Soft Centre: leading experimental arts, discourse and music festival
- Elle Young
- Aug 25
- 4 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Born from the warehouse rave scene in Sydney/Eora’s Marrickville, Soft Centre has been curating genre bending, cross disciplinary events within remarkable public architecture since 2017. This year's festival is the most ambitious yet for Soft Centre, who will host a plethora of performances across multiple venues, including the heritage listed White-Bay Power Station. Elle was able to catch up with founders Jemma Cole and Thorsten Hertog over Zoom a few weeks out from the 2025 season.
Read the interview in full below.
SOFT CENTRE, INTERVIEW By Elle Young
"Soft Centre is the most ambitious project we’ve ever taken on, moving to a multi-venue, multi-day format. It’s a huge undertaking, especially at White Bay Power Station”
When you’re in such a hectic production period, do you have any rituals or routines that help you manage the workload?
We’ve been doing this for eight years now, so it’s more about trying to make the work sustainable and stay healthy. Honestly, the main ritual is just being in the office from 9AM to 8PM every day—it’s brutal. Soft Centre is the most ambitious project we’ve ever taken on, moving to a multi-venue, multi-day format. It’s a huge undertaking, especially at White Bay Power Station, which is a heritage building with no infrastructure. We literally have to power everything with generators.
Do you feel like you’re constantly learning on the job?
Absolutely. Everyone on the team wears multiple hats. Each year brings new lessons, but this year is unique because of the scale of White Bay and its heritage-listed context. We’re one of the first events of this kind to work there, and while the venue has hosted things like Ministry of Sound and Heaps Gay, what we’re doing is very different. The venue has been incredibly supportive, and it feels like we’re learning together.
"It’s been through so many stages—once an electricity factory, then dormant for decades, used for films like The Matrix and The Great Gatsby, almost turned into Google offices, and now reimagined as a cultural hub.”
Venue seems integral to Soft Centre. Why are particular sites so important to the festival’s identity?
White Bay is our dream canvas. From day one, we’ve been drawn to decommissioned industrial sites like power stations and train yards. The history is palpable in the walls. White Bay, for example, still has machinery from the early 20th century preserved inside. It’s been through so many stages—once an electricity factory, then dormant for decades, used for films like The Matrix and The Great Gatsby, almost turned into Google offices, and now reimagined as a cultural hub. Our programming is always site-responsive. We consider the architecture, the industrial past, and the land itself. First Nations programming is central. This year, robotics and prosthetics feature heavily—fitting themes given the venue’s industrial history and our current “AI moment.”
How do you want audiences to experience Soft Centre?
It’s not a lineup-driven festival. It’s about discovery. The space is designed like a multi-room, multi-level playground. Attending Soft Centre is like a choose-your-own-adventure: you might see a 10-hour endurance performance, marvel at a huge installation, or dance to 200 BPM music from Tanzania. The venue shapes the journey, and every attendee has a unique experience.
Has Soft Centre sparked collaborations between artists who met at the festival?
Yes, absolutely. For instance, visual artist and musician Serwah Attafuah worked with us on a mixed reality live performance with sound artists and a dancer in a motion-capture suit. That collaboration has shaped her practice going forward.
Another example is spoken word artist Brian Fuata, who collaborated with sound artists Matt Spisbah and Archie Barry at Soft Centre. That partnership has continued beyond the festival. We also curated a collaboration between noise artist Female Wizard and creative technologists Pseudo, resulting in a unique mixed-media AV performance.
Soft Centre is often the platform where artists from different disciplines come together for the first time to create something completely new.
Many festivals are shutting down, but Soft Centre continues. How do you reflect on that?
We’re proud of our longevity, but it’s precarious. We’ve survived through COVID, thanks in part to public funding and the dedication of our community. Unlike major festivals backed by Live Nation, state tourism agencies, or wealthy patrons, we’re a DIY grassroots organisation. That independence gives us agility and the freedom to pursue bold, experimental ideas.
"We aim to diversify our audiences. The festival began in the Marrickville warehouse party scene, but over seven years our interests and community have expanded.”
You mentioned this year was your most ambitious yet, with the festival crossing over multiple venues. Was that your intention programming wise for 2025?
We wanted to define Soft Centre as a destination festival. Sydney is an amazing city to visit, and we wanted Soft Centre to be the reason people travel here.
The program is compartmentalised: White Bay for the large-scale festival experience, Paracinema for expanded cinema at Chauvel Cinema and Discourse for theory and discussion.
We aim to diversify our audiences. The festival began in the Marrickville warehouse party scene, but over seven years our interests and community have expanded. While we still honour those roots (there’s even a late-night warehouse party after White Bay), we now embrace experimental bands, AV concerts, deep listening, and critical discourse.
Looking ahead, what do you see for Soft Centre’s future?
It’s demanding work, and we’ve thought about possible futures: maybe doing it forever, maybe passing the baton, maybe building toward a succession model like experimental festivals in Europe that have lasted 20+ years. Our hope is that Soft Centre can have that kind of longevity in Australia.
SOFT CENTRE 2025 will take place from 28–31 August across multiple iconic venues in Sydney/Eora, including White Bay Power Station, Chauvel Cinema, St Barnabas Church, and City of Sydney Creative Studios. Each venue will host different parts of the festival — from workshops and discourse programs to full-scale multi stage festival day’s, concerts and installations. For full program details, venue access info, and event timings, please visit the Program page.