PERTH radio station RTRFM is going ahead with its annual Fremantle music festival, despite Covid-19 restrictions pushing back the date.
The Fremantle ‘Winter’ Spring Party will now be held on Saturday September 19, three months later than usual.
More than 20 bands will play across five venues in North Fremantle, including Mojos Bar, the Railway Hotel, Port Beach Garden Bar, and the Swan Hotel lounge and basement.
The line-up features a diverse range of new and experienced bands playing everything from hip hop to alternative folk.
“Noah Dillon and Jack Davies and the Bush Chooks have been kicking around for some time now and they have really grown into their sound which is so great to see,” says RTR acting general manager Chris Wheeldon.
“New Talk have a new record coming out and I’m excited to see their new songs live.
“Superego who are playing at Mojo’s have been exciting for some time but their live show is now pretty special.
“All the bands at the Swan Hotel Basement are super young but so unbelievably talented I’m pretty excited to see how they perform.
“Upstairs at the Swan Lounge is a selection of brilliant song writers who will be amazing.”
This year’s festival has a dance twist with the old Naval Store on Canning Highway becoming ‘Mojo’s Octopus’.
“We’ve teamed up with Mojo’s and Cool Perth Nights to a rave as a collection of some of the best DJ crews in Perth take over,” Mr Wheeldon says.
“It will give our punters somewhere else to go and have a dance, something slightly different to the other venues. We love an experiment when it comes to venue.”
The festival will raise much-needed cash for RTRFM, a not-for-profit community radio station that largely relies on fund-raising and listener subscription to stay afloat.
Many of their fundraisers had to be cancelled because of the pandemic, but thankfully the Mt Lawley station received $272,256 in Lotterywest grants in early August.
“It was pretty challenging at the height of the lockdown and restrictions,” Mr Wheeldon says.
“We had to shift all our presenters to making their shows from home and sending it in to be automated, which for 300-odd broadcasters is quite the task.
“We, like everyone, lost a number of sponsors and our revenue dropped pretty significantly but we have been lucky in that a lot of our ongoing sponsors have been able to reopen. Our listeners have been amazing and we have just completed our most successful Radiothon (Pledge Drive) on record which will help stabilise the station from a financial stand point.
“We did have to cancel a number of events and shift them to other times but slowly as things change and restrictions are lifted we can start to get back to some form of normalcy.”
For more info and tickets for the Fremantle ‘Winter’ Spring Party go to rtrfm.com.au or oztix. com.au
by STEPHEN POLLOCK