For the second article in our Festival Spotlight series, we thought it was only appropriate to take everyone back in time to the 2000s and look at a festival that also has its roots in the longstanding festival history of the beautiful Mohua: Phat Festival. This party was one that platformed the burgeoning Drum & Bass scene in Aotearoa and we are so stoked to get some insight into their process and wealth of experience. 

Kia ora , could you introduce yourself and your involvement in Phat?

Kia ora, I'm Dave White who along with my partner at the time (wife & business) Selena Coombes, instigated the Phat Festival out of our original Phat Club on Bridge St in Nelson. The Phat Club in turn, came out of the collapse of the Artery, which I managed for a number of years, which in turn evolved from the Nelson Community Arts Centre. We ran the club as a couple from 2002 until 2012 & began running outdoor events in the Maitai Valley as Phat Outdoors in 2003. The first actual Phat Festival : Phat05 was staged at Canaan Downs New Years 2004/5. Phat06 followed at Canaan then we moved to our own dedicated site at Inangahua on the West Coast for Phat07-Phat11

Tell us a bit about what Phat was and why you guys wanted to run those events? 

Phat was originally based on the drum n bass zone at the Gathering, which ended in 2002, also originally at Canaan before moving to the Cobb Valley in Golden Bay for the last 2. The drum n bass zone included many live bands like Salmonella Dub, Fat Freddies Drop, dub & hip hop live sounds & we wanted to see how far we could push an event exploring this side of the emerging/exploding dance scene, rather than doing what the Gathering had done with 7 zones including house, trance, hardcore, tribal etc. The first one: Phat05, was a total experiment. We had no idea 5000 people were gonna show up for a drum n bass event but we learned fast! Phat was about the coming together of a new generation of dance freaks, in some ways very different to the traditional dance party punters, taking a bunch of mainly city kids from Christchurch, Wellington & Auckland & dumping them out of their comfort zone on a mountain top in the bush in often wild weather conditions where gumboots became the new fashion accessory. Why we wanted to run Phat was a combination of our own biased taste in music, both me & Selena were live musicians ourselves, & the basic urge to make a business expand & work. Running the Phat Club in Nelson was often hard work financially, with a very small potential audience. We pretty quickly discovered it was the bigger touring bands like the Black Seeds & international drum n bass artists like Aphrodite who brought in the punters to cover our weekly bills but we could only attract such acts about once a month. The festival was a chance to combine all these bigger acts into a once a year special event to keep our heads above water financially for the year. But apart from that, the essential driver for us was that we loved the music & the challenge of making it all happen from nothing. 

What was it like pushing drum and bass for you guys at the time, especially the early years?

We loved drum n bass. For me, as an original punk musician from the late eighties, drum n bass was the new punk rock, it had the energy, the vibe & the edge to keep me interested whereas a lot of other electronic music basically put me to sleep. Once we started rolling, the word spread internationally that there were a mass of crazy New Zealanders that would party hard non-stop for 2 days & nights on top of a mountain at New Years, which in the UK & Europe was a bit of a non event time of year, & we got inundated with offers of producers/DJs like Black Sun Empire, Noisia, Roni Size, Goldie, Pendulum, who all wanted in on the action. Of course, drum n bass has become commercial pop music these days but back then it was pure underground, like a drug. 

What's your view on the importance of these kinds of outdoor events?

I think back then, when our crew & security were all on the same page regarding why we were taking these risks & that the majority of punters were in it solely for the music which created an immediate friendly communal vibe, Phat was our own alternative city, miles from civilisation, with it's own personality & atmosphere, & for a short period of time we were all experiencing/celebrating another reality, separate from the mainstream dream. Punters from those days still get in touch with me saying Phat changed their lives, & I firmly believe that in some ways this was absolutely true for many people. It gave them another perspective as to what they could expect from life. I think these days festivals are still a cool option, however most seem to have become very commercial, pretty much like going to a holiday camping ground then a normal nightclub.

How did you end up on the top of Takaka hill? And then what led to your move further down south to Inangahua as a site? What did you learn about running an event out in the rugged splendor of the West Coast that you couldn't have known going in?

Scoring the site at Canaan Downs on top of Takaka Hill came about after trying to get resource consent for a number of other sites & failing due mainly to conglomerate forestry concerns. The people who had been running a smaller event at Canaan for a number of years & held the resource consent for the site came to our rescue at the last minute for Phat05. However we knew our punters liked to drink alcohol & wanted to run a bar, the owners of the Canaan site totally opposed us applying for a liquor licence (for family history reasons) so eventually we had to find our own site where a bar was not going to be a problem. I was originally from the West Coast & we tracked down a farmer who had an unused block of land deep in the bush at Inangahua, Gordy Storer, who was keen to make some coin from his site. The Buller Council were keen & approved our resource consent for 10 years straight up. At least half of our punters came from Christchurch which was a relatively easy drive over Lewis Pass compared to the rigors of the narrow road to Canaan. After the first year, Phat07, we undertook major redevelopment of the Wilderness, as it was called by its owners, draining swampy areas, transforming the access road into 2 lanes with passing areas, built 2 permanent blocks of flushing toilets & showers & constructed a dancefloor with gravel pit underground drainage systems so that the inevitable mud bath that occurs with 5000 punters dancing non stop for 5 days in the rain wouldn't get too deep. The first year we gridlocked the entire West Coast from Reefton to Westport to Murchison due in part to the one way bridges in the Buller Gorge so we developed an extensive traffic management crew & put in traffic lights at the entrance to the Buller Gorge. The lights are still there today! Mostly unused these days. 

What are some of your personal favorite acts/sessions that took place over the years?

The first time we had Noisia from Holland. They were real young, like early twenties & had never played outside a club before & we put them on in the "smaller" second zone the night before the main party started as a strategy to stagger punters arrivals to avoid gridlocking the main roads. Of course we had no idea how popular they'd become & the second zone was rammed & Noisia couldn't believe the turnout & became regulars from then on, returning to Europe & raving to all their producer mates that they "had to play Phat!"

Pendulum at Phat05 was pretty special, we only had 2 rather than 4 CDJs at the time cause most DJs were still using vinyl & just before they went on one broke down but they pulled off an epic set anyways. After that we made sure we had at least 16 CDJs & 16 turntables across the 2 zones.

Black Sun Empire were always amazing & became firm friends. We also took them on the national Phat Taster Tours which we'd stage around the country in spring to promo the event & that tickets were on sale. Awesome dudes. They also played at mine & Selenas civil union which we did on site during a massive winter storm in 2008 along with Concord Dawn & Tiki Taane. Wicked mud.

Phat has a special place in the history of the Aotearoa bass scene and was the forging grounds for so many who have contributed to the local and global scene since. Can you shout out some of the artists/promoters/crews that have gone on to do epic things?

Pretty much all the early Phatheads are now doing wicked shit: The Upbeats, Concord Dawn, State of Mind, Noisia, Black Sun Empire, Truth, Optimus Gryme, Trei, DDog, Katchafire, Kora, Salmonella Dub, The Black Seeds, Alion, Organikismness

How and why did Phat come to an end?

I used to blame the Christchurch earthquakes & the Pike River Mine Disaster which happened just down the road from the Phat site, & I think these did have an influence to a degree in that people were not in the mood to party that year. We had 1000 less ticket sales & at $200 a ticket plus loss of bar sales this put us in the red & we were unfortunately always totally independent with no financial backers in case of rainy days. However when I look back on it now, I think the writing was always on the wall. When we started we were the only dedicated drum n bass party with an almost cult-like following of fans. Over the years, many other festivals started up, competing directly for our crowd. The acts we loved started putting up their fees & the other expenses involved with such an event also continued to increase each year. We had lost money before, Phat08, however we'd managed to run some Phat saving events featuring live bands in Nelson to earn back the cash. However after Phat11, the scene had diversified & there was no guaranteed easy fix anymore. Plus over 10 years, a lot of our punters had grown up & partying hard was not such a priority anymore. Therefore it was with heavy hearts that we declared Phat bankrupt early in 2012, which included the club as it was all one business. Since then I've resurrected my nineties punk rock band: LUNG, & am enjoying thrashing a guitar again!

Do you have any advice for younger promoters and festival crews?

Yes! We had a group of mates that we'd always consult over which acts to book. Sometimes we listened to them, sometimes not. I think this kind of research is essential if you want to stay profitable or at least pay the bills. Ensure all your key people: stage managers, hospitality crew, drivers, security, health & safety crew, sound & lighting techs, are invested in your party for the right reasons, try to not just make it about money. It can make a huge difference if your people are willing to go the extra mile. Book your main act that's gonna guarantee your crowd but then take some risks & book some young, up & coming crazy shit that will surprise, enthrall or appall your punters, it's great to keep them on their toes. But mostly: HAVE FUN. If you don't enjoy the experience yourself then why bother? 

Do you have a message to the wider twisted community?

Yes, book my band LUNG (ha ha ha ha). But seriously I think you guys are doing awesome. I fully understand the precariousness of your ongoing situation but you have 2 things going for you: a good site & a loyal punter base (even though sometimes it may not feel like it). Best of luck for this year & hopefully future years. 

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Thanks for the interest. The reason I originally wrote the Book of Phat was to share some of our ups & downs so that other crews could benefit from our mistakes. It's out of print now but I'm working on a memoir: The Book of Rudeboy Red, which will include a lot of the Phat stuff which will hopefully be published early next year, both in print & online. plug plug. Go well.

Article by Sam Walker.