Gingerfest. It's not, as the name suggests, a day full of Fanta, carrots and sunscreen-dipped freckly youngsters going by nicknames like 'Bluey'. It's an all-inclusive punk rock festival held to honour the memory of one of Canberra's most dedicated punk rockers, Nicholas Sofer-Schreiber, aka the Ginger Ninja, who had a mane of red curls and dedicated his short life to punk rock.
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This is just the second year for the massive three-stage, day-long punk festival. The inaugural Gingerfest kicked out the jams at The Factory in Marrickville, Sydney, last year with bands like The Snowdroppers, Anchors and 28 Days all donating their time to raise funds for Vision Australia.
This year, the huge line-up includes The Porkers, Fait Accompli, Nerdlinger, Jay and Lindsay from Frenzal Rhomb with their mysteriously titled Jay and Lindsay's Variety Hour.
Also on the bill is The Sinking Teeth, and Nick Manuell from the band is psyched to be playing.
"We've kinda been off the road for some time and recording an album, so it's going to be good to play some new stuff," he says.
The Melbourne band has also just brought a new drummer on board so they're keen to showcase the new line-up as well as the new material.
''This stuff has a different sound to the last EP,'' Manuell says, "because it's all been recorded to a vintage Neve console which is one of, like, five in the world, it's ridiculous. We've milked the EP dry, we've been touring off that for like, three years. It's really exciting to be putting something new out, it's good to do something fresh, so this is it."
The Sinking Teeth have played Canberra a couple of times and Manuell says he's impressed with the "really good little scene there".
"I feel like there's a big amount of musicians that grow up there and get a few stripes in there – what do you do in the navy when you get the stripes of your success? Anyway, they earn their stripes there and then they move to Melbourne. So we've got heaps of friends that are from Canberra and are in bands down here as well."
He says it's pretty common for the punk scene to get together for these sorts of community benefit shows.
"I'm pretty deep in it so maybe I have tunnel vision for it but I see lots of community benefiting things being put on all the time in the punk community. We've played numerous charity events over the years and we've got good friends down here [in Melbourne] that do a bunch of stuff like Beyond Blue and things like that."
A lot of the Canberra punk community would have seen Sofer-Schreiber, whose life was cut short in December 2013, around the traps.
"It's a horrific story," says Manuell, "but it's good that there's some good coming out of it. It's good how [Gingerfest] reflects the whole music community which was really his whole bag by the sound of it. We're really grateful to be part of it and it's an awesome way to honour a rad guy."
Gingerfest
Who: Gay Paris, The Porkers, Irrelevant, The Sinking Teeth, The Hard Aches, Frenzal Rhomb's Jay and Lindsay and more.
When: Saturday December 19, from 2.30pm
Where: The Factory Theatre, Marrickville, Sydney
Tickets: $35+bf from factorytheatre.com.au
