Housing Boom: Culture Starters

Setting the tone for 2025, Housing Boom is back with a bang. Here, co-founder Dave Kameniar chats club music, culture and community ahead of the January 11 event.

Interview by Zara Richards | Photos by Jack Fenby

You’re back this weekend with an all-day dance party. For those who haven’t been to a Housing Boom before, what’s the vibe of your events?

For those who haven’t been to a Housing Boom event before, you can expect a day and night of great music, high-level production and a sense of community. Housing Boom has its roots in club culture, so whilst we’re now a pop-up boutique festival, there are still club elements ingrained in our events.

We started the brand in 2018 with a vision to create safe and inclusive events that push underground dance music artists. First as monthly club event at Biggies at Bertram and Lotus Lounge, it then becoming a monthly staple night at Sugar nightclub for a few years, bringing a bunch of touring acts to Adelaide.  

In 2020, we decided to move things up a gear, scaling into the pop-up festival style event that we’re currently more known for, with a focus on activating unique spaces around Adelaide. Over the years we feel we’ve built a strong and welcoming community around Housing Boom.

Ben UFO is headlining the event. Tell us more about who he is – what interested you in him? What is he bringing to the event?

We’re excited to have Ben UFO for this one. He doesn’t need a lot of introduction, but for those who aren’t familiar with him, he hails from the UK and heads up the label Hessle Audio (co-founded with Pearson Sound and Pangaea). He plays a wide range of music in his sets, ranging from club music to techno and house music, right through to dub-step, drum n bass and all other realms of the dance music spectrum really. Over the years he has become a dance festival staple, playing peak slots and closing some of the biggest dance music festivals on the global stage.

I think he’s going to add another element to this next Housing Boom — expect an exciting set full of driving club music with unique and exploratory sounds that push the boundaries of modern club music. Trust me, don’t miss this one.

Beside Ben UFO, what act are you most interested in catching? Who do you think will surprise people the most ?

Pretty Girl is a Housing Boom favourite — she played live for one of our previous events at the Freemason’s Hall, which was a really cool performance from her, [but] his time she’s playing a DJ set. She is always super high energy. We’re also excited to host DAWS from Melbourne. we’ve been following her for a while now, and I think her set will be a bit of a wildcard one to watch.

I think people will also be interested to get down earlier in the afternoon and see the cast of locals on support including xxxquisite (who is doing cool things around Adelaide at the moment) and snakecharmerr, who is one of Adelaide’s finest selectors (and record store curator at Closer in Glenelg). Housing Boom residents Phil 4 Real, Yunny and I will be rounding out the day, too.

The live music industry is undergoing major changes right now, but boutique events like Housing Boom are integral to the culture. What do you want Housing Boom to bring to our local scene?

It’s been an interesting shift to watch, not just in Australia, but globally too. Electronic, and dance music more broadly, has experienced a major uptick in popularity these past few years, with lots of festivals trying to ride that wave. Some larger scale festivals are struggling while other smaller scale ones are thriving.

There are a lot of things that play into it, and maybe cost of living is one of those things — I think a lot of people are being a bit more conscious about where they spend their money and their time, and if they can see a real sense of community and purpose about an event, I believe they’re more inclined to support it.

One thing we’ve tried to focus on is bringing world-class acts to Adelaide and providing a safe and inclusive party environment, with high-level production elements at an affordable price point. At the crux, that’s what has been and remains important to us. I think people can see that it is genuine, and that’s what has led to a sense of community.

From your position, what do you hope for the future of underground music in SA? How would you like to see it evolve?

I’d definitely like to see this growth in the underground community continue. It’s been cool to see new events and collectives starting to establish themselves and continue to fly the flag for underground dance music. As the scene continues to grow, it will be important that the community focus remains, and that collectives continue to collaborate and work together to keep Adelaide on the map.

It would also be good to see better access to grants and funding support from local and state government for grassroots events. Often, a lot of small-scale events are bootstrapping their events and taking significant financial risks. There is some funding available, but I think we need to see more of it and better awareness around how to access that funding.

What advice would you give people in the local scene who want to start community-orientated collectives/events like Housing Boom?

Start by going out to shows [and] meeting people, working out where you might be able to fit in, and what you can offer the scene. In my view, the more people going out, supporting the local scene and contributing to it the better.

Over the years with Housing Boom, we’ve learned a lot about the importance of building relationships in Adelaide and abroad, all of which have enabled us to continue to put on the types of events that we want. We’ve also learned the importance of communicating and collaborating with other collectives and events, because a music scene of crews working together is way stronger than one where everyone is working against one another.

We certainly don’t know it all, and we’re constantly learning and responding to changes in the market, but the more you can get out there, meet people and have a go the better chance you’re going to have at doing it well and enjoying yourself in the process. Because that’s what it is all about right?

Housing Boom returns this January 11, presenting Ben UFO, Pretty Girl and DAWS alongside a cast of local acts, such as xxxquisite and snakecharmerr. The event takes place at Frome Park/Nellie Raminyemmerin Park and final release tickets are on sale now. You can purchase them here.