Overview
Yep, it's 60 or so moons since Astral People launched themselves onto Sydney with a founding party at Tone. Since then, they've tripled their management roster and toured more than 50 international acts. And, to mark their fifth birthday, Astral are asking you to join them at a mammoth gathering at the Oxford Art Factory, happening as part of MoVement Sydney.
A bunch of favourite friends and family members will be along for the ride, including beatsmith Wave Racer fresh from Coachella 2016, young rapper Baro, lo-fi jammer Mall Grab and techno act Cliques. Check out the rest of the lineup over here.
We asked Astral's Vic Edirisinghe and Tom Huggett to take a cheeky stroll down memory lane and pick out their five favourite memories over the last five years. They gave us six, which we'll take as indicative of a crew that isn't content to play by the rules.
WAVE RACER PLAYING COACHELLA, APRIL 2016
"It's usually every managers' ultimate bucket list dream to have their act play Coachella and this year it came true for us when we had Wave Racer play," says Tom. "Made it even better to see him play in front of an incredibly packed crowd too."
MISTER SATURDAY NIGHT AT SUMMER DANCE, JANUARY 2015
"Summer Dance is my favourite event we run," says Tom. "Mister Sunday (a New York party institution) is my favourite party in the world. For our second ever Summer Dance party at the National Art School we had the privilege of hosting Mister Saturday Night AKA Mister Sunday AKA Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin. It was an absolutely magical day and night of good vibes — and even better music."
DZ EZ AT CIVIC UNDERGROUND, DECEMBER 2013
"We knew he was good but we sure didn't know he was that good," says Vic. "The minute we opened the doors to the little basement known as the Civic Underground, the energy in the room was unlike anything I've ever experienced in a club setting. You could see the sweat dripping off the roof and the minute he came on, the place blew up. One of those pure clubbing 'moments' we'll never forget and solidified to us why many call him one of the best to ever do it."
RAINBOW CHAN RELEASING HER DEBUT ALBUM, AUGUST 2015
"It's sometimes easy to forget that artists go through to same day-to-day struggles each of us deal with," says Vic. "I watched Rainbow through her ups and downs when creating this album, and the emotional ride the album portrays was so very real. If you listen to the album carefully, you can pinpoint the exact feelings she went through (everything from sadness to pure joy) when putting this body of work together. It's a special piece of music and it just made me realise how lucky I am to work with such amazing, real people."
Yes Please/Voena.
THE VERY FIRST OUTSIDEIN FESTIVAL, NOVEMBER 2012
"The first OutsideIn Festival was definitely a huge learning experience for us all here at Astral," says Tom. "At the time we had never put on an event that big and we were amazed to see it sell out in advance. It also helped that Flume dropped his debut album the day before the festival. Thom Yorke sitting side of stage sculling a tinnie while watching Shigeto and Africa Hitech was a pretty surreal moment for us also."
ALRIGHT, ONE MORE: OMAR S AT SUMMER DANCE, JANUARY 2015
"Summer Dance was a huge undertaking for us," says Vic. "The venue [National Art School] had never been used for these types of events before and the costs of putting it on were astronomical. However, we believed Sydney was in need for something like this. A series of events that showed of just how beautiful our city can be and the strong cultural significance of day parties and the vibe they bring. We had our fair share of hiccups leading up to the series and the cherry on the top was the pouring rain on the day of the first party with Omar S. However, nearly 800 kids turned up despite all the odds and Omar S delivered a set like only he can! It was a huge reaffirming moment for us considering the amount of work we put in and we're stoked to say that Summer Dance is here to stay."
Five Years of Astral is happening Saturday, October 22 at 9pm at Oxford Art Factory. Tickets here.
It's also one of our top ten events you should check out this weekend during MoVement Sydney.
By Shannon Connellan and Jasmine Crittenden. Images: Astral People unless otherwise specified.