We love all things local and DIY over here at Roo's Live Experience, so when we heard about a two day DIY Festival featuring local bands, we just had to find out more.  Roo had a chat with the organisers of SCHEMA Festival to find out all about it.

-TRIGGER WARNING - Mental Health, Suicide-

Can you tell readers a little bit about yourself and SCHEMA?

The SCHEMA Collective is an organisation of Southern Queensland based musicians and artists, which became active exactly one year ago. The collective aims to support positive social, political, environmental and cultural events and causes while promoting and uniting the Local Underground Music Scene. To date we have organised events with Sea Shepherd, #Stopadani, Club 139, Albert Park Flexi and PCYC.

Can you tell readers a little bit about the challenges of organising a DIY, All Ages Festival?

The list is endless and it ranges from funding (that’s a big one), an immense amount of networking and planning and adequate promotion. In SCHEMA we strongly believe that young people aged 12-18 can benefit the most from the local scene. It can really create new pathways to a more meaningful and positive life. During those years the love for music and the immense effect of intense local shows can really be felt. These young people often become involved in the scene and in positive activism and alternative thinking. Therefore, organising an all ages event was incredibly important to us and we are thrilled it is happening. Despite the challenges, we believe our sleepless nights and our free time are worth spending to spark the flame in those who rarely get a chance to experience the intensity, beauty and talent of the local scene.

You have partnered with Kids Helpline, Alcohol & Drug Foundation, Brisbane YMCA and BCC and the East Brisbane Bowls club to bring over 50 local acts to the stage in 2 days.  Can you tell us what you hope to achieve with this show?

We've devoted this festival to mental health support for young people. Research shows that young Australians report the lowest levels of well-being and the highest levels of depression and anxiety symptoms from all age groups. Yet, help-seeking is associated with shame and stigma leading to increasing rates of suicidal attempts amongst young people. Therefore we aim to open the conversation, to present a festival where young people's favourite bands are showcased alongside engaging ogranisations.

Can you tell us a little about some of the bands you have performing and how you went about choosing which bands to approach to perform?

We were overwhelmed with the positive response from the local scene! We received over 90 high-quality applications with very little advertising and choosing who to perform was a difficult process, as the amount of talent is incredible. For this event we invited up-and-coming bands Like Thieves and Deadlights to headline. We are also incredibly excited that the Hip-hop stage will be headlined by local legend Nerve. We will, of course showcase the SCHEMA bands, which include bands like Adriatic, Massic, Regular Gonzales, Homeless Yellow, End Us, Ffyrth and the incredible Dr Parallax! The list of performers is jam-packed with talent. 

What can audiences expect from the Festival?

Above all - amazing music performances, but also a very positive and fun spirit of an incredible, never-before-done event.  All participating organisations will be represented with marquees and will organise fun activities - from zorb orbs, through mindfulness classes, cooking classes and lots of other suprises. There will be great food stalls.  All of us at the SCHEMA Collective have those memories of the shows which really hooked us into the local scene. We hope that the SCHEMA Festival will leave a similar mark leaving the audience simultaneously very satisfied and at the same time hungry for more local shows.

SCHEMA Festival,will be held on the 4th and 5th of August at East Brisbane Bowls Club.  For more details, check out the links below.

SCHEMA 

Event