Krusic's Ride Park and council
Worked between the site, event plan and public-entertainment application.
Dirt Daze Weekend.
A three-day festival across a quarry and ride park: five tracks, camping, music, food and GASTOWN.
Founder and event producer
- Task and scale
- 5–7 April 2019; planned and executed in three months
- My position
- Founder and event producer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
01 Task & scale
Task & scale
Dirt Daze grew out of conversations at Kustom Kommune about the events we wished existed. We spent plenty of time building and talking about bikes. We wanted somewhere to get out and use them, with the same fun we remembered from tearing around on BMXs as kids.
The idea was simple: bring the bike you already had and have a crack. Road bikes, café racers, choppers and posties, with room for people who had never ridden on dirt. Add camping, good bands and somewhere to sit with your mates, and make a weekend of it.
My job was to turn that idea into an event people could actually take part in. The riding, music and campsite needed to work together, with enough organisation behind them to let people relax and enjoy themselves.
3days · 5–7 April 2019
1,000+campers
360riders
5dirt tracks
02 Teams, partners & interfaces
Teams, partners & interfaces
Safety leads, medical, security and track teams
Set the operating structure and coordinated specialist plans and live responsibilities.
Sponsors, entertainment, vendors and suppliers
Joined riding, music, camping, food and temporary infrastructure into one weekend.
Riders and campers
Planned access, movement and the participant experience across the site.
Founder and event producer
Owned the concept and overall production; specialist leads retained responsibility for their disciplines.
04 My responsibility
My responsibility
I founded the event and held responsibility for taking it from concept to delivery in three months. That included the overall production plan, council liaison and permit submissions, emergency planning, sponsors, ticketing and bringing the right team together.
Production plan
Owned the event concept, council liaison, submissions and overall three-month delivery sequence.
Site and specialist teams
Brought venue, track, safety, medical, security, infrastructure and entertainment leads into one working plan.
Audience and partners
Managed sponsors, promotion, ticketing, the event website and the public experience across riding, camping and GASTOWN.
I founded the event and led overall production. Track, medical, security and other specialist leads owned their respective work.
05 Constraints & critical decisions
Constraints & critical decisions
A new festival had only three months from planning to delivery.
Decision Brought venue, council liaison, production leads, suppliers and programme into one plan.
Effect Opened a three-day riding, music and camping event.
Riding, pedestrians, camping and emergency access shared a quarry site.
Decision Prepared the event proposal, P.O.P.E submission and emergency plan with specialist operating roles.
Effect The team had a documented structure for site build and live operations; the application is not an issued permit.
06 Supporting work
Production record
These are the working documents I prepared for the event. Download them to see the detail behind the site, programme, operating roles and emergency planning. Personal phone numbers and email addresses have been removed; the original planning content is retained.
03 / From the site
Building the festival site.
We were building a temporary festival across a quarry and ride park: five riding tracks, a campsite and a separate music, food and bar area. The earthworks were a substantial part of that job. Excavators and loaders shaped the riding areas, while the wider production brought together access routes, spectator areas, temporary infrastructure and services.
The scale mattered. Riders, pedestrians, suppliers and emergency access all had to be considered across the same site. The photographs below show the ground being prepared before the event infrastructure and people arrived.
04 / Production record
The plans behind the event.
These are the working documents I prepared for the event. Download them to see the detail behind the site, programme, operating roles and emergency planning. Personal phone numbers and email addresses have been removed; the original planning content is retained.
Event proposal
The full council proposal: concept, programme, timings, capacity planning, suppliers, access, management responsibilities and the site’s operational requirements.
Download PDFP.O.P.E submission
My Places of Public Entertainment submission, covering temporary structures, safety roles, barriers, exits and amenities. This is the application document.
Download PDFEmergency management plan
The operating structure and response plans for medical incidents, fire, severe weather, crowd management, communications and evacuation.
Download PDFMedia release
The public announcement: why I created Dirt Daze, the audience it was for, the partners and the riding and music programme.
Download PDF07 Delivery & outcome
Delivery & outcome
3days · 5–7 April 2019
1,000+campers
360riders
5dirt tracks
Dirt Daze brought together 1,000+ campers and 360 riders across five dirt tracks, with music, food and bars in GASTOWN. Entrants travelled from every Australian state, with some driving more than 3,700 km to attend. It took the community out of the workshop and gave people a full weekend to ride, meet each other and enjoy what they’d built.
The post-event coverage reflects that mix. P&Co’s recap describes the range of bikes, the camping and the gathering around GASTOWN. A French write-up shares two participants’ account of riding all five types of track. That was the point of the event: people turning up with different bikes and backgrounds, then getting involved together.
08 / Gallery
The weekend.
