 Sunset Events was born out of a love of music, arts and the environment. The mission was simple but decisive: introduce a completely new brand of events to Western Australia that put an equal emphasis on the cultural and educational experience as they do the music. And do it all knowing that we have a responsibility to recognise the fragility of the environment and our impact, as promoters and punters. So, with the ideology nailed, the constructing began. |
 The blueprint for Sunset Events came to farm-boy, dreamer and executer David Chitty in 1997 when he launched Sunset Cinema, an outdoor cinema experience. By 1998 Sydney lawyer and self-confessed culture-junkie Andrew Chernov had joined Chitty as a co-director of Sunset Events and in that year Sunset Cinema started its debut season at Cave’s House in Yallingup. In 1999 Sunset Cinema made its important move into Perth’s beautiful King’s Park, and quickly developed into an institution for film-lovers. |
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The company’s first major multi-act concert was 2002’s Eclectic in King’s Park, continued in 2003. 2003 also saw another WA lad and big beat aficionado, James Legge, return to the state after years in London and Sydney working in the banking sector to become the third director of Sunset Events. |
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The Sunset team had also been intensely drafting plans for another festival to be held in the south west of WA, moulded on the music and camping festival experiences of Europe, that embraced wider cultural and environmental themes.
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The West Coast Blues ’n’ Roots Festival took a monumental turn in 2005 with its move to the inspired port city of Fremantle, where it remains today. 2005 was also the year that ignited the festival’s first sell out.
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While Southbound and the West Coast Blues ’n’ Roots Festivals continue to redefine the word ‘festival’ in Western Australia with their unique approach, Sunset Events has been headhunted to represent some of the most respected international concert promoters in WA – resulting in more memorable days and nights of song for the state. |
However, both Chitty and Chernov had also harboured long-term plans to gradually steer their company into the nether nethers of music. What started off as small acoustic performances before film screenings soon developed into full-scale concert performances.
In 2004 the inaugural West Coast Blues ’n’ Roots Festival came to King’s Park, starring none other than the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. It had always been Sunset Events’ plan to deliver a sophisticated yet casual festival to match the demographic and climate of Western Australia, and in the Blues ’n’ Roots it was realised. The company now moved away from film to concentrate purely on music.
The Southbound Festival was born in January 2005, in Busselton. With its humble beginnings as the fresh face on the block, Southbound quickly grew to include camping in 2006 and in 2007 – only the festival’s third year – sold out six weeks in advance, with 20,000 punters and 8,000 campers. The 2008 festival sold out again in record time and truly inked Southbound on the cultural landscape of WA and the world.
By 2007 Sunset Events had achieved a dream by seeing the West Coast Blues ’n’ Roots Festival go multi-day, and the reaction was amazing with the festival selling out – all 30,000 tickets! And 2008 was equally successful in the unique two-day format.