Lori Lee Cash GreazeFest Kustom Kulture Festival Interview

Empowering the Next Generation of Kustom Kulture Women

This August 10,000 people will bop and jive their way to the Redland Showgrounds to celebrate two decades of the GreazeFest Kustom Kulture Festival over the weekend-long event.

Setting the scene will be legendary Californian band The Paladins and Tennessee country king Jason Lee Wilson, who will headline the family-friendly festival from Friday August 2 to Sunday August 4, with the passionate rockabilly and hot rod community to once again be treated to a celebration of all things vintage.

Cool cars, live bands and DJs, pinup pageants, lowrider cycles, kustom art shows and workshops, tiki carving, jive dancing, and vintage markets will all feature at a festival that has earned a reputation as the Southern Hemisphere's most exciting hot rod and rockabilly event.

Presented by Robot Productions and proudly sponsored by Redland City Council, GreazeFest attracts thousands of retro fans, rockabillies and hot rodders from across the country.

GreazeFest Organiser Lori Lee Cash said the event had played a pivotal role in shaping and growing the nostalgia scene in Australia during the past two decades.

"For people who love rockabilly, hot rods and vintage lifestyle, the birth of GreazeFest 20 years ago gave them a welcome opportunity to come together as a community and share their common passion," she said.

"We have continued to innovate and grow the event each year and the festival has become a must-attend for thousands of people from across the country.

"One of the things I love most about GreazeFest is seeing people from all generations come together, as well as the fabulous outfits everyone wears."

The Paladins and Jason Lee Wilson will be joined on the music bill by more than 20 other performers and DJs including Australian favourites Rusty Pinto, Pat Capocci, The Flattrakkers and The Detonators.

GreazeFest's wildly popular Pinup Pageants will also be centre stage this year. The two parade themes include Miss Tiki Wahini, which showcases the tropical world of vintage Hawaiian dresses and bamboo bangles, plus the Hot Rod Belle Parade, which celebrates the hot rod lifestyle from double-denim to King Cry Baby cool.

In a GreazeFest first, the ARTOMIC Art Show will see Australian and international artists create exciting art pieces focusing on outer space including robots, future cars, aliens, UFOs, galaxies and planets.

Day Tickets and All-Events Passes are now on sale, with people who purchase the latter in the running to win the Kustom Kulture Prize Pack. Centrally located in Redlands Shire, GreazeFest also provides on-site parking and convenient public transport options.

GreazeFest Kustom Kulture Festival #20
Friday August 2 – 7pm to midnight
Saturday August 3 – 10am to 10pm
Sunday August 4 – 9am to 6pm
Venue: Redland Showgrounds, Cnr Long Street & Smith Street, Cleveland

For all event details, including tickets, please visit www.greazefest.com

Interview with Lori Lee Cash, Event Organiser, GreazeFest & Redlands Rockabilly Revival

A fanatic of all things Kustom Kulture, Lori Lee Cash has a knack for getting an eccentric crowd of people together for a rockin' crowd.

Lori Lee's presence in the community organising festivals like Redlands Rockabilly Revival and GreazeFest Kustom Kulture Festival under her company, Robot Productions, has played a pivotal role in popularising Brisbane's rockabilly and Kustom Kulture scene – which sees tattooed motorbike riders, perfectly-primed pinup models and kids walk side-by-side.

Question: Can you tell us about the GreazeFest and Redlands Rockabilly Revival?

Lori Lee Cash: GreazeFest is Australia's must-do Kustom Kulture festival, where thousands of rockabilly and hot rod fans all gather together for a three-day dose of ultra-kool.

GreazeFest will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and we will be presenting an exciting weekend of vintage and custom cars, rockabilly bands, DJs, pinup pageants, art shows and workshops as well as pin-stripers, tattooists, cool markets and more.


Question: What events will be at GreazeFest?

Lori Lee Cash: Live on stage you will see The Paladins from California and Jason Lee Wilson from Tennessee, who will be joined on the music bill by more than twenty Australian performers and DJs with must-see acts, Rusty Pinto, Pat Capocci, The Flattrakkers, The Detonators and Lovejoy Surf.

Outside in the beautiful August weather, you will see hundreds of hot rods, custom cars, vintage bikes and lowrider bicycles dazzling in the sunshine. The hot rod display is surrounded by a perimeter of exceptionally cool markets. If you are looking for vintage or retro gear, GreazeFest is the weekend to go shopping!

There will be other celebrities people can meet from the international Kustom Kulture scene, including Von Hot Rod (USA), Shawn Dickinson (USA), Cathy 'Artgirlcathy' Mejia (USA), Krazy Dotty (Japan) and Katt Mercy (USA). Plus from Australia, Mimsy from Trailer Trash Tattoo and Tiki Dylan, who will be demonstrating how to carve tikis. Along with the guest artists, we showcase local and international artists in our GreazeFest art display, this year the theme is 'Artomic', featuring robots, future cars, aliens, UFOs, galaxies and planets.

GreazeFest also presents two very popular pinup pageants, including Miss Tiki Wahini, showcasing vintage Hawaiian styles, and The Hot Rod Belle, which focuses on hot rod lifestyle from double-denim to King Cry Baby cool.

Question: What should attendees expect from GreazeFest Kustom Kulture Festival?

Lori Lee Cash: GreazeFest is a welcoming event to people of all ages. Expect to see the amazing hot rods and the visual art on display. People will also get to witness the best bands and DJs from around the world and they can shake their hips on the dance floor. Folks should allow enough time for checking out the markets and enjoy our gourmet food and drink options plus, there's plenty of shade and seating. Of course, attendees can check out the amazing outfits that our rockabilly community wears, people really get dressed up for GreazeFest.


Question: Can you tell us about your role as event organiser for GreazeFest?

Lori Lee Cash: Organising GreazeFest takes vision, passion and dedication – it's a role where I wear many hats. My job commences with designing the event concept and presentation and covers all steps along the way such as managing the talent, the permits, finances, admin, the layout of the festival, the marketing, the subbies and permits, the whole lot. When bump in rolls around, our event management team steps in and they make my vision and planning a reality. As well as all the behind the scenes work, I try to spend time with our audience, our artists and our hot rodders, as they are the heart of the festival.


Question: Are you able to tell us about both the rockabilly and the Kustom Kulture scene?

Lori Lee Cash: Kustom Kulture is the term given to a collection of cultures and rockabilly is one of those facets. Kustom Kulture encompasses a lot of creative elements – the hot rod and classic car scene, the DIY attitude, kustom and lowbrow art, tattoos, the music, the fashion and the 'look'. Most people are into one or two of these elements, some people are into everything. It's at GreazeFest where all of these scenes intersect, and it's just wonderful.


Question: What inspired your passion for the rockabilly and Kustom Kulture scene?

Lori Lee Cash: I've been in this scene since the early 1980s. The Cramps turned me onto rockabilly when they revived songs such as 'Domino', originally recorded by Roy Orbison in 1956, and 'The Way I Walk' by Jack Scott in 1957. These bare-bones tunes were mind-blowing to me at the time and it became my mission to find more hidden rockabilly gems at second-hand record shops. Brisbane had its own version of rockabilly fever and you could catch live bands like The Rockadiles, The Treble Clefs and The Convertibles at the local pubs. I also had no interest in modern cars, and bought my first 1960 FB Holden at age 17. Add in vintage clothes, furniture, architecture and the dancing and you have what we now call a Kustom Kulture lifestyle, but of course there was no such term back then, I was just being me.


Question: What's a typical day like for you?

Lori Lee Cash: I work with an assistant and we both use a daily task list that is sourced from our event procedures manual. At this time of year (three weeks before GreazeFest), typical days include managing our social media campaigns and press advertising, managing our ticketing system and bookings, producing our festival merch range, managing the staff and sub-contractors for the festival plus keeping in touch with our patrons. We run a busy office, but the atmosphere is calm, creative and we are always playing cool tunes. On a personal level, my days include exercise, healthy eating, 'walking' phone calls, and knock-off by sundown.

Question: What's next for you?

Lori Lee Cash: I'll let you know after GreazeFest!


Interview by Brooke Hunter