Adelaide’s Fowlers Live to set up sister city relationship with Austin venues

Major Adelaide live music venue Fowlers Live is in discussions to set up a groundbreaking sister city partnership with like-minded venues in Austin, Texas.

The idea would see bands from both cities playing each other venues, and live streaming of simultaneous gigs utilising cutting-edge technology.

Both cities are similar, physically and culturally, both college cities with a student population that champions live music.

Austin officially has called itself Live Music Capital of the World in 1991 because of the number of venues (200), home to mega-festivals as SXSW and Austin City Limits and has its own Formula 1 races.

Adelaide is a UNESCO City of Music, has a deep history of music and the arts, has globally acknowledged festivals as WOMADelaide, Adelaide Cabaret Festival and Adelaide Guitar Festival and this year’s Adelaide 500 race drew 273,500 attendees.

At this year’s SXSW in March, Fowlers representatives met with the Austin Music Venue Trust about the idea, and at least three venues were keen to get involved.

Fowlers Live managing director Peter Darwin says, “Fowlers is proud of what we have achieved to date and we see the potential for this partnership to have significant impact on furthering the careers of local musicians.”

“For the past 15 years, at the heart of Fowlers live, has been the desire to provide an all-ages venue that develops not only local artists but also to build the audiences of the future.

“Fowlers continues to host a huge number of local bands as well as national and international acts.“Part of our mission is to do things differently and provide professional services that assist our industry to develop and grow.

“Technology is changing the way we experience live performances, and we want to raise the bar in how we can impact the live music experience. It makes perfect sense to build on Adelaide’s Sister City relationship with Austin for the benefit of SA music.”

Darwin set up the Fowler’s Live Music Awards in 2012. They were taken over by Music SA three years later and rebranded as the SA Music Awards.

Darwin says the first projects to emerge from the sister city relationship will be firmed later this year.