Alternative Nation Festival

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Alternative Nation was a series of music festivals held in Australia in 1995. It was organised by a consortium of concert promoters, Michael Coppell, Michael Chugg and Michael Gudinski and backed by the Triple M radio network as an alternative to the Big Day Out. The event was held in three cities over the Easter long weekend: Brisbane on April 13 and 14, Sydney on April 15 and Melbourne on April 16.

The festival had an excellent line up but suffered when both headlining acts, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Stone Temple Pilots, withdrew from the event. Lou Reed was added to the bill in their place but without the show's main drawcards, ticket sales were slow. Unlike the Big Day Out, which featured various local acts at each city, Alternative Nation's line-up was the same at all three events, except in Brisbane where four more Australian bands, Budd, Catfish, Dreamkillers and Chalk were included. Somewhat cynically, however, all of the Australian bands that performed in Melbourne and Sydney, except Def FX, were relegated to smaller stages away from the main performance area.

The Sydney show was marked by constant rain throughout the day that transformed the venue, Eastern Creek Raceway, into a mudbowl and several bands were pelted with mud by the audience. Live's Ed Kowalczyk retaliated to this behaviour by throwing a guitar into the crowd at the end of his band's set. Along with the bad weather at all three shows, Alternative Nation's success was tempered by poor ticket sales and restrictions on alcohol sales and it was never held again.