Neko Brisbane: Cancelled to Megashow

Caturday, August 18th 2018, it was the best Neko Nation event that we had done, the team was so on point, the performances, DJs, catgirls, media, it was just an amazing show where everything finally came together and best of all that crowd was magical, something I've never seen any other crowd get close to at any other show.

It broke the record for the biggest show in Australia yet, which was not bad considering the first Neko Nation Brisbane event was cancelled due to lack of interest.

Neko Nation Brisbane is Cancelled
Not many people will probably recognise the picture from the right, the promotional image from Neko Nation Brisbane 2011 which was cancelled.  Neko had a mini experimental show launch in Perth earlier that year, we finally did our first proper show in Adelaide in mid year to a big success, another success in Perth, and we decided to give a national tour a shot at the end of the year.  I was never expecting Neko to grow to such a success so soon but the reality soon hit.

Melbourne flopped for it's first event (and almost every event we ever did there), as for Brisbane, it got announced and the person I put in charge of the event attracted a whopping 40 people click attending, which once you include staff and around half the people who clicked attending not to show up it wasn't looking good.

I'll be honest, this surprised me a little bit, I knew Brisbane was going to be hard, I had very few contacts or friends in Brisbane but I know it was the home of the mega Supanova events, Mana Bar just opened up there and I knew there had to be a crowd there.  As for who I got to run the event, well you know the saying, if you want something done, then you got to do it yourself!  The first event while far from run perfectly I would have liked and laughably bad by the standards of a show I run now, it was supported greatly by the Brisbane crowd and we had the biggest crowd at a Neko Nation debut event in any city.

No Sweet Home
While the Brisbane crowd loved it, the reality is pitching an event like this to a venue at the time was rough, it was hard to find venues and the venues that would have us weren't exactly of the best standard, even when I've found better venues, Brisbane was rough, to go through a few of the issues, one venue broke the law (and I believe was shut down), one venue had $50 eBay decks, one venue manager blocked my number, Facebook and email and one venue kicked me out of my own event while I was running it!

Step up on stage
Despite the venue issues, when we had a venue, Brisbane was one of the most fun shows to organise because of the varied crowds from all sorts of scenes, we had a wide variety of different musical tastes, fashion styles, catgirls and DJ's, it was one of the most fun shows to organise.  We got to experiment in Brisbane a lot more as the crowd was more open and we had a great venue to work with when Coniston Lane existed.  Gtting S3RL was a given, we had amazing performers like Lele singing live and burlesque performer Aisaka Dream, we had some of the decor elements like the cherry trees, staging setup, a lot of fun things we got to experiment with in the 2013-2014 era until a management change in the venue meant we had to look elsewhere for venues.

Harder & Faster
Neko changed into more of a regular club night around 2015-2016, the venues we had available were more of a club style setting, which meant no stage but at the same time, we started attracting interstate and internationals over, the likes of Kenaz, Jadeabella, Sisen, Yui Kanan and of course TeddyLoid.  It was a fun time and I really felt like they were really fun events where it was more like a full on rave rather than the more varied events of today.  It was a good period as we had regular venues, good crowds and the events were solid, we even had a fell sellouts including the TeddyLoid event in 2016.

Look on The Brightside
Moving to The Brightside was probably the biggest and craziest vision I had for Neko, the last show we did at the venue beforehand was a sellout, putting on events was pretty easy having done it a number of times that I could do it in my sleep, on in my case on a few hours of sleep, which the schedule I had to put these Brisbane shows on!  We finally had a home for Neko in Brisbane but I honestly felt the Brisbane show could be so much better.

The Brightside was a very interesting proposal but a risky one, the show budget would blow up dramatically.  The regular part of the Brightside would be around a similar cost to our previous venue but then the new area, the outdoor area, we literally just had a carpark, we had to setup a stage and everything on it, it would turn Neko from a club event to a mini festival event.

The reality was the ability to get a lot of amazing performers which I feel was a massive strength of the Brisbane event, being able to setup my dream stage design and best of all The Brightside was probably the first venue I worked with that actually understood our event and went super above and beyond for event to make it a success.

In general all three events I've hosted there were very spectacular, the first two were absolutely amazing in 2016.  However I honestly believed that the 2018 event was not going to happen at a few points with how sick I was getting, how many things I wanted to do weren't able to go ahead and the number of plans changing, yet it all worked if anything maybe for the better because while the show wasn't perfect, I think it's by far the best night and event I've ever done or been involved with and it's thanks to all the magical people I've worked with and all those who came and supported me.

I'm sad to see it end but for those who did make it down and was a part, thank you, I'll never forget what an amazing journey it was from getting my first show canned to the amazing final show in Brisbane, thank you so very much.  <3

Bye Bye Brisbane?

Sunday, August 19th 2018, 12:16am
Valley Drive In, Backstage Area

"I'm going to miss this so much, I don't know if I really want this to end."

After that last Neko Nation Brisbane show, was the first point where I seriously felt like I finally had enough motivation and inspiration to consider just one more show, at least for Brisbane.  It was the first time I had been so emotionally overwhelmed by an event or a tour maybe since TeddyLoid in 2016.  It was a combination of an amazing team, a lot of things going to plan and the amazing crowd reaction, seriously, I couldn't have asked for a better event.

Sadly, I do see it as the end for Neko Nation Brisbane.

I've gone into great detail in past posts but I'll try to quickly sum it up.  Putting on a show involves a lot of time and effort, on a personal level that involves a lot of stress, it puts pressure on my health, relationship, friendships, work and study.  Neko isn't something I do for a living, I've juggled Neko regardless of what life has thrown at me, I've done Neko while holding full time work, sometimes multiple jobs, even getting a uni degree and holding a job and Neko!

To get Neko to where it has been, I've made a lot of sacrifices which I don't regret but it's taking its toll and it's getting harder for me to put on a show.  With Neko it is something I only want to do if I know I'm giving it my 100% all and I no longer believe I'm at a point which I'm able to do so.  I'm on my 8th year and I'm on show #73 now, I've done this way longer than I should have.

That said I would still love to see the event continue in one way or another

I have obviously thought about it and looked into the idea of selling or having somebody else takeover.  I'm 100% commited right now to finishing off The End is Meow tour in Perth and the finale in Sydney but I'm open to talks when this is over.

You'd find very few people who have a combination of the skills required to run a club event like this, experience in the anime and cosplay scene and the passion and drive to run an event of the scale of Neko.  It's unlikely but I wouldn't say impossible, we will see.

Maybe someone else could run a similar event...

After this tour is over, I doubt I'll ever see a desire for me to be in a position to run events, however I'm very interested in stepping back and keen to help let the next generation take over and run something similar.  Unlike when I first started doing Neko, you've got the advantage of knowing that it's a proven concept!

I'll admit how much I want to help here I'm not quite sure yet, I've got my main personal goals I want to work on first, marriage, career, holiday.  Plus I'm not sure how I'll go about it whether I want to handpick someone to mentor, start up a blog/video series in regards to how to go about running events, do an AMA or even just leave my inbox open for people to message in regards to advice.

Maybe ?

It's worth noting that of course my future plans and thoughts on this could change on how I want to go about my future and the future of similar events to this.  I'm pretty certain I won't be running Neko or events anything on a large scale in the near future.  I'm looking forward to finishing this tour, having a nice holiday and then I'll see how I feel.  The reality is I'm probably more keener in actually finally getting to go to any event like Neko rather than working.

Finally
Finally, don't be sad it's over, be glad that it's happened.

Adelaide 2011-2018, Thank You

While the first Neko Nation was in Perth, it wasn't till Neko Nation went to Adelaide that it really took off.

Adelaide was where the first real Neko Nation event took place, Perth was a bit of a prototype with a small casual bar style environment with minimal dance floor and two catgirls.  A lot of the elements such as getting at least 8 catgirls on, having a wide variety of DJs (not myself for half the night), performances, interstate DJs and in general the crowd was the most into it out of the 2011 shows we did.

The first Adelaide show was one of the reasons I would move to Adelaide for a short stint.  I found the people super appreciative that they were getting the event, they were super supportive, not just of my event but the likes of AVCon, Joypad, even smaller alternative events were very super supportive of what I was doing.  Adelaide was a small community but on a supportive and creative level, Adelaide was amazing.

The shows a lot of people hold dear and claim as the peak was the 2012-2013 era.  First of all we moved to Higher Ground, a venue many people hold dear when we were able to move Neko to a more professional level and I honestly felt like I was being accepted and a part of the anime and cosplay community.  It only grew further from there as AVCon let us host our first convention after party, a goal I would have one day wished for let alone to get there so quickly.

It took many shows to really push to get somewhere in most cities but very much straight up, Adelaide was super accepting, has no idea who I was and took me in as one of their own.  While Neko was always hard work, I always found lots of motivation and inspiration when working in Adelaide and the shows were generally the ones I could actually have the most fun at even while running the shows compared to how technical some of the other events were.

In recent years, I will admit, the Adelaide show while still great, it isn't our leading show and hasn't hit the insane levels that our Sydney and Brisbane shows get.  It shouldn't be too much of a surprise, smaller city and a nightlife that became difficult to deal with (all my past venues closing down), we lost good talent interstate (Jadeabella and Sei stick out) but at the end of the day, unlike many other promoters, I decided not to give up on the Adelaide show and the events with Crown and Sceptre in recent years was a blast.

In 2018, after a 5 year hiatus, we got the call from AVCon, it was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up and it was amazing to be back.  It was a great event, even if I had little control or involvement (in short, I have little control over the event a convention setting), it felt good to be back, a lot of people told me they enjoyed what we did, my set and also how much they were going to miss us.

It was a small city I fell in love with in 2009 when I first visited by myself to check out Tokyo Electro Invasion, a one off Japanese music style event in Adelaide, I loved the people there and the experience and it's crazy how that one night was part of the motivation to bring the next Japanese inspired club night, except this time it wasn't a one off.

Adelaide, seriously, thank you, what an amazing ride, I'm going to miss doing Neko Nation Adelaide but it's a city that I'll definitely be back too.  <3