events is by putting so much time into what is going to be forty eight hours. Yeah, I love it.”
Raymond explained that Jungle Love Festival is marketed mostly through word of mouth: “You put on a great show, get everything right so that the experience is comfortable and then those people will bring people next year…we are a small festival, we don’t have the massive names to promote, so for the most part it’s about trust. And we need those people that know what we do to tell their friends to just trust that it’s going to be an amazing time.”
There are still tickets available through Jungle Love Festival’s Pozible campaign which is ending super soon! So treat yourself, all the while supporting a great local event! (You might even see mous there.)
