Five times Motorik almost ended

"MOTORIK's always been a troublesome child. It's got zero chill." Sounds about right.

As Sydney party crew, Motorik ramp up to their massive fifth birthday event this weekend, we thought it'd be a great time to reflect on what a life they've had so far.

You'd think that touring artists like Brodinski, Daniel Avery, Late Nite Tuff Guy, Tiga and Louisahhh; releasing exclusive cuts to support underground techno talent, and having their own 'vibe council' would be a winning idea - but after chatting with Andrew Santamaria from Motorik, we realised it hasn't been all smiles (although there have been pleeeenty of smiles we assure you).

So as an example of not taking things for granted, here's five times Motorik almost ended (and five times we're ultra thankful it didn't):

1. Before It Even Started - Mid 2012

"Motorik's always been a troublesome child. It's got zero chill. Not many people know that it almost died before it got started, though. Five years ago, we decided to start the party in a joint called Betty's Soup Kitchen, which was this dingy little greasy spoon on Oxford St, which had this sick basement, and was BYO. Perfect, right? We had the great idea of not telling anyone where it was except for on the night via text (or something, I can't remember), so when the owners called us up to say a denim store was actually about to move in and the party couldn't happen, it wasn't the end of the world. Except that we couldn't find a venue. So we were basically fucked, until a few days before the party, when our guy Vivi stumbled into a shitty little comedy club (The Laugh Garage) in a basement near Hyde Park. The owner took a lot of persuading - but somehow, we managed to persuade him. Which set a pattern for the rest of our parties (lots of sweet talking, many weird venues). The rest is history..."

2. Stuck At The Beach - NYE 2012

"We had the bright idea of throwing a beach party on NYE 2012/2013 with our m8s, Midnight Juggernauts. After some epic Clambake parties, we decided to jack their location and hauled MAJOR loads of gear out to a nudist beach in the middle of nowhere in the afternoon, after which a security guard rocked up and informed us that the beach and the park surrounding it were closed for NYE. We tried bribing him. We tried sneaking around him. He was having none of it. We almost killed ourselves lugging the gear back, and nearly killed each other too. It was pretty tense - what are you gonna do, cancel NYE for 200 people? We were literally five minutes away from pulling the plug on it forever. Meanwhile, that guy Vivi was on major hotline style calling every two-bit venue, warehouse and photo studio operator in town. The legendary Jerry from Holland St saved our day, and our first warehouse party was born, fuelled by shrooms and the juggernauts playing probably the worst set in history. What a feeling!"

3. Our Insurance Probably Wouldn't Have Covered It - The 2nd Birthday, 2013

"We've always set ourselves lofty goals, to go with our lofty ideals. Our boys CSMNT61 had done a performance for Christopher Esber in a flip warehouse in Marrickville, and we KNEW it was the spot. We wanted a Jumping Castle. We got it. We asked for them to remove all the pallet racking. We didn't get it. Both of these things combined made it amazing - this gigantic, 1000 capacity+ warehouse, with massive racking towers and a jumping castle in the middle, with a massive Funktion One rig. What could possibly go wrong? Answer: all of it - but it was so damn right. Without going into details, the riot squad came at 5am to shut it down. We lost our bond. We were saved from being shut down earlier by a massive police car chase (unrelated to us) in Enmore earlier that night - thank Christ. Let's just say the dude that came off for the worse from the jumping castle got free entry for life. Thanks for not suing us m8!"

4. Above 77, sometime in 2013

"Beginners lesson #1: Never advertise a warehouse party in The Brag, and try not doing it above a licensed venue (which, oddly enough, we later ended up partnering up with our m8s Delaney and Doom in, many years on), and especially not anywhere near The Cross. This rookie error got us so much police attention, and much questioning. We think they forgot to send us the fine. Cops are tops!"

5. Brodinski and Gesaffelstein, Metro, 2014

"Life's never easy. Promoting's hard. Doing Production for shows is even worse, especially if you're trying to life and promote at the same time. Some bright spark forgot to order a mixer and CDJs (probably Vivi) and as 1300 ravers descended on a sold-out Metro post FMF, we had a gigantic LED screen, a massive soundsystem, but no bloody decks. Cue the legendary Rudy Udovich, our stage manager (now retired) and former Teenagers In Tokyo drummer, making magic happen and getting CDJs and a mixer from the storeroom at the hotel where Sven Vath and the eurotechno squad were staying. Had we fucked that up, though, we wouldn't have worked in this town ever again.

And so we hit 5 years..."

FUTURISM is the next level of Motorik - their fifth birthday festival. To be held on Saturday July 2, in an incredible secret indoor/outdoor location, in the centre of Sydney. There will be Funktion One sound outdoors and mind-blowing visuals, over 3 stages, from legendary designer/visual artist Sam Whiteside - who has been a part of the Motorik fam as a photographer since the very early days!

Leading from the day to the night, with no lockouts, will be ANNA, Mark Pritchard, Human Movement, Wordlife, Made In Paris, Motorik Vibe Council and a bunch more. Tickets are on sale now!

All photos by Sam Whiteside / Voena.

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