THE Falls & The Community
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The Falls & The Community
The Falls Family
The Falls Music & Arts Festival is much more than your average festival. Apart from great music, the festivals also deliver significant social, cultural and economic benefits to our community.
In an era of increasing globalization, capitalism and commercialism, The Falls Music & Arts Festival is one company that has its primary focus firmly on benefiting others. Despite costing literally millions of dollars each year to stage, the budgets are tighter than a rusted lid on a jar of nanna's homemade jam and cut just enough slack to keep things going from year to year. Whether it be from creating affordability for you with the best value tickets in the country and the cheapest beer at any other event (even giving your local pub a run for it's money) through to pitching in for a worthy cause. The Falls Festival is something of a quiet achiever, here's a few things you probably didn't know.
The Falls Music & Arts Festival:
- Conducts The Falls Music & Arts Festival Community Fund surrounding the two events in their local Lorne and Marion Bay communities whereby one dollar from every ticket sold ($16,000 in each state each year) is donated to projects that is voted on by, and directly benefits, the local communties the events are staged in.
- Raised $25,000 to donate to the Boxing Day Tsunami appeal with half of that amount raised by patrons and the other half donated by Ashlorien. We should mention that all round good guys the Hilltop Hoods donated half of their performance fee on top of that
- Is deliberately located in regional areas far from typical touring routes, ensuring more isolated communities have this rare opportunity to receive maximum benefit from such a major event
- Plays a vital role in providing a positive environment for artistic, cultural and community celebration. The festival is an important experience for everyone - a unique opportunity for lovers of music, art, culture and celebration regardless of where you come from or even what decade you were born in.
- Creates a significant economic impact for its home states of Tasmania and Victoria. An independent economic assessment was carried out for both states post 2008 event, and the findings shjowed that The Falls in Victoria creates a significant economic impact of $27.2 million and reported that the 2008 event injected $22.5million into the Tasmanian. The Falls Festival benefits the local economies through direct expenditure by the event, indirect expenditure associated with the event, employment as well as tourism and music industry stimulation.
- Creates opportunities for other businesses and individuals through employment, business development, encouragement to invest further, experience and skill development, exposure, networking opportunities and inspiration.
THE FALLS FAM
The Falls Festival is what it is, largely because of the people behind it. For one thing, it couldn't happen without a lot of hard work, blood sweat and tears. More importantly, the festival itself reflects the devotion, passion and personality of a handful of people. We thought you might like to know who they are. They are a mixed but nicely balanced bunch of guys and girls, combining youthful enthusiasm with years of experience. Conveniently, half were born in Tassie and half in Victoria. Inconveniently or conveniently (we aren't really sure) they share another passion for the ocean so if you're having trouble reaching them, check the surf reports..
Simon Daly (Festival Director) is the founder and still the driving force. He dreamed up this whole crazy idea at the ripe old age of 22! Not only is he a dreamer, a creative type, but he is a man of action with the necessary nerves of steal to shake off the doubters and back himself (and the team) all the way. So 16 years later, The Falls Festival is still going from strength to strength. As the director of the Victorian event, Simon's next biggest challenge is working out how he is ever going to actually see the Tassie festival.
Naomi Daly (Festival Director) wants to make sure the first thing we clarify is that she is Simon's younger sister and not his wife! Whilst lending a hand and an ear from the beginning, it was not until the year 2000 that Naomi was coaxed from her 'normal' job & life to become one of the key orchestrators of the festivals. Now she is a full time juggler of mayhem and master of miracles, dividing her year between creative & strategic writing, converting dreams to plans and generally dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's.
Sally Daly (Chief Financial Officer) and also not Simon's wife. Sally is Simon and Naomi's mum. She is also one of the team members that was born and raised in Tassie. She has had a long time affiliation with The Falls Festival and looks after the financial side of running the festivals, plus so very much more. Thank god for mums! Whilst she is a fan of the ocean, she is the only member of the team not to be converted to cult of surfing, she'll take bush walking any day thanks all the same.
Mella Morgan (Event Manager - Tasmania) who actually IS Simon's wife, originally comes from Tasmania. Mella has been part of The Falls Festival crew for about 8 years after starting out as a volunteer. Mella gravitates back from whence she came and focuses on managing a vast array of things for the Tasmanian event and working with all the key local players such as Sorell Council, the emergency service teams and staff. Having spent most of her life in Tassie it could also be argued that Mella was chief lobbyer for Tassie's campaign to be The Falls Festival's second home. Overall, she's one gutsy gal, nudging the limits with her work and play.
Sarah Osborne (Marketing/Sponsorship Manager) is passionate about the Lorne community in which she lives, and being an arts and music afficianado and keen creative writer, she's also perfectly suited to the role of churning out the words and spreading the 'good word', whether it be in the event guide, on the website or out there in the big wide world. And she achieves all this whilst also looking after our dear extended Falls family (our sponsors).
Tom Noonan (Artist Commercial & Logistics Manager) Running two events simultaneously in two separate states, at the exact same time is quite a logistical feat - and that's where Tom comes in. Planes, trains and automobiles are all his friends (when they run on time) so he can get the performers from state to state, and stage to stage, and ensure they are all well-fed, well-slept, and well-stocked with all they require, and ensure they are all happy vegemite's in order for them to hit the stage and blow the crowd away! When not mastering the logistics Tom can be found spinning his well-collated collection of rare funk and soul vinyl at local haunts and on radio.
Claire Stickland (Operations Manager – Victoria) began by volunteering and working for the event in various capacities over the years, and is now in her second year as the almighty Vic Operations Manager. It’s fair to say that "Sticks" is a festival addict that has taken her to many a fest world-wide and knows exactly what the punters want; therefore she’s perfectly suited to look after the fair staff, voli’s, market stalls, caterers and a swag full of other goodies that keep the festival in Vic running super smooth.
Abby Allen (Operations Manager - Tasmania) is passionate about events and about The Falls. Having worked for many an arts and music organisation in her time, Abby steers the operational-ship in Marion Bay with enthusiasm, gusto and flair. Perched in her office in a little piece of paradise on the Marion Bay farm definatey helps!
Chris Burton (Site Manager – Vic) is our multi-tasking site manager extraordinaire! With his young family perched on The Falls farm all year round, we’re very lucky to have "Burto" and his strong administrative and organisational abilities, which coupled with his oh-so-manly fix-it and building abilities see him maintain the manicured look of the grounds as well as site management and layout in Lorne.
Patrick Beveridge (Site Manager – Tasmania) is a long time Falls friend and man about town (well, about Oz really, as he shares his time between Tassie and the NT!). Lucky for us, Patty is the handiest of handy men as a builder, Mr. Fix It Man and on top of that is one of the nicest guys going ‘round. Patty previously worked as the 2IC on the site management team until being promoted in 2008 to site manager!
Beyond these troopers, there are a whole host of people (from graphic artists, website maestros, catering managers, assistant programmers, publicists, event workers and volunteers) who we can all be eternally grateful to for their contribution to The Falls Festival magic. They'll be easy enough to spot at the festival, they're the ones with a proud glint in their eye!
