Adelaide Cyber Event 2012

There was a Facebook post today posted up about how there needs to be an pure industrial event in Adelaide.  While most people including myself were quick to argue that this wasn't a viable idea it didn't take long for the Adelaide Industrial Fans group to spring up and already attract 100 members, quite a decent amount all active and ready to go ahead and pretty much create an event.  This is one of the things I love about Adelaide, it's seems across the scenes you get such a great variety of people who are really supportive at trying to make things happen that doesn't really happen in other cities to this extent (Brisbane comes close), I seriously love the fact that Adelaide truly is a city which is focused more on the idea of an event itself.

Anyways, I decided to write this post as a bit of my view in regards to how I'd like to see this event go about and a few pieces of food for thought in regards to how to see this event go quite a successful way.

The biggest problem has been the popularity of the industrial genre, we've seen big booms over the past few years thanks to the rise and proliferation of the likes of Combichrist and Angelspit and continued it's boom with aggrotech thanks to the likes of Nachtmahr, Eisenfunk, X-RX, Psyclon Nine and Aesthetic Perfection are a few that stuck out but all booms must bust and this is one that has been going a bit downhill and one alone that can't be completely relied on for an event.

The event needs to go forward and adapt and evolve and I think another genre that has gone down a similar route has been Drum and Bass, this genre has boomed through the last decade thanks to the help of the likes of Pendulum in particular, especially for someone who grew up in the Perth rave scene!  This has been a genre that has declined due to the boom of dubstep, which while has stolen interest from many other genres, Drum n Bass has seen quite a decline and had to adapt by merging with dubstep events to get out there.  Pendulum even moved onto their new Knife Party project to ensure their survival.

I shouldn't say that this means the end of industrial or the need to sell out but it's simply a case of evolution, remember that at one point that goth scene evolved by choosing to take on industrial, a style of music that even today still has a few purists debating whether or not is should have a place in goth clubs.  So for industrial events here in Australia to move on and progress it needs to take on new genres to really give it more of an appeal, variety and interest.

Let's not forget that industrial isn't a unique genre on it's own, X-RX are heavily influenced by hardstyle, Angels on Acid are heavily influenced by psytrance, Eisenfunk's Pong was heavily influenced by chiptunes and so on and so forth.  We've also seen the likes of Cyberia in Melbourne embrace the growing popularity of electro and dubstep into their event which has seen amazing results for them.  So without a doubt branching on the growing popularity of EDM music would be a must for this event.  With that said, even Adelaide's EDM and rave scene is small and definitely not going to be the saviour to make this event truly work.

I think the key has to be in Adelaide's unique community aspect, I think I'd like to see an interesting variety of guest DJ's in, whether it's from the geek or rave scenes, just to try to slowly get some new crowds interested into the event.  I'd like to even consider getting those new to DJing into it regularly who are passionate about music, the industrial and goth scenes aren't exactly too fussed about top notch beat and key matching so spicing it up with some interesting new music and variety would also be a fun thing for these new people to brag about to bring more people down.  At the same time if possible getting a live act every now and then to make sure that the professionalism is there will highly help too.  Plus all this will ensure a great amount of variety too which I believe is one of the reasons why there has been so much interest in here too.

I would like to see it done irregularly and if possible to be insanely different everytime, I feel complacency would be the biggest threat to any sort of niche breakaway event, especially with the amount of excitement to pull of the industrial only event, constantly mixing things up a bit is important to ensure that it's not stale and that there is a curiousity factor for every event.  Whether it's through new DJ's and more importantly the variety of styles of music from the DJ's, the use of theming in particular the decoration, drinks and design of the venue and the event rather than relying on the attendees to dress up and involving some interesting and unique sponsors for prize giveaways as well.

I personally sense a strong challenge here, let's face it, it's the third goth event in a city where even two goth events feels a bit overcrowded in a subculture where the numbers are dying but there is a strong passionate team behind it who have seen a lot and have some interesting ideas, experience and strengths.  I don't know if it can be a regular thing or if it can be a big event but I think it will end up being a fun one if it goes ahead.

Adelaide cybergoths, it's time to shine soon, or is that glow?  XP