The U.K.’s Indie-Con is heading Down Under.
The inaugural Indie-Con Australia will take place July 27-28 in Adelaide with a clear focus on the issues that specifically relate to the indie sector, organizers say.
An initiative of Australia’s independent music companies’ trade association AIR with support from the South Australia government, the new confab will offer “unrivaled networking opportunities, workshops, panels, presentations and interviews with key industry players,” comments conference programmer Stu Watters, the former CEO of AIR.
The lineup of guest speakers confirmed this week includes Portia Sabin (Kill Rock Stars/Future of What), George Howard (Berklee/Forbes), Jen Cloher (Milk Records), Richard James Burgess (A2IM) and Paul Pacifico (AIM) and Australian Music Prize-winning artist Briggs (Bad Apples/A.B.Original) while Sebastian Chase, the MGM founder and 2016 ARIA Industry Icon Award winner, will deliver its first keynote address.
The summit will be held in Australia’s UNESCO City of Music each year until 2019 and is timed to coincide with the AIR Awards, which relocates to Adelaide in 2017 for the start of a three-year stint.
The Australian music gathering is an extension to AIM’s annual Indie-Con, which is said to be the first conference of its kind to address the needs and issues facing self-releasing artists and independent record labels. For more on the two-day program visit www.air.org.au.
In other Australian conference news, Bigsound has announced the first 64 performers for its nightime showcase program. Up-and-comers Winston Surfshirt, Hatchie, Alex the Astronaut, Polaris, Mansionair and Ruby Fields are among the first batch of confirmed artists for the event, which runs Sept. 5-8 in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. Visit Bigsound.org.au for more.