SECRET SOUNDS AND HOPELESS UTOPIAN PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

It is with great excitement that Secret Sounds (Splendour In The Grass, Falls Festival, Download) announce a partnership with musician and entrepreneur Holly Rankin (Jack River) and her company Hopeless Utopian (Grow Your Own, Electric Lady) for all future events.
 
Rankin and Secret Sounds Co-CEO Jessica Ducrou met earlier this year, the two quickly bonding over a shared passion for creating events with cultural impact, in regional areas, with meaning and global appeal.
 
The partnership will focus on expanding Hopeless Utopian’s key concert series Electric Lady, and regional music and produce festival Grow Your Own.
 
“Its super exciting to be working with Holly on Grow Your Own and Electric Lady, she is smart, ambitious, inspiring and fearless with boundless enthusiasm and a vision to boot. The world needs more of Holly, I have no doubt she’ll be wildly successful and am absolutely thrilled I have the opportunity to work alongside her, I’m very much looking forward to the journey ahead” says Ducrou.
 
Electric Lady was founded in early 2017 by Rankin with an aim to amplify the voices, guitars andrights of women in all fields. Holding its debut series at the Metro Theatre and The Corner Hotel with female-fronted acts Ali Barter, Alex Lahey, Gretta Ray, Jack River and more. Launched alongside a media platform interviewing the likes of world no.1 surfers Stephanie Gilmore and Tyler Wright, astrophysicist Katie Mack and The Pin’s Nkechi Anele, Electric Lady sent ripples through the Australian music landscape, firing up the conversation about women’s representation in music, sport, science, business and beyond.
 
In 2018, Electric Lady held stages at the Commonwealth Games Cultural and Arts Festival 2018 with Meg Mac, Wafia, Nina Las Vegas, Jack River andKardajala Kirridarra, and Mountain Sounds Festival with Alex the Astronaut, Tia Gostelow, EL, Exhibitionist and more.
 
Rankin founded Grow Your Own in 2016 in the hope of fulfilling a lifelong dream to bring a festival to her hometown. Local mates were wrangled to bring the festival to life, including lifelong pal and ARIA Nominated Artist, Creative Director Lee McConnell. Grow Your Own focuses on promoting homegrown music and produce from regional areas, whilst simultaneously bringing national talent to the country.
 
Ducrou is no stranger to founding and directing events that echo a greater vision. Founding Homebake in 1996 with a vision to deliver Australian music directly to its people. In 2001, she and Secret Sounds Co-CEO Paul Piticco founded Splendour with a vision to create a festival in winter that took you to another world. Secret Sounds went on to acquire Falls Festival and partner with Live Nation.
 
“I grew up praising festivals that Jess created - Splendour in the Grass inspired me to become a musician and to aim higher and make something bigger than myself. As the driving force behind so many iconic Australian festivals and music businesses, Jess was a guiding figure in my career all along. To work alongside her and her team now is deeply exciting” says Rankin.
 
Lead by two women with extreme drive and business acumen, this partnership is sure to be a force of change within the Australian music industry for decades to come.
 

The partnership’s first event will be The Hopeless Utopian cornerstone event Grow Your Own music and produce festival on January 12, 2019 in Forster-Tuncurry on NSW’s Mid North Coast.