The second Essence Festival represents the resilience and triumph of underground art in Australia’s capital city – after 2024’s success, the decision to proceed with an even larger second event was straightforward. The fest will be held at one of Australia’s best live music venues, The Baso, and tickets are on sale from Oztix now.
In the traditions of Canberra’s Metal for the Brain and SoundOut, as well as Dark Mofo, Essence is a diverse underground music festival, taking in various metal subgenres (death, black, doom, sludge, and more) as well as other genres: noise, post-punk and post-rock, experimental, industrial, ambient, improvised, and even dark and contemporary takes on traditional music. The bill is from across the Australia and features a mix of impressive live stalwarts, cult artists that perform only rarely, and new and exciting acts. Many have never performed in Canberra before. (See Appendix for artist details.) This year Essence is co-presented by NSW/Qld label Gutter Prince Cabal, and has also added an explicitly visual element in the form of NSW visual artist Greallach.
Dan Nahum, Managing Director: “Essence 2024 showed that Canberra has a real appetite for fascinating and challenging art. We’ve always punched above our weight here for transgressive, inventive, and sometimes provocative musical and other works. Essence is a shared resource for audiences and artists from Canberra and elsewhere to convene for an entire long weekend of mutual inspiration, connection and enjoyment.”
“The world is a tough, dark place right now. Despite that – or because of it – it’s as important as ever to use art as a platform to speak and hear truth, and to connect with others. We know that a festival is a challenging format in a cost-of-living crisis, so we’ve kept ticket prices as absolutely, deliberately modest as we can. The amount of talent for the price is unbeatable.”
Dan continues: “Essence is also a love letter to my home, Canberra. It’s a wonderful city that’s now overflowing with amazing food, cultural institutions, wineries and breweries, and outdoor activities like hiking and mountain biking. If you’re pining for a destination festival on the mainland within a road trip of Canberra and Melbourne, I invite you to join us at Essence.”
Co-presenters Gutter Prince Cabal echo these sentiments: “We were extremely pleased and honoured when Dan invited us to curate the opening evening of the Essence Festival weekend. It aligns closely with our mission of showcasing the wealth of talented bands playing heavy music in our region and contributes to the revitalisation of music/culture festivals which have seen hard times due to Covid and various economic factors. The arts play a vital role in bringing people together – all the more important in divisive and uncertain times.”
Essence is run on a non-profit basis. All monies after production and promotion costs will be paid to the performers. Essence is grateful for the kind support of numerous Canberran and Australian businesses who make the event possible, including but not limited to visual designers Black Bird Yellow Eye and backline supplier Vance Custom Guitars.
Essence is grateful to the traditional custodians of Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country. This has always been a place for meeting and storytelling. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging.
Tix: https://thebaso.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/8e1e8ce6-2061-4037-8f12-285520dc45f4