Perth Voice Interactive

WITH major music festivals dropping like flies and question marks over the future of live music at Freo.Social, the Chook was delighted that grassroots music festival Gerry’s Gold is back for another year.

Held in Gerry’s Lane, off Chalmers St in Fremantle, the afternoon neighbourhood music festival debuted last year with around 200 folk watching local bands and acts including Penny Lane, the daughter of late muso Richard Lane.

Gerry’s Gold was the brainchild of artist Michael Knight, who has a studio in the laneway (it’s used as a green room during the festival).

Knight says the laneway was already an unofficial meeting place for people who live there to socialise and have a drink after work, and he thought it would be a great spot for a music event.

Things got rolling after discussing the idea with his Leighton Beach swimming buddy Mike Tucak, who had good connections in the Freo music scene and was a dab hand at promotion. 

After lots of brainstorming, organising, flyer-dropping and hard work, the festival was a goer and they held the first Gerry’s Gold on June 29 last year.

“Our intention was to bring a music line-up back to a neighbourhood, grass-roots level, keeping it small, simple and thus showcasing up and coming local talent alongside bigger names connecting them to each other and the local community,” Knight says.

“Our aim is to increase the cultural attractiveness of our slice of Fremantle by trying to make these events more regular and engaging, marking Freo as an exciting place to live and visit.

“Mike T thinks maybe there is something fresh in a local level festival that connects the community – if we’re all looking more and more for real, human interactions and genuinely authentic experiences, this kind of grass roots festival can offer that, where we’re able to connect to each other, and to artists.”

Knight says the debut festival was a hit with locals.

“Musically, Anna Schneider’s haunting performance at sunset was something special; a beautiful way to see out the day,” he says.

“Probably the major highlight was that the locals who came seemed to love the event and were asking things like ‘Loved it…Are you going to do this again?’

“I think we learned that a major part of it was the community getting together to do something fun and different – and that something small and special may work best.”

This year’s Gerry’s Gold has a bumper line-up of local artists including legendary muso Kim Salmon (The Scientists, Surrealists), respected singer-songwriter Emily Barker, the up-and-coming Xalur, Penny Lane, and the Mike Wiese Trio, the house jazz band with guest vocalists.

But where’s ‘Gerry’ and how does he fit into all of this?

Well, the laneway and the festival were named after Gerry, a gregarious and colourful laneway resident who sadly passed away.

“He always maintained that there is gold buried somewhere in his backyard but it still has not yet been found,” Knight says.

“We felt that it was appropriate to name the festival after him and discover the gold via the special music and community atmosphere that it created on the day.”

But please don’t bring along your metal detectors and shovels to the festival, it’s not that kind of thing.

Gerry’s Gold 2 is on next Saturday (March 8) from 3pm-8pm in Gerry’s Lane, off 5-7 Chalmers St, in Fremantle. Tix at events.humanitix.com/gerrysgoldtwo. For more info see instagram.com/miketucak.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK