Jamie Green opens his house to Port Macquarie
A brand-new electronic music festival, “Mi Casa Su Casa” has been confirmed to take place in the gorgeous beachside town of Port Macquarie NSW on the 29th of January. The festival was originally inspired by the All Day I Dream events and will feature a lineup of some of the regions finest deep, tech and progressive DJ/Producers including headliner Nick Reverse, AMPLIDYNE, VOIR, AGI , Real Flavour & The Ibex Switch. We sat down to talk to Jamie Green, event organiser to ask him about the festival, what attendees can expect on the day and what they need to know about the location and facilities.
Mi Casa Su Casa is a brand-new event on the festival circuit, what can you tell us about it?
Our aim from the beginning of organising this festival was to create an outdoor electronic music festival, with a focus on quality deep, tech, melodic and funky house tunes whilst engaging with local and regional artists, a beautiful location, beautiful and colourful staging designs, combined with an offering of delicious local cuisine and local brews
Our team of organisers are passionate about music, and are dedicated, driven people who want to bring to the Port Macquarie people, a fresh sound and experience, they have not had before, right on our doorstep. Our grassy festival venue is a mere 40 metres away from Port Macquarie’s beautiful town beach, at town beach reserve, and in the centre of Port Macquarie, close to hotels, restaurants and shops.
There will be the Mi Casa Bar at our festival, offering up frosty cold beers as well as many other alcoholic drinks. We also have food catering by Stefan of “Char Bar" with some gourmet brisket burgers, finger foods, smoked meat offerings, chicken burgers and much more. “Mi Casa Su Casa” festival will start at 12pm and finish at 8pm right on sunset, making it a daytime event to take advantage of the sun and warm weather.
How does Mi Casa differ from other festivals?
Our location is rather unique compared to most festivals, being so close to the beach, shops, restaurants and hotels. From our event it’s only a short walk to CBD shops, restaurants and bars. Our organisers have a strong focus on making your festival experience a beautiful, relaxing and enjoyable one. Our stage and dance area shall be decorated in all manner of colour, flowers and plants and decorations, giving our boutique festival a homely tropical vibe.
We deliberately kept numbers to a maximum of 450 so as to give our event a more chilled vibe, as well as smaller line ups for drinks and food and toilets. In addition to this, “Mi Casa Su Casa” is committed to keeping things local by showcasing some of our delicious local cuisine and local breweries at our event, and attempting to source local and regional music artists, making our event both unique and special to this region.
“ ‘Mi Casa Su Casa’ is committed to keeping things local by showcasing some of our delicious local cuisine and local breweries”
This is happening on the Mid North Coast, what made you decide that Port Macquarie was the ideal location for this festival to kick off?
Well for starters I do live in Port Macquarie, but besides this obvious fact, Port Macquarie is such a naturally beautiful town that sits right on the water with some of the most beautiful beaches and scenery. January is a lovely and warm time in Port Macquarie, which is very in keeping with the idea of making our event a warm and inviting place to come. Port Macquarie has many hotels and restaurants, cafes and bars to choose from, and most are within a mere 300 metres from our event site.
Port Macquarie for years has held festivals such as Fotsun, Red Hot summer Tour, and BBQ and Blues Festival, which are all based on bands. No options were available for a festival focused on the genre of electronic music. Our town has seriously been lacking in this musical department for a long time, so we seized this opportunity to fill this niche.
Port Macquarie Hastings Council granted us the major events marketing grant to put towards the marketing of our event. They have been extremely helpful in getting our event off the ground, and I thank all the people involved.
It is refreshing to see that our council has some vision, in supporting some more diversified events that cater for the younger generations here in port that don’t want to just have a solo guitarist as their entertainment.
The explosion of Covid numbers over the last month must be a concern when planning a major event like this?
Well to be honest, no it's not a concern, as our numbers are limited to 450 people and its only once you get over 1000 people that things change with NSW health. Secondly, we are an outdoor event with plenty of fresh air for everyone which is the best place to be for your safety regarding any virus, not just COVID.
The only thing we need to abide by is the two square metres per person rule, which we have always had in place as we want to make our event roomy anyway. So for anyone hesitating about coming to our event, we are still full steam ahead and safe to attend with our small numbers and would be no different to going to the mall really.
I think people need to start making their decisions, not on fear but on the hard statistics of this virus and that realistically, you have a much larger chance of dying from a car crash, falling off a ladder, obesity, a meteor hitting you, being hit on a crossing, hit by lightning etc! Point is, we all as a society need to cut this weight from our everyday thoughts and get on with living as guess what. We don’t live forever so enjoy this life.
“We did deliberately chose both small numbers for our event and an outdoor venue, as this was the least risky way to approach running “Mi Casa Su Casa” without running into problems”
What has been the hardest Covid-19 rule/regulation to plan for or accommodate in this new age of restrictions, besides the basic social distancing?
Initially we had to write out a covid safety plan and apply these control measures as well as have hand sanitisers on site etc. Now the rules have eased off the only thing we still have to abide by is the two square metre per person rule which we always had in place anyway.
We did deliberately chose both small numbers for our event and an outdoor venue, as this was the least risky way to approach running “Mi Casa Su Casa” without running into problems. We did our homework by reading lots of NSW health guidelines so that we were completely compliant with the regulations.
What can you tell us about the Mi Casa Su Casa? What can fans look forward to?
Mi Casa Su Casa is a new festival to happen in Port Macquarie and is set to take place in our beautiful location of town beach reserve. For people attending our event, you will enter via Alban Place, that leads down to town beach reserve.
We encourage people not to park down near the skate park as it gets very busy down there, so we ask that festival goers park elsewhere and then walk down to the festival or get a taxi, get dropped up on Stewart Street and walk the 100 metres to the festival entry gates.
Our event is over 18s only, ID is required at the gate, and we are a licensed event so no BYO. Like most festivals in Australia, there are no pass outs for our event, so if you leave our event site you will not be allowed back in. Again like most other electronic festivals, please don’t bring eskies or chairs as these are not allowed into our event.
Once inside the festival gates, you will be greeted by colourful decorations, draped 3metres above the dance floor. In between this we have colourful Chinese lanterns, vines and plants to add to the vibe! As you approach the stage, you will see natural timber decorations, more plants and flowers.
You can expect to be treated to 6 unique DJ artists, all with their own unique sound. Each set will be 1hr 20min long, giving all the artists the opportunity to tell their own story through the magic of music and to just get people dancing.
“You can expect to be treated to 6 unique DJ artists, all with their own unique sound”
You’re on the bill of artists set to play at the festival, how do you prepare for your sets?
I am on the line up and I am DJ’ing under my older pseudonym, “Amplidyne”. I have been producing and DJing for at least 17 years now as well as being an accomplished Jazz, funk and rock drummer of 25 years, and more recently percussionist. After 25 years performing music to people, you become confident in your abilities but not cocky!
Anyone who knows me, is very aware that I play the music I am passionate about, that moves me, speaks to me and inspires me to do what I do. My set preparation is very much an organic and natural process, whereby I graze through my tracks and listen for what feels right. Music is as much about your emotions, as it is the act of listening. My sets do somewhat reflect all the colours and characteristics of myself. In one hour, I can go from moods of, Celebration to darkness to laughter and more. All these different human conditions we share, and because of this we can all come together to see that we are all not so different after all.
It must be a juggling act to go from organizer to artist, what challenges are involved, or preparations needed so you can get your set in?
Compared to the organising of the event leading up to the day, it is not that hard really. On the day, I will predominantly have the organisers hat on, meaning making sure audio is bang on, making sure the artists are running to their time slots, making sure there are no hiccups with event entry, keeping an overall eye on our patrons and that they are happy, not overheating etc. making sure bins don’t overflow etc. etc. lol!
But for that 1 hour 20 min slot, my performer hat goes on. It is in that space and time that I escape all those worries and be at one with the music and crowd. I have helpers at the festival, who know that they must be extra attentive when I am doing my set, and not to bother me at all when I am playing.
Who’s set are you most looking forward to seeing on the Mi Casa lineup?
If I am honest, then I have to say I am looking forward to all our artists playing. They all have something to say and something unique to share with us all including myself. I am a big believer in life, that we all have something to give, to share and to learn and to be open in life to all experiences that come our way.
To have no musical expectations is the best way to truly immerse yourself in the moment and enjoy all our artists. What I am most looking forward to is everyone dancing, smiling, hugging, and celebrating life.
What has been the easiest part of organizing this festival?
The easiest part from my perspective, has been the booking of artists to play at “Mi Casa Su Casa”. It is rather ironic that this is also one of the most important parts of any festival to get right and can mean the difference between nailing it and not.
I know all the artists personally who are playing, apart from Nick Reverse, so I have good prior knowledge of what each artist can bring to the festival. I have had the pleasure of seeing our headline artist, Nick Reverse several times and I am always impressed.
What’s been the hardest part of organizing this festival?
I have to say that developing our comprehensive event management plan from scratch was a large undertaking and took many hours of work from myself and several others to complete. This is a crucial document detailing everything from toilets, staging, health and safety, liquor, medical, food, policing, security and much more. It’s a 40-page document to give you some idea of the amount of work involved, however this document can be used for every other year apart from some minor changes.
Are there plans to make this an annual event?
For sure! We have all intentions of keeping this event on the annual calendar, and I for one, want this to become an annual event to not miss. Like everything in life, it takes lots of hard work if you really want it to succeed at anything, and we are prepared to put in the hard work for “Mi Casa Su Casa” to become a successful festival and as always, we need your support for this event to keep it going annually or Port may lose something special before it had a chance to really shine!
Is there anyone from the stage, sound or staff crews that deserve a special shout out?
I would have to give a shout out to Belinda Green, my gorgeous girl, who has been a huge help with the massive task of developing all my essential documentation to run this event. As this is our first time running this event, we must develop these all from scratch.
One other person who deserves a shout out, is our lovely Karina, who is responsible for organising and the running of our Mi Casa Su Casa bar, obtaining licenses , bar staff, bar set up and developing documentation for the safe and legal running of the bar.
“We are encouraging the use of re-usable water bottles for our event, so anyone can bring their empty bottle which they can fill at our water stations within the event”
Lastly, Mi Casa Su Casa is only a few weeks away, what is your message for ticket holders, what do they need to know?
Firstly, don’t fret if you don’t have your ticket on the day, as you can purchase it right before you enter, using our QR code posted at the front gates on your mobile phone. The code will send you straight to the oztix sales page, and from there you make your credit card payment, receive your ticket via email and you're ready to enter.
We are encouraging the use of re-usable water bottles for our event, so anyone can bring their empty bottle which they can fill at our water stations within the event. Our event will be in the hot season, so make sure you wear sunscreen, bring a hat, and keep hydrated.
Look after your mates, and everyone else too, and if you see someone that needs medical attention, get them straight to our Saint Johns crew, who will be on site for the whole event.
Enjoy our event, dance your ass off and bring your best self, so that we can give our best to you!
Big love from the Mi Casa Su Casa team xxxx
