St Jerome's Laneway Festival | |
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Genre | Indie, Indie pop, Rock |
Dates | Late January – early February |
Years active | 2004 - present |
Website | |
www |
The St. Jerome's Laneway Festival, commonly referred to as Laneway, began in Caledonian Lane, Melbourne, Australia, in 2005. Beginning as predominantly an indie music event, the festival grew in popularity and expanded to five Australian cities—Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Fremantle—as well as Auckland, New Zealand, Singapore, and Detroit, United States (US).
St. Jerome's Laneway Festival began in 2005 when Jerome Borazio and Danny Rogers decided that summers in Melbourne would be far better with more live music in unique settings. First came the "St. Jerome's Summer Series" each Sunday afternoon, featuring "new" bands of the time, including The Presets and Architecture in Helsinki. They then included a monthly Saturday night called "Brains" (which was actually a residency for musical act The Avalanches).
Borazio and Rogers eventually convinced The Avalanches that they could close the lane, remove the bins and stage a laneway party. With the addition of promotional material and other acts, the inaugural St. Jerome's Laneway Festival was launched. The line-up included: The Avalanches, Art of Fighting, Eskimo Joe, The Dears, Cut Copy, Architecture in Helsinki, Clare Bowditch, the Feeding Set and Gersey.
Following an total attendance of 1,400 people at the first Laneway Festival, it was announced later in 2005 that Laneway was expanding to Sydney, Australia.
In 2006, both Melbourne and Sydney hosted a lineup of both international and domestic artists, including: Broken Social Scene, Les Savy Fav, Gossip, Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Avalanches, The Posies, The Hold Steady, The Raveonettes and The Drones.