ATP Australia Announced

All Tomorrow's Parties —a 'boutique' festival curated by headlining artists, and held in an ever-changing array of holiday camps on varying continents— will make its maiden voyage to Australia in January. After the recent success of the first-ever ATP New York (helmed by shoegaze kingpins My Bloody Valentine), come the early ought-nine the fest will sail from its home, in England, to its farthest colonial outpost. And curatorial reins have been handed to Nick Cave, the devilish renaissance-man whose stature in his hometown, Melbourne, is something close to godly.

ATP will hold a fully-fledged two-day summer camp-out, on January 9 and 10, at Mt. Buller Ski Resort, roughly three hours outside of Melbourne. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds —currently finishing off their first North American tour in five years— are, of course, the headliners.

And, as programmers, Naughty Nicholas and co have picked a particularly eclectic mix of artists: legendary synthesizer trailblazers Silver Apples, recently-reformed kraut-rock supergroup Harmonia (populated by members of Neu! and Cluster), doped-up gospel-psych institution Spiritualized, British wall-of-sound noiseniks F**k Buttons, and shamanist Japanese psych sisters Afrirampo amongst the ranks.

The following weekend, January 17 and 18, ATP will stage the same single-day festival, on back-to-back days, on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour (with free ferry ride to the islet included in ticket price!). And, in between the two outdoor-concerts, from the 12th to the 16th, a series of ATP-themed shows will take place in Brisbane's Powerhouse, with a larger-scale outdoor jamboree planned for January 15 at the Riverstage in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.

For abundant, in-depth details, one need turn only to the informative ATP website, which is, quite amusingly, already hawking 'earlybird' tickets to ATP NY 2009 (only 11-and-a-half months to go!).

Photo © [Polly Borland]