Heatwave Promoter Breaks Silence: ‘We Bit Off More Than We Could Chew’

In his first interview since his fledgling hip-hop festival came to a dramatic close last week, besieged Heatwave promoter Patrick Whyntie tells ANDREW MCMILLEN that he’s determined to prove doubters wrong. Photo by ADRIAN NAIDU.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] A festival "worse than any other failed festival in the history of Australian music" was how Tonedeaf reported on the final leg of Heatwave 2012, a national hip-hop tour that began in South Australia as a three-night camping festival on January 12 and ended in Melbourne on January 22. Between those dates, capital city shows were booked in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Canberra, in some of those cities' biggest venues.

The festival debuted in January 2010 with a single South Australian show, at Abbotts Reserve, 90 kilometres south of Adelaide. Headlined by American rapper Xzibit and Australian DJ tyDi, the all-ages event was attended by an estimated 800 people.

Festival founder Patrick Whyntie – who also performs under the MC name Mastacraft – was 22 when he staged the 2010 show. His LinkedIn profile states that he has “been around the Australian entertainment industry for 10 years” and has “connections from Australia all the way to Detroit”. Whyntie had previously told the Victor Harbor Times that people were “blown away” by the first event. “There are a thousand things I can grow and build on for next year,” he said at the time, “but we had tons of security and everyone was safe.” Though there was no 2011 event, Whyntie returned to concert promotion in 2012 with a significantly ballsy move: a national hip-hop tour.

Announced some 35 days before the tour’s first date, Heatwave 2012 – featuring Kid Cudi, D12, Obie Trice, Tech N9ne, Chamillionaire and Crazy Town – was an eclectic proposition from day one. By the end of the 10-day stint, D12 had missed most of the tour due to mishandling immigration paperwork, the Perth show was cancelled via Facebook on the day of the event, and the whole thing culminated in a disastrous Melbourne leg that saw liquor licensing issues, a no-show from Chamillionaire, and Kid Cudi trashing the stage after power was cut due to reported schedule mismanagement. A couple of Facebook hate pages emerged in the wake of the Melbourne show, with punters calling for refunds and describing it as “the biggest music festival fail ever”.

Schadenfreude runs rife in the notoriously vicious live music industry, so it was unsurprising to see sections of the Australian music media taking delight in Heatwave's perceived failures, especially following recent debacles such as Blueprint and BAM!. However, recent Flo Rida and Mos Def tour cancellations have highlighted how bringing US hip-hop artists in this country can be an exercise in hair-pulling frustration at the best of times, not to mention the difficulties faced by even seasoned promoters such as the Big Day Out’s Ken West.

In an email interview with M+N, 24-year-old festival founder and CEO Patrick Whyntie speaks for the first time about the controversial 2012 events; his regrets, the so-called media “misrepresentation”, dealing with Kid Cudi, and what he's learned after coordinating his first national festival.

What inspired you to become a festival promoter in the first place, Patrick?
Festivals are great fun and I wanted to bring some entertainment to my local area – which has never seen anything like this.

I'm guessing that the 2010 event was a big learning experience. What did you learn?
Quite a lot: from visas, to how much fencing was required, to how to deal with on-the-spot problems. A substantial learning curve.

Who funded Heatwave 2012?
Outside investment.

Leading into your preparations for the 2012 event, were you concerned about whether or not the Australian market could support a national hip-hop festival like Heatwave?
I think if all the stars align, any genre of music can be supported. It’s always a risky business, and things need time to grow. We did go too big, too quick.

It seems to me that the festival's main point of differentiation is its low cost. The festival's marketing reflects this, and I saw on the event Facebook that you even taunted rival festivals about this. How did you manage to keep costs so low?
We decided to put prices extremely low – the cost of, say, one concert act – to attract more people in. We took a risk keeping them low.

Did the 2012 line-up reflect your particular musical tastes, or were you aiming to book a diverse group of bands to attract as many people as possible?
Hip-hop is obviously my fave genre, however I listen to a wide range of music. We booked a range of hip-hop – from mainstream to underground – to reach all bases.

Tell me about how you were feeling ahead of the tour's first show, in Adelaide. Did you have all your ducks in a row? Were you happy with how the event planning and set-up went?
Costs blew out substantially and we were having battles with council and police to keep the event going. This cost quite a bit of money and time, fighting something they should have supported. The camping festival [in SA] was a huge undertaking, and in hindsight, we would preferred to have concentrated solely on this [event], and had other national promoters taken the other states.

At what point were you told that D12 had missed their flight?
D12 was an ongoing struggle to coordinate them here to Australia. There was a range of problems. We were desperately trying to negotiate them getting here for the Saturday [for the first weekend, at the SA camping event], or even the Sunday.

What happened next? Did you have a contingency plan in place, or did you have to scramble to make new plans?
Just like most major festivals, an act sometimes does miss a few dates. We moved things around, of course.

How many staff did you employ to assist with the festival?
It varied in each state. SA had well over 50 staff, and even more volunteers.

You told me via email that the Sydney and Canberra shows were “awesome”. What worked with those two shows, as opposed to the rest of the tour?
Sydney ran well both nights, though minor problems occurred. The crowd was great for Sydney, aside from a guy running on stage and quickly being removed by our security guard.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

Does this mean the rest of the shows were not “awesome”? If so, what do you think influenced that outcome? Were they decisions that you and your team made, or things outside of your control?
SA went well: the performances and set-up was one to remember. The locals absolutely loved it. Brisbane was just too big a venue [13,000-capacity Brisbane Entertainment Centre, a 13,000 capacity barn] and too little time to pull it off. We also had issues with a local promoter, who misled us quite a bit.

What happened to the Perth show, which was cancelled on the day of the event? At what point did you decide to cancel it, and why?
To be very honest, on this one I was too naive. The promoters had constantly missed financial deadlines for the WA show and I did not want to cancel it and disappoint all the WA fans. However, it got to the 25th-hour and it became evident they were not going to be able to meet the requirements, so we were forced to cancel. We lost quite a bit of money, but paid the acts anyway.

What happened to the liquor license at the Melbourne show? Someone wrote on the Heatwave Festival Facebook it was "contracted out to a separate [sic] company which failed to get it in time." Which company? Why did you leave such an important detail to an external service provider?
It was contracted out to a separate energy drink company, Killer Fish. They were great to deal with, but there became an issue last minute and there was just no time to fight it. In the scheme of things, you have to be able to rely on other people quite a bit, it was something a little out of everyone’s hands and after our fight for SA – which drew a lot of our time – there was no time for this.

The review of the Melbourne show by Tonedeaf is particularly scathing. Is it accurate?
Tonedeaf have been attacking us since day one. Why not report some of the great performances, or quote some of the MANY happy fans on the Facebook pages? There were so many memorable moments, great production, and positive things – such as [the festival] supporting Beyond Blue in a big way – to report on. Instead they helped turn the media very nastily on us, when we were doing our utmost to bring this home.

At what point were you aware that Cudi's set had to be cut short due to noise restrictions?
Obie ran quite over time. Cudi was at the venue on time, but was not going out [on stage] on time. Let me quickly address Cudi. The whole tour, he was acting like a spoiled brat; you can ask anyone and everyone who encountered him. He had everything from his substantial fee upfront to the five-star suites he required. His crew were great people to deal with, and so was everybody else. He was late to Adelaide as well, and we did everything we could to keep him “happy”. Tech N9ne cut his set down and acted like a professional about it, to make way for Cudi. [Tech] didn’t destroy anything on stage!

Tech N9ne, Obie, Shifty [Shellshock, Crazy Town’s singer] were always out on the towns, taking photos, doing meet ‘n’ greets and really meeting fans. Cudi didn’t even do one contracted interview to Australian media for us. The guy’s music is INCREDIBLE, next level. We all love it and he rocks the show, but there needs to be a point where an artist and promoter can meet and say, “Hey, we need to get this done and have you arrive here so you can play at this exact time”, which we couldn’t get going. Why on earth would we pay him a substantial amount of money and want him to play half a set and then destroy the stage, causing us a media nightmare?

Did someone tell Cudi or his crew before they went out on stage that their set would be cut short?
Yes, it was agreed upon before [they went on stage]. He was also given 15, 10, and five minute warnings. The guys at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl are very professional; they were working on this with us.

Tell me about what happened next. I'm guessing that Cudi and his crew weren't in a good mood, considering that he destroyed a bunch of shit before walking off stage. Did you or one of your team have to calm him down?
We talked to his crew. He left rather quick.

How many tickets did you sell across the whole Heatwave 2012 tour? How many were you expecting to sell?
We sold around 4500 tickets – including 700 complimentary – in Melbourne. Brisbane was just under 1000. SA was varied; Thursday had 500, Friday 1500, Saturday 2000. Sydney was a strong crowd both nights and Canberra was smaller, like Brisbane, but a good crowd as well. We were obviously hoping to do much more, however we now see how brutally important it is to give yourself more than just over a month lead time to sell [tickets].

Are all of the artists who performed at Heatwave 2012 happy with the tour, and how they were treated by Heatwave staff?
I haven’t asked Cudi’s camp, however all the other acts certainly were. Obie even called me the other night to keep in touch.

What would you have done differently in the last two weeks?
Quite a bit, starting with better shopping around for quotes. More time spent on local supports and building stronger marketing campaigns out of SA. We went hard on TV, Nova, street press and Facebook, but there definitely needs to be increases in marketing budgets. We unquestionably bit off more than we could chew and the pressure was huge. We faced so much opposition and hardships that it drained us all. However, we stuck at it and finished it with our heads high. Some industry figures have said they would have reached out to help, however no one really did, and contacting the bigger move-makers in this industry is a rather hard task.

What do you make of the negative media coverage surrounding the festival?
I would have liked to have seen the media jump onto the positive aspects. Most, including you guys, didn’t give us a chance from day one. Misreporting a thing like “knives been thrown” [at the SA show] is just silly. Gravity Ponds retracted that almost the next day.

"It’s always a risky business, and things need time to grow. We did go too big, too quick."

It seems that some online media are basking in Heatwave's perceived failure. How does this make you feel, given that you've spent years working on this project?
It makes me focused to prove them wrong in coming year. We achieved a lot, as well.

Are you planning for the festival to go ahead in 2013? If so, what would you do differently? Will there be a three day camping event? Will it be a national tour?
Yet to see exactly. A camping festival done right in SA can turn over big; it has to be a combination of [getting] everything right, and a strong line-up. Large acts are too expensive to do one-off shows, so if [we] continued, we would look to have experienced promoters take the other states.

What's your biggest regret from the last two weeks?
Not enough time. Just the amount of work couldn’t match hours in the day. We were pulling 19 hour workdays for the last nine months; it really starts to take a toll.

Finally - what do you have to say to those who attended any of the Heatwave 2012 shows?
Thank you. I know many of you enjoyed it and appreciated the price. For those who didn’t, we are taking everything on board that went wrong, and growing positively into the future.

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Andrew McMillen is a Brisbane-based freelance journalist. Follow him here.

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