Wollongong venues were packed with music fans for Gong Crawl on Saturday night, and venue proprietors have called it a proof of concept.
On Saturday, August 17, venues on Crown Street and the surrounding areas were flooded with local music fans celebrating the return of the Illawarra’s annual ‘Gong Crawl’, organised by Speed Drive INC.
Fan-favourite venues like La La La’s and Dicey Riley’s were among the crawl.
Hundreds of people danced through the halls of the creative arts space Society City, and record shop Music Farmers. Josh Shimmen, manager of Society City, said that he hadn’t seen that many people in the venue for about half a decade.
“Usually, if we can get 30 people in there, that’s a decent event. I’d reckon we would have had at least 500 people filtered through over the course of the night,” Shimmen said.
Photo: Zoe Cartwright
“Maybe a hundred of those people buy a beer, 50 of them buy a book, and 10 become members. They’re all helping us pay the rent. We made just over $3000 on the bar.”
These sentiments were echoed by Music Farmers co-owner Jeb Taylor, whose store hosted various artists from 4pm onwards.
“It was really busy, actually! Due to how many other things were on, you never know what the turnout is going to be like. I feel like all the venues seem to have been really busy with it,” Taylor said.
The Gong Crawl is a one-day, free-entry event showcasing both music and visual art, organised by the members of Wollongong punk heroes HOON. After a one-year hiatus, the festival returned this year, with HOON acting under the ‘Speed Drive INC’ production label.
The event showcased 50 music acts and ten artists across the ten venues. The festival kicked off at 2pm and rocked until local lounge bar Heyday closed its doors at 3am, Sunday, August 18th.
Photo: Cassie Hi
Shimmen continued, saying that he wants more large-scale events to take place, as he believes central Wollongong has a lot of potential as a space for local culture.
“Shut Crown Street down, make it like Sixth Street in Austin, get more bands playing, get markets, and street art; make it an event,” Shimmen said.
“If the community’s not there, supporting these venues and these artists, the events don’t happen. The nightlife is there, and it’s reflecting what the community wants.”
Audience expectations are high for Gong Crawl 2025.