The Pleasure Garden ticket giveaway

Described as an experimental explosion of joy, connectivity, art and music, The Pleasure Garden is the one-day event you can’t miss this summer. Beached at Cantini Gardens at the St Kilda Foreshore on Saturday, December 9, the headline acts include the sensational Montaigne, electronic group Crooked Colours and Fat Freddy’s Drop. Milk Bar Mag was lucky enough to catch up with Glenn “Goose” McGrath, Creative Director of The Pleasure Garden, to give you a sneak peak of all the wonder, feathers and flamboyance that awaits. 

For those that don’t know, could you tell us a little about yourself and your involvement with The Pleasure Garden? 

I’m the Creative Director of The Pleasure Garden, and I’ve been working in the festival and events industry for most of my life. Its amazing to be able to combine all of the creative inspiration I’ve seen around the world and produce something truly unique for the local market. 

The Pleasure Garden can be described as a hedonist’s delight, or a one-day oasis devoted to music, arts and foods. How much preparation goes into putting a festival of this scale together? 

This is something we live, and breath, 12 months of the year. It’s not just a job, or just a gig, this is real, driven, passion. We prepare for it all the time. Behind the scenes though, we are lucky to have a massive team, supporting our vision, and a community that we couldn’t do this without. 

What kind of a turnout are you expecting? 

The response from last year has been amazing! We’re gearing up to welcome 7000 of our closest friends this year, which is absolutely awe inspiring. Also, our dress up theme is ‘Birds Of Paradise’ so not only will we have a great crowd, the costumes are sure to bring even more colour and excitement to the space. 

The one-day festival features 40 bands and DJs over four stages, including many Australian artists, including Remi and Montaigne. How important was it to include a strong Australian music presence in the lineup? 

For us as an event, it’s critically important to ensure we’re showcasing music from all kinds of spaces. We have a wealth of unique, local talent in Australia which fits really well with our event. In general though, we’re striving to bring a different feel within all of our music programming. Combining bass driven electronica, with dub, reggae, hip hop, and more. The idea is to break the mould of having a mono thematic genre presence, and change the focus to the wholistic, experiential nature of the event. 

Could you tell our readers what type of installations they can expect to see at the festival? Is there any artworks or visual performances that you would recommend? 

The artworks, roving theatre, and installations are everywhere, all the time. They’re not something you can “make sure you don’t miss”. It’s about being enveloped into a warm pocket of creative beauty. Keep an eye out for an elf riding a giant snail though *winks* 

What makes The Pleasure Garden unique? How does it stand apart from other boutique festivals? 

The Pleasure Garden isn’t a festival. It is a social project to prove that through art, we can inspire people to connect and break down their own psychological barriers with each other, and in turn, inspire people to drive their own communities to be more positive and inclusive spaces. The Pleasure Garden is here to change the world.

To celebrate, Milk Bar Mag is giving away two FREE double-passes to our readers who like to have a boogie. All you need to do is email ross@milkbarmag.com with the subject line ‘The PleasureGarden ticket giveaway’ your name, address and the name of the festival’s dress-up theme. 

The Pleasure Garden is a place where imagination and magic coalesce into sensory wonder — we look forward to seeing you there, cocktails in hand. 

The Pleasure Garden 
Saturday, 9 December 2017
St Kilda Foreshore, 12pm to 10pm
thepleasuregarden.com.au