Welcome to the first VMDO Spotlight interview! VMDO Spotlight is a new series that we are launching to highlight and connect homegrown and global music industry experts in the form of interview-style articles. 

On 4 May 2023, VMDO had the pleasure of interviewing Anna Xi and Genna Alexopoulos, working on the Asian Pop Music and Cultural Festival, SONICA, which took place at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in March 2023.

In this conversation, Anna and Genna shared their personal and professional journeys, how SONICA brought together communities that have been less engaged by the broader Australian music industry, as well as how Boba tea generated more sales than alcohol at a music festival.

Want to get in touch with Anna and/or Genna?

Could you both tell us about your professional background and how long have you been working in the industry?

Anna: I came to visit Melbourne in 2014 and had the opportunity to visit Hamer Hall at Arts Centre Melbourne to see a few shows. As an audience member, I found they had fantastic Asian artists on stage but very few Asian people in the audience. Before coming over, I had heard that Melbourne was a great city of arts and culture, and I wanted to create events that Asian communities and audiences could engage more with and have the full Melbourne experience. Since then, we have brought over many Chinese and Asian musicians and promoted their shows in Melbourne and across Australia. Fast forward to today, we have broadened the types of artists and music we work with - we promote classical and pop concerts and have just held our first-ever music festival called SONICA in March at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. 

What is the inspiration behind the company’s name, Castiglione Arts and Culture?

Anna: The inspiration comes from Castiglione, an Italian painter and artist who went to China at the age of eighteen. He devoted his whole life as an emperor painter in China and created a lot of fantastic works for the Qianlong Emperor. And we’d like to position ourselves as someone like Castiglione that’s bridging the Western and Eastern cultures.

Before you moved to Melbourne, were you also working in arts and music in China?

Anna: Yes! I studied PR public relations and communication, and my career started in PR agencies, so I had the chance to engage with a lot of musicians and celebrities in China. I then got to work as an in-house PR manager, so I also got to organise a lot of public events.

How about you, Genna? Could you tell us a bit about your story?

Genna: Music has been my favourite thing for as long as I can remember. I started off volunteering at music events during high school, joined my local FReeZA program, and I started working in the music industry professionally after moving to Sydney when I was 19. I was working at an independent label and distributor, then Big Day Out, and started Super Duper in 2013. Our core business is running PR programs for domestic artists, special events and venues in so-called Australia. I love helping artists tell their story, besides the music itself, it’s what I connect with the most, and that’s reflected in our roster. I also do a lot of mentoring, which I’m really passionate about - I love meeting and sharing everything I know with young people who are coming up.

How did the two of you come to be working together?

Anna: In late 2022, I shared some ideas about wanting to do an Asian pop music festival with AJ at VMDO. When we were ready to launch the festival in February this year, I asked AJ if she could introduce me to any kind of local industry connections, especially PR professionals in Australia, that could help me launch SONICA. Luckily I was introduced to Genna, who was keen and able to jump on board right away.

Genna: It was such perfect timing. I had met with AJ for the very first time right before she introduced me to Anna. Truly divine timing.

Genna, this is quite a different client for you than what you’ve previously done - as you traditionally work with Naarm-based acts and contemporary music audiences. Were you daunted at the prospect of taking on a different client and pitching to a different audience?

Genna: Not at all. I was really excited by the prospect of working on a festival like SONICA and pitching to a different audience. I know how strong the Asian Pop community is, it’s a big business both here and internationally, and the fans are so dedicated. Once the opportunity crossed my desk I remember thinking, “We can’t not be a part of this.” Especially being the first year of the festival, and helping to shape it from the ground floor. 

How do you bridge the gap between SONICA artists and community and the broader Victorian scene? How can the Victorian industry address it better?

Genna: In any situation, there needs to be a local story and a local hook. Having Vivan Vo involved was amazing, she is incredible, she manages Yeo under her company Small FRY and hosts Mooncake on Triple R, Victorian media were right across her. And SONICA being held at such an iconic venue like the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and having the Arts Centre Melbourne and Live at the Bowl association helped to establish the credibility of the festival, as a very broad term. It’s not always easy to introduce a new brand into the market, especially in a time when consumer confidence in festivals is still quite shaky, so leveraging those third-party associations around SONICA to build a strong foundation, while also leaving room for the brand itself to grow in the coming years, was really important.

Anna, what was the motivation behind putting on SONICA - considering it is quite different from the classical shows you have worked on, the risky climate, and addressing a niche market? What did you want to achieve with SONICA?

Anna: The idea came from my heart and passion for wanting to create opportunities for local Asian communities to engage with local cultural events.

We started with promoting classical concerts, which are smaller in size and risks are relatively low, and generally easier to manage and promote. Since we started our company in 2015, we did lots of solid work in building connections with artists overseas and engaging with the Asian local communities and audiences, which built the groundwork for us to promote a more diverse range of music genres in the future. The idea for SONICA actually came up before COVID but obviously, everything was put to a stop back then. But we kept working on bringing Asian pop musicians and bands to Australia after COVID. And through this journey, I find the younger local Asian communities are more active and more keen to engage with live events and cultural experiences and is a key audience group that we’d definitely want to focus on in the future. SONICA music festival is a good opportunity for us to further explore how we can keep engaging with local Asian audience communities and general interests from the broader communities who love Asian cultures and music. As someone with Asian heritage background, I kind of see it as our mission to spread awareness of Asian culture and music. K-pop’s international growth, for example, has been a huge inspiration. I think now is a good time for us to kick off the big plans!

Are we correct in saying that the tickets went on sale shortly before the event? What was the audience’s response during the lead-up to SONICA, and did it meet your expectations? 

Anna: Yes! Tickets went on sale four weeks before the event. However, we started working on the programming for this festival probably eight to ten months earlier. Programming was very challenging for a one-day festival, and it was extremely difficult logistically to work around all of these artists' busy schedules. But I felt very lucky as the artists were very supportive and devoted. 

And for every single one of these acts, it was their first time coming to Australia. 

(SONICA’s lineup: Gareth.T, Gentle Bones, Amber Liu, Henry, Zico)

SONICA was officially announced on social media two months before the event. And the response was overwhelming between then and until tickets went on sale. People just kept asking what the lineup would be and started commenting their wishlists on our social media. They were genuinely excited and also had high expectations, which put us under some pressure. But it was a good sign in terms of demand, as we could feel people were keen for this type of experience.

We officially announced the line-up over one week and then kicked off with a pre-sale. We sold out VIP tickets within ten minutes, which was very fast, reflecting the loyalty and passion of fans who just love this music. 

Genna, from your experience at SONICA, were you surprised by some of the audience you saw in the crowd? As you mentioned, the appeal of Asian pop music is huge and Western communities have really embraced it. What were your observations on the ground?

Genna: It was one of the most, if not the most, pleasant festival crowds I have ever seen. I lost count of how many times I said it to Anna on the day, I was completely blown away. There were people of all different ages, groups of friends in matching outfits, some coming straight from school, and best of all - no drunk idiots, ha. The audience was really engaged and locked into everything happening on stage. The energy was out of this world. I have worked on so many large-scale events and festivals, this was truly one of the best experiences. It was so beautiful and fun to be a part of.

Is it fair to say that the food stalls were more popular than the bar?

Genna: That Boba line was blocks long, so yeah! They ended up shutting one of the bars early because people just weren’t interested in drinking. That bubble tea though.

How do you go about engaging with such dedicated super fans? How do you cater for them knowing that they might have quite high expectations as well?

Anna: I don’t have the statistics, but we had some fans coming from interstate, such as New South Wales and Queensland, for SONICA. In terms of the unique experience and engagement we can deliver, it is something we considered from the beginning. This year we offered an open sound check for VIPs. VIPs could have extra time to engage with the artists, who’d talk to and walk into the crowd to engage with the VIP fans.

Genna: Just adding to what Anna shared, the artists know that their audiences are super fans, and they played into that really well. Henry was a pro at it - during Amber’s open soundcheck, he was running out and playing around on stage - because he knew the fans watching would love that. Likewise, during the press conference the day before, he walked in on another artists’ interview and was like, 'I'm just here to move this plant’, or ‘here let me get you some water’. The artists know that their fans really love and get excited by those little moments. That two-way engagement really stood out to me.

Do you have an idea of what the fan base is? 

Anna: I think it is a very diverse, all-ages audience, a mixture of local communities, international students, parents with babies etc. As this was the first SONICA and the first time in Australia for the artists, we gave existing fans the exclusive opportunity to closely engage with their dream idols. 

For you Genna, what was the strategy for introducing the festival and artists that may be new to the Australian market that were on the SONICA lineup? What would you recommend to overseas acts that haven’t been to Australia yet?

Genna: Our strategy for SONICA was multi-layered. One of the goals was to engage the existing communities - find the fans, find the publications that are connected to those fans, and establish that connection for SONICA. Then there was expanding into the mainstream as well - when I say mainstream, I mean larger Australian media publications. That was a bit more of a challenge, trying to sell an Asian Pop lineup through education on the artists, to be like ‘this is big’, these artists are massive, but they haven’t had the established airtime in mainstream press here, so there was a lot more groundwork to get them through the door.

We had a pretty short turnaround, about 3.5 weeks in-market, so from a publicity perspective our priority was targeting existing fans to support ticket sales. In terms of introducing artists to the Australian market, we had quite a bit of success with a couple of them in more mainstream outlets - namely 1nonly, who unfortunately wasn’t able to make the event. Being a hip-hop artist there are more avenues in Australia, it’s notoriously challenging to introduce new artists into the pop space, unless there is a long term effort with high-level label support on-ground it can kind of slip between the cracks. For example, Amber is so well loved, she’s so personable and open about her journey and engaged with media which they really connected to.

Another factor to consider is the difference between artist and festival PR. When you’re introducing a new festival brand into Australia, with artists that have never been here before, you’re navigating both at once - building the festival brand and the artist’s profiles. With longer lead times you can really dig into those things. We had to prioritise the existing fans, and artist growth strategies as a second priority because we couldn’t risk losing that primary market. Overall it went really well though - there was a lot of media interest that reached SONICA’s key audience. 

We’re in it with that long-term view. This is the first year - the groundwork year - and in year two, three, four, five, we will continue that work because building a brand like SONICA is an ongoing process. It’s a long game.

There is clearly a large audience base but a lack of festivals and events catering to the Asian market. What are your thoughts on this gap that exists in Melbourne, and how can these communities be better served?

Anna: Firstly, there definitely have been some international festivals focused around Asian Pop or KPop that have toured Australia, but mainly in Sydney. I think this is an opportunity for Melbourne to present exclusive opportunities for artists and fans of Australia, provided that SONICA was able to attract fans from other states to visit Melbourne to meet their idols. And in a long-term perspective, we’d like to create some unique cultural experiences for our festival audience and local music community. 

After SONICA,  we got more musicians, management companies, and agencies who approached us, wanting to collaborate and promote their offering to the local Asian communities through SONICA in the future. 

Anna, have you noticed anything special about the Australian market, having moved from China to Melbourne?

Anna: When we started in 2015, I noticed that the social media of the local Asian communities was not very well integrated with the broader local market. But it’s changed in recent years. Local promoters were able to promote Asian events purely relying on mainstream channels and social media. Especially after COVID, the whole market and consumer behaviours have been changing, and it presented a new challenge for us to navigate. But on a positive note, the audience engagement with each other is much more active than before within the communities. 

Genna, having also had experience working overseas from Canada, what are your observations about the Australian market in terms of consumer behaviours?

Genna: While I wasn’t specifically working in music in Toronto, I made a point to stay connected through creating strategies for artists and continuing to build networks internationally. And it’s important to note I was overseas during the pandemic when consumer behaviour changed completely, and even now there’s no ‘done thing’. I’m not sure I had new observations while I was there, more so that some existing observations really crystallised. Seeing how artists of all backgrounds are not only supported but celebrated beyond the perceived peak of their careers on ground over there was really incredible. Whereas in Australia, we have our stunning tall poppy syndrome, and the artists who are given space by large-scale audiences to remain relevant after their third album are predominately cis, het, white, and male. From our end, we try to tackle this through media - that’s the avenue through which we as publicists connect with audiences. Just like the education of…I’m trying to sound diplomatic! It’s a very racist, very sexist country. It’s also quite a small market comparatively. Although it can still be an incredibly lucrative one for both domestic and international artists, audiences here are very committed.

I’m an optimistic person by nature, and I approach work as if the change I want to see has already happened, while not being naive to the constraints that we’re working within. You have to find that balance. And it can be hard, especially when the limitations are invisible, and especially when being challenged on whether they exist or not is par for the course.

In saying that, there are still scenes which are very special, not being bias (I am) especially Melbourne being hashtag #thelivemusiccapital, ha - seeing artists come up and how they’re supported by the community and also the infrastructure we have to support artists as they grow... that journey is so special.

Just a question off that, does SONICA benefit from artists coming from overseas?

Absolutely. The challenges I just mentioned are mostly artist-specific, not festival specific. SONICA is in a really great position because they do have such strong programming, a really strong vision for where the festival is going, and a highly engaged community. This year’s lineup was so well curated. It wasn't like, ‘oh we’ll just book whoever’s available’, it was very specific to the audience and the broader festival experience of highlighting Asian pop culture outside of just music, it was really, really strong. 

What is next for Sonica? What is next for you both? Who from the industry and communities would you like to connect with in the future?

Anna: Our team had so many ideas that we were unable to fully explore due to the limited time we had this year. There has been significant interest from the overseas musicians that we’ve been talking to, in collaborating with local artists. SONICA’s future plan will have a focus on bringing impact and value across borders and to the local industry. After engaging in dialogue with VMDO and Genna, the team has considered curating more main-stage and side shows, exploring opportunities to expand into other parts of Australia. To engage the local community further, our team plan to create a more diverse cultural experience by providing both the main and sideshows. And we’re planning to expand it into a 2-day festival in the near future. 

I’d love to receive industry feedback and thoughts on the future collaborations of SONICA. Before commencing next year's planning, our team would like to connect with potential collaborators and advisors who are interested in working with us in taking SONICA to the next level. 

Genna: At the moment we’re setting up a number of very incredible album PR campaigns that will not be ready to announce before this goes live, but we have a really exciting year of music coming up. We’re also in the process of launching two new services through Super Duper, consulting and ghostwriting. The consulting offering is pretty much an umbrella to formalise all the weird and wonderful things we do outside of music publicity: B2B comms strategy, setting up department processes for other companies, consulting on high-level strategy for organisations and events across many industries. The ghostwriting service is for people who have important things to say but writing mightn’t be their strength. We’ve written countless op-eds, speeches, keynotes, even resignation letters for people over the years, I’m really excited about formalising this as a standalone service.

Today and every day I’d love to connect with people at all levels from all corners of the industry who are passionate about what they’re doing. I’m always up for a chat and a brainstorm.

Any final thoughts reflecting on the experience of being involved in SONICA and what you envisage for its future?

Genna: I think I’ve touched on it already, but again, I was just so blown away by the day. I feel like I haven’t stopped talking about it, every single time I saw Anna on that day, I was just like “this is incredible.” That is such a testament first and foremost to the work that Anna and her team did, but also the energy the artists and fans brought. I’m really excited for what SONICA is doing and how it’ll grow in the coming years. The fans are there, they want to spend their money, they want events that speak to them. They want to be involved.