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Jez Furze on how to build a festival

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The Nugget
June 13, 2025

★ How to build a festival (and not lose your mind) ★

Jez, Shelley and I, looking all kinds of autumnal at MainFM.

When the dust settled on big, phat Town Folk 2024 and Jeremy Furze put his mind to creating the next lineup, he was feeling the pressure.

Last year, he booked the beloved Teskey Brothers (a band he manages) to headline. They are masters of the live show and helped him scale the festival up from 600 to 4,000 people.

"It was always going to be a challenge, going into year two, because obviously I have an 'in' with the Teskeys and they can sell some tickets," Jeremy says.

"So, you know, how do I sort of follow that was always the challenge and a lot of people had said to me, 'You're going to struggle.'"

I am sure Jez did struggle to deliver the lineup he has pulled together for Town Folk 2025, but I believe he has absolutely cracked the nut.

Sharon Van Etten, slinger of synth and groove-driven jams and indie anthems, is booked to headline. Sharon is an 'artist's artist' who has shared stages with Nick Cave and is admired by musos ranging from the National to Bon Iver.

She released a new album in Feb. and Jez convinced her to make Town Folk a key stop on her tour.

"She would have a choice of different events to play (in Australia) so it was about trying to get her on board with this event," Jeremy says.

"I think there were probably other events that she could have played late in the day, but not headliner, and so this was attractive to Sharon: The idea of playing last, and after dark and having her light show. It's going to be pretty special."

Sharon is a very good get, AND Jez works hard to make sure that Town Folk is not a one-act show. He's locked in a bunch of other bands that are so iconic they could have easily slid into that headliner position.

King Stingray, the surf rockers from Northeast Arnhem Land, whose live sets are joy central, for example.

Or national treasures, the Pigram Brothers, who literally created the popular "saltwater country" musical style. This is the band Jez is most excited about.

"They don't tour much." (The last time the Pigram Brothers played a gig in Victoria was 2010!) "They love their life up in Broome. They're a bunch of brothers who love fishing and they've got families and other things going on," Jez says.

"But I've been talking to Stephen (Pigram) for quite a while and managed to convince him to convince the brothers to all jump on a plane and come down, so I'm really excited, and I've had a lot of people mention since the lineup came out how great that was."

Jez has also hand-picked artists who have been well-received at Castlemaine venues in the past (Annie Rose Maloney, Charm of Finches) and he's made sure there are locals on the bill. Cool Sounds has a base player living in Castlameine, Jazz Party has a drummer living here, Dan Kelly obviously lives here: (Campbells Creek, represent).

Nov. 15th is shaping up to be quite the celebration of music, community and Castlemaine charisma.

With the lineup set, Jez is focused on addressing some of the hiccups Town Folk faced last year.

"There were issues on the day, like, bar queues were too long, maybe not enough shade and maybe not enough food. I think those are probably pretty common first roll-of-the-dice event problems.

“We can look at those things and try and make them better this year."

Jez has amassed data detailing when people arrived, what they ate and what they wanted. He is using this to make deals with food vendors and to build out his own staffing plans.

There was also a big emphasis on selling early-bird, reduced rate tickets this year to avoid 11th-hour scrambles.

"The one thing that caught us out (last year) was that about 500 people bought tickets within 24 hours of the show," Jez says.

"We thought we were going to have 3,500 and then it just rained at the last minute with tickets going out the door. So, we fell short on staff and food for that reason, I think. It's just about knowing how these things play out and learning from it."

Jez is a perfectionist with an experienced operations team (shout out to Kaz and Mason West, the power couple who also teach at Castlemaine Circus). I have no doubt that they will go above and beyond to make fans comfortable this year.

And the last piece of the puzzle is Castlemaine itself.

Jez started Town Folk because there weren't any music festivals in our patch of Victoria. He was sick of leaving to go to festivals elsewhere all the time.

"I had always thought this area was lacking something. There's lots of events, obviously, around the state. Day on the Greens happen in various places, but never quite in this zone," Jez says.

"That was the impetus, initially. There's space for something here. It wasn't just because I wanted to do it -- it's because there's actually room for it."

And Castlemaine shows up in ways that other small towns might not, Jez says.

"This town is supporting communities and sharing ideas and creative interests so well that I feel like it is a town that supports a festival, and not every town would be that."

❀ Calling all School Holiday Preppers ❀

Anyone else feel the tingle of pandemic PTSD rise up when approaching the school holidays?

I have a very busy kid. Interpret as you will. She needs gainful employment to keep her off screens while mommy works.

In case you are also in this boat, I will share a couple of options:

  • Over the Moon Winter School - you can bring a friend for free. Yep. Over the Moon is inviting kids who sign up to bring a friend for free. The offer is for one day for friends who are new to the studio.

  • Artist Melinda Jane is running a series of art classes for kids at Castlemaine Community House.

  • Got a line on any other winter holiday happenings? PLZZZZ lmk. xo

♡˖ EVENTS ˖♡

𖥔 TALK TO MOI PLOISE 𖥔

Hi! Kindly drop me a line at [email protected] to let me know:

  • all about your upcoming event, and

  • who I should interview next. xx