A Festival Called PANAMA

‘Tasmanian art and culture based entrepreneurship’ is a phrase that would appropriately describe all of the fantastic things that David Walsh, Brian Richie and others have done for the state in recent times. Trail blazers such as these have led a complete image change for Tasmania, which has gone from a location known best for its mostly unemployed, obese, car obsessed population to a thriving state economy which is now based around tourism and the arts. Ancient industries like forestry and manufacturing are distant memories in an economy where former loggers turned trendy café baristas make the morning coffee of research employees at the world renowned Menzies centre in the Hobart CBD… Or at least this is the impression that I got from the many ‘want to be hippies’ and clapped out old beatniks I spoke to at Tassie’s newest music and arts festival ‘Panama’.

Seriously though, I tend to agree with their vision for the future, however I am much less optimistic after the recent state election result. Better go buy a chainsaw, curse some asylum seekers for taking my job and Mrs and drive my commodore full noise down Murray Street and scare some pedestrians… but anyways, on with the review.

The Panama festival was created by ‘Holy Holy’ front man Tim Carol and Co-director Dan Rooke as a boutique festival which would offer something different to patrons craving a more mature, rewarding and relaxed festival than what the main stream currently has to offer. The organisers should be congratulated for taking a chance on introducing a new and unique festival to Tasmania. Considering that the event relied heavily on almost 1000 punters forking out 160 beans to attend the festival and counted on them having enough sense to realise that there is more to life than listening to Sea FM and posting anti green related rants on Facebook, it was a gamble. But it paid off, at least for all those who attended anyway. The diverse range of musicians from differing genres, as well the delicious array of street food, Tassie beer, cider and wine on offer in an extremely picturesque environment made it a great experience.

I am unsure how the festival performed financially. I knew before entering the site that the event would most likely not sell out (I had heard only 850 tickets had sold) which made me wonder if it would ‘break even’ and how this would affect the attitude of the organisers. It didn’t at all, everyone involved looked to be experiencing maximum levels of fun and seemed truly grateful to all those that had turned up. This created a fantastic atmosphere which seemed to put everyone attending in a super mood, the small numbers made it feel like you were at party on a friend’s country block, with strangers chatting and dancing together like old pals.

The bands on offer at the festival were very solid. The quality of the performances from acts like Big Scary, Super Wild Horses, Tiger Choir, Babe Rainbow, Karl S. Williams, Spender, Husky and Saskwach were excellent. With the majority of bands staying at the festival to enjoy the other acts while they chatted with ordinary festival goers provided an opportunity rarely on offer at a festival. Festival co-director Tim Carol’s band ‘Holy Holy’ were a real stand out playing with passion delivering some great tracks to the audience including a cover of Neil Young’s ‘Southern Man’ which was fantastic. You could see the enormous smile on Tim’s face as he and the band played on the second day of the festival, they knew it was all coming together as their performance and the festival as whole had been a huge success.

However, one act which was a tad confusing was the festival headliner – Charles Bradley. Being billed as a mixture of James Brown and Otis Reading the crowd soon found out that he was not in the same league as either. The 65 year old lifelong musician who was once homeless has only recently released his début album, and after a 5 – 10 minute intro from his band he came onto stage like he was Ray Charles. I will admit that the old guy sang with soul and had many in the crowd (including myself) dancing regularly, but his constant and long winded nonsensical rants about life and God in between tracks kind of destroyed the momentum of his set. His voice also struggled regularly throughout the act with Bradley often straining like a constipated geriatric after a cheesy lasagne. None the less, Bradley was still entertaining, but for mine was not up to the standard of the other acts.

Food on offer was very good also. Highlights for me, was the haloumi roll with pear chutney, the vegi burger and breakfast pie from ‘Wanderlust’ and also the produce from ‘Taco Taco’. The only disappointing thing in regard to the food was that vendors ran out early on both days, so if you spent the afternoon getting pissed to the eye balls like many did, your only choice around dinner time would have been some tree bark or algae from the nearby lake, which to be honest, were pretty bland. At the bars a variety of Iron house beers were on tap and were really reasonably priced at $7 per schooner as was an unlabelled cider sold by the bottle which was reported to have had an alcohol content of 10% and sent many of patrons, including myself, blind. Cocktails were also on offer at the festival, a personal favourite for mine was the Fidel Castro which was super tasty and luckily did not eventuate in an onsite a military coup or mass communist revolution.

Everything at Panama seemed to have a real charm to it. The absence of topless shit head Aussie hip hop fans who had been lifting weights, taking steroids and tanning all summer was one of them. Being greeted by a couple of ten year olds at the gate introducing you to the format of the festival, being personally chaperoned to our camp site by a bearded man on a bike and being able to have a hot shower in the morning were some of the many things that really did set this festival apart. Also because the festival was so small it didn’t matter if you hadn’t entered the site at the same time as your friends, because it was a short walk to all camp sites. The stage is located very close to the camping areas also, so it isn’t a mission every time you have to go back to your tent for a vegemite sandwich or can of Fanta.
 
Overall the festival was a real hit, great bands, good friends, quality food/drink and performing circus freaks in a delicious setting. Tim and Dan are now, in my opinion, trail blazing art and culture based entrepreneurs because they have taken a great risk to provide something special for Tasmanians. We can only hope they are brave enough to do it again next year. If they do I am positive that it will be even more successful with greater numbers demanding tickets. Allocation of tickets will remain limited though – my impression is they set out to deliver something small yet special. And they really did achieve that – well done Panama!

Disclaimers:

• Generally I love Tasmania and its people – festivals like this make it an even better place to live
• All hippies and beatniks spoken to at the festival were lovely people and should not be pigeon holed for any reason other than entertainment.
• Elderly people contribute much to society and it is not my contention that they all require high fibre diets and should avoid cheese.