Preview: FFALL

Following the onslaught of cryptic advertising and excited whispers throughout the streets of St Andrews, I decided to catch up with the co-founder of FFALL. Austin Bell’s brainchild is coming up on the 25^th October, and for £10 a ticket you can’t go wrong.

Can you tell me what FFALL is about, and what your vision for the event would be? 

I know this is ironic, but there’s been chat throughout the town that everything is now becoming a music festival. Which is funny to complain about because if I’d had that in my first year I would have had a much better experience. First and foremost I’d say that Leo Bargery and I were in it from the get-go for the music. We also wanted to utilise the union, especially as it’s going through redevelopments. But our ambition on top of that was to get as many societies as we could on board; STAR is going to be broadcasting from reception, Stereoscope is going to be doing their own thing, we’re going to have START and ArtSoc in, and Music is Love is collaborating with us to cover any gaps.

And why did you pick the specific acts?

We spent a good chunk of time over the summer booking bands – we contacted over a hundred acts. Leo was handling a lot of the local, Scottish indie-rock: Broken Records, Withered Hand, and all that. It’s five acts, but we have had budget cuts in the past week. We had twenty acts, and now we’re down to five.

Blank Canvas: the Edinburgh quartet we are all getting excited about

How is that going to affect the overall event?

To see my vision disintegrate in front of me was disheartening. I think what’s important is that we rallied as a committee and we fell back on each other. We’re still optimistic, and we’re very excited – I think one of the reasons why it worked is because of our enthusiasm. It was a struggle, but moving forward I really think that we’re going to achieve it because everything that we restructured is going to be much simpler – and it’s also half the ticket price!

Is this something that you want to continue after you’ve graduated, or is it a one-time thing?

A lot of the committee are third years, and Leo himself is a third year so he will hopefully look to do it again next year. One of the benefits of downsizing is that, despite the fact that we’ve had to restructure our budget, we’re looking to become an “Association Project”. So any profits that we make on the night go to a special reserve – if we don’t continue with the event, we can get some better sound equipment for Venue 1 or something like that. Invest in something meaningful.

I love the fact that it’s been quite secretive – could you sum up the event for me?

We’re inclusive, we’re accessible, and we could use all the help we could get. And yes, we went for a different marking approach: less spam, more buzz.

And I am certainly buzzed. Tickets on sale here NOW.