Wayne Hemmingway exclusive interview

eFestivals spoke exclusively to Wayne Hemmingway the festival organiser of this year's Vintage Festival which takes place at London's Southbank Centre.

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How would you describe the Vintage festival to those who hadn't heard of it before?
I'd describe it as a festival that gives equal prominence to music, fashion, art, design, film and food. What we don't want it to be classed as is a music festival, but we do want music to be at the heart and running through every single vein and artery of it. It also looks at the history of British creativity, and where we've come from and where we're going. Very importantly at where we are going, it's not a retro festival. It's celebratory, but it also should be a bit strokey beardy. So that it looks at great moments in time, and bits of culture that deserve remembered, re-evaluated, and enjoyed again by those generations who weren't around the first time that they came around.

For example in the same way that Northern Soul will always be great soul music in the same way that Aloe Blacc, Janelle Monae, and Ben Loncle Soul, the French one is back doing it now. In the way that that music will always come back again, and the way that disco will too, it's called nu disco now but it's still got the same beat. It's always good to look at the origins of musicc, and look at where it came from and where it's going.

In the same way that the Jim Jones Review are a fantastic garage rock band - where did garage rock came from, why is it still popular today? Well, because it's fantastic.That's what Vintage is all about.

How did you come up with the idea originally?
It's something that's always been a part of myself, my wife, and our family in that we started our business selling second hand clothes on Camden Market, 30 years ago now. But, before that we'd grown up going through every single youth culture that the Seventies had to throw at us. From glam rock and seeing David Bowie in '73, to Northern Soul, to being into punk, to post punk, then to Joy Division, then into New Romantic and all of that, then right through to Acid House.

Then having Red Or Dead which lived through a lot of those musical movements, and I ran nightclubs, and I played in bands, so it's always been part of our heritage.

Also, it was the fact that a lot of current festivals don't live up to what I, and some others - not everybody, want from the creative industries. The idea of going to a festival where it's full of 16 year olds who have just done their GCSEs and are on the lash, and are literally having a slah behind a tree, in a muddy field, is not my idea of fun. I would prefer to be at home, actually.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be festivals like that, of course there should, every 16 year old should be able to go and have that right of passage. I wouldn't deny that to them at all, I think that's fantastic. But, I do feel there should also be something for people who don't want that, and I don't think there is enough out there for people who don't want it.

You're now in your second year of Vintage, did you learn anything from the first year?
Yes, how 'ckin' hard it is to do, number one, and that shouldn't be underestimated, this isn't easy. It's not just a case of, "Oh this is a good idea, let's do it" on a whim. It's bloody difficult, and it's bloody difficult to make it pay financially. It's complicated, complex, and when you're looking at a festival from an obtuse angle like we are looking at it, it takes a while to get people to see it properly. The media in particular only wanted to know who our headliners were, and that's not the question that I would ever ask when I went to an event.

This is about finding things. There happens to be some great artists there, but it's about whole holistic experiance. For me, I like to see a band and I like to see a performance, but then I can't wait to get back on a dancefloor and dance to a DJ. Also, I can't wait to have some great food, and see some people amazingly dressed who make amzing eye candy, as opposed to people who are in hot pants, and bit of falst tan splashed on their legs. To get that across to people, is very, very difficult.

Also there's the complexity of putting on an event where the music is massive, and you've got 150 DJs, and 75 live acts, whilst at the same time you're thinking well equal to this has got to be the fashion content, and equal to this has got to be the artists, and art and design, and equal to this has got to the food.

When you go into it at that detail, and you mean it, and we do mean it. That means how do you find time in life to do it, and how many people do you need around you to make it work. It becomes an army of hundreds, literally and no sleep at all. An army of hundreds who are at breaking point, but we did it last year and we'll do it this year.

Is there any plans to do it next year?
Yes, we have got plans to do it again. I think we just have to, in the words of Burt Bacharach, "make it easy on ourselves". We do have to make it easier, but, then again, great things aren't deliveredd without busting a gut sometimes.

Is there anything that's becoming easier, now that you're in your second year?
We know what works and what doesn't work to a certain extent now. We know which music went down better, and now a lot of the media, and people now know what we're all about, and that helps. We're not completely starting afresh. We also learnt what we need in terms of the production back up, and we're getting that from The Southbank. Partnering with an institution that knowswhat they're doing in terms of putting on creative events, and does it every day. That's helping us a lot as well, and taking some of the load off.

If you held a third one, would it return to the Southbank?
All options are open. The masochist in me wants to do what we did with Red Or Dead, where we did cat walk shows nearly every year in a different location. That makes it very difficult but it adds a different dynamic to it, that keeps creative people on their toes. Sometimes it makes it difficult with the public, some of them like repetition, and like the comfort in that. Maybe we're not the right kind of people to deliver repetition, we've never been like that.

On one side we're thinking moving this is great, and I'd like to move it to a down at heel seaside town, or something like that. But, I don't know yet, we've got to work out ways where we are not making it too difficult but are able to keep things moving. We're always thinking, but we never make up pour minds until we make up our minds.

I love Glastonbury and I think it's fantastic but we don't want to be another Glastonbury, I couldn't imagine staying in the same field for 40 years. I couldn't go to an event like that again and again, I'd have to go every four or five years.

You said you don't like repetition, does that mean you won't repeat anything, carrying anything form last year into this year?
Oh no, there's lots of things that a carried over. But they're very different. We're carrying over the venues like the Soul Casino, and Electric Rock but they're obviously in a very different setting this time. They're in an urban environment, that gives them fimiliar content but in a very different context this year.

I quite like that, there's got to be some continuity in the music. If you're going to play Motown you've got to play Motown, but you can still change a lot of things.

You mentioned profitability, how difficult is it for a venture like this to be profitable?
I don't think anyone makes money in festivals for a few years. You read about festivals like Glastonbury, where it took 12-13 years to make a profit. It took Bestival 7 years, these are things that I've read, and we certainly won't be going that long without making money, because that becomes too much of a labour of love. We've also got a lot of other things we want to do in our lives, and if we couldn't get it toward profitability then we wouldn't continue, but we're getting there now. We are pretty good at business as well.

Have you found that the recession has increased the risk?
Yes, I think that this year obviously festivals are suffering and you only have to look on eBay to see with festivals where you normally pay more for tickets, you're actually paying less than face value.

Number one. there's also a lot more festivals than there's ever been. Number two, with the savage public sector cuts you've got a lot of people who have lost their jobs this summer, or are on gardening leave. Anybody in the whole creative industry at the moment are suffering a little bit. There's a lot of people who have been hit, where you've got the Arts Council cuts, students going up to higher levels, less paid commissions for artists and all these things effect the core audience that we are aiming at. It's not an easy world is it?!

How easy is it for you to get the acts that you want to play Vintage?
Well they all want to play, it's whether you can afford them. It's as simple as that, and you've got to cut your cloth accordingly. I could list 20 acts that I'd dearly. dearly love to be playing, but aren't playing because you see some events that do that, but that's the recipe for financial ruin.

What was your favourite memory of last year's event?
I think it was seeing people come to the event, and seeing all the care and attention that had gone into masterplanning that event, and how different it was. Seeing people thinking, "Oh my god, yes! The things that we've read are coming true here, it's not just bullshit, these people mean it." People cam up to us and said that they didn't believe what we had said we were going to do, and that was pretty exciting to get that.

I think also, how well all the clubs worked so well, and the Soul Casino and how with around 18,000 at the event, there was never more 300 of those who had ever been to a nothern soul club before. Yes, each day that venue was packed with 2-2,500 people dancing that was a voyage of discovery for them. I was DJing at this, and they'd come up and ask what track was it, what kind of music was this, and yet they would be straight back on the dance floor.

That's what it's all about, that's what Vintage is all about. Then going in the Warehouse and seeing 18 year old kids who had not been to a warehouse party before, loving the beats and getting down to Andy Weatherall, Danny Rampling, and they had never heard of those people. It sounded fresh.

Also, seeing my heroes, which was self indulgent, like Leroy Hutson and Joe Bataan on the Soul Stage. I'd never seen Leroy Hutson, and to fly him in from New York and watch him was emotional to say the least.

Vintage 2011 will be taking place from Friday 29th until Sunday 31st July with the 21 acre South Bank site transformed into a Vintage wonderland. All the clubs, bands, fashions, art, and design, film, shops, vintage retailers, dance lessons, makeovers, workshops, and Thames boat party surprises.

By night the whole of the Southbank complex will be transformed into a series of evocative set dressed venues, complimented by a flotilla of party boats, cruising The Thames on a summer evening specialising in genres from funk, to electro swing.

Other Vintage attractions across the Southbank Centre site include a one-off parade; The Chap Olympiad, where festival goers can enjoy umbrella jousting and sandwich tossing; the Peter Blake CCA Art Bus, a mobile art work and art gallery by Sir Peter Blake; the worst art ever made in the Bad Art Salon; sound systems and live music across the site, including the final stage of the Mayor's Rhythm of London Busking competition; and 3 das of 20th century film classics, iconic TV with free screenings of The Avengers and a Vintage Bus which will present a complementary programme with the BFI Southbank, curated by director Stephen Woolley. The BFI weekender will showcase films starring Terry Thomas, Alec Guinness and Oliver Reed; and from behind the camera Ken Russell will present screening of The Devils and Tommy.

Tickets for Friday, Saturday or Sunday are priced at £60, with a day + Vintage revue show pass priced from £75. To buy tickets, click here.

eFestivals will bring you an interview with festival organiser Wayne Hemingway on Monday.

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