What began as a backyard party in Frankston with just 30 friends has evolved into one of the largest music festivals in the country that this week will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Reminisce 10 Years will be held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne on Saturday 19th of March with no restrictions on crowd attendance or dancing. The show is almost sold out with many excited fans eager to return after a reduced concert in 2021 due to social distancing rules and no concert at all in 2020 due to the pandemic lockdown. Artists performing include, Inner City, Armand Van Helden and John Course, who will close the night with the Top 50 Countdown.
To commemorate this milestone, a documentary called ‘Backyard to the Bowl: 10 Years of Reminisce’ has been released, along with a coffee table photo book. Reminisce was the brainchild of friends and later business partners, Sean Rault, Corey Topp, and Mark Middo. Reminisce co-founder and entrepreneur Corey Topp spoke to Jake Freeman at Melbourne My Style earlier on how it all came about.
You were always very entrepreneurial from a young age, organising parties and events, tell us about that?
I often put my mum through the wringer for all the birthdays that I organised because they always had to be a 3-day big extravaganza. She reminded me the other day of how she would drive us to timezone and have sleepovers and go to some other things and how my house ended up being the token party house throughout high school. I had a shed in the backyard that I turned into a party den, and I like being the host and I guess that’s where it started.
By the age of 18 you were running events at Melbourne’s hottest nightspots, how did that go?
My best friend and my Reminisce business partner Mark and I just reached out to Future Entertainment who were running music festivals back (2004-2005) then and started doing street promos stuff and putting up posters etc. Soon we got noticed by the guys at One Love (entertainment agency) as we were selling a lot of tickets and they got us working with them and promoting events at The Continental and other venues. Then we started our own club across the road, Red Room in Frankston.
Set the scene, it was April 2021 and you and some of your friends and 30 other people had a party and what happened?
It was a kind collective. My original idea was to do a countdown, similar to the Triple J Hottest 100, but change it so it was classic house music. My friend, Benji was the one who suggested to have a party and that was when we decided to do a backyard party, but we never had any intention of turning it into a business. Once we had that party, I went overseas and did the big four months in Europe trip, also checked out some music festivals and clubs and I think that was kind of the catalyst for to do something with this and everyone was saying that backyard party was so good, they were like, “you need to do this as an actual event” so that is where we decided to make the call.
The first Reminisce show was in February 2012 at Prince; were you nervous?
I was not nervous so to speak as we had run events before, but I had concerns and worries about the whole thing being put together because it was so unique, and no one had done this before with having a voting playlist system for the DJ.
Some people in the industry thought the concept was a joke where the DJ was told what to play and in what order. But at the end of the night, so many people said how awesome it was.
I love the fact that my business partner Mark was very digitally focused and big on filming and uploading our videos to YouTube from day one and we can see the timeline and progress from when we started to where we are now.
What is it about Reminisce different from other music festivals?
The voting is a unique part of Reminisce and what comes off the back of that and where people have an input in what’s happening and there is a collective feel where people can choose the music. Overall, there is a friendlier vibe at Reminisce. Also, people who come to Reminisce, are there for the music and not there for Instagram. There are many other music festivals where there is a heavy focus on being seen and who is there. Reminisce is more fun.
A lot of people who come to our shows are young mums and dads in their 30s and 40s who do not go out as often. The whole Reminisces concept is to transport you to a moment in time when you hear a certain song and remember where you were at that age and the way they use to feel at that age when they did not have responsibilities, they did not have kids or a mortgage, they were footloose and had freedom and the songs that we have activated that and I think that’s why people love it so much.
How did you go from Prince to the Bowl?
We went from Prince in the early years and to Circa from 2017 – 2018 and that was when we were just selling way too quickly and had outgrown the venue and realized that we had to go bigger. 2019 was our first year at the Bowl. We had gone from a backyard in Frankston, to Prince than to Circa to the Bowl. But with the Bowl, it was a different ball game as there were so many things that we did not know, and it was a great learning curve. We had a talented team to help us organise all the logistics that we previously did not need to worry about like parking and food trucks.
As well as the concert, there is a documentary being released, what can you tell us about that?
There is a lot of behind the scenes videos of planning the events and backstage footage from people’s phones that have not been seen before that chronicles the highs and lows of Reminsce and capture the vibes and the challenges of putting together the show.
Favourite moment of 10 years of Reminsce?
I think my favourite moment would be the first Reminsce concert at the Bowl in 2019, just standing on the balcony and seeing all those people going crazy and having the time of their life and just to see how far we have come from an idea that started in a backyard. It was cool to see the enjoyment of people on such a big scale.
What can we expect at the show?
It going to be huge, we are extremely excited. We are going through the top 50 list and are working with the videographers and stage team in the final preparations. We will have pyrotechnics and have a few surprises for the countdown, it will be the biggest show we have done yet and it’s going to go off.
Where to from here? Do you hope to expand to other places?
We and the team are hoping to take Reminisce on an interstate run in 2023 and are aiming to take it to the US after that.
REMINISCE 10 YEARS will be held on Saturday 19 March at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. To get tickets or get a copy of the coffee table book, go to https://reminisce.dj/
Words by Corey Topp Written by Jake Freeman.
