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Getting to know Alpaca Events with Connor and Paige

Posted on: 10 Oct 2022

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Getting to know is our interview series where we interview Bristol's brightest and best - from community organisations, to venues, and everyone in between.

This week, we went to everyone's favourite not-for-profit punk haven, Exchange, to chat with Connor & Paige from Alpaca Events.

 

What is Alpaca Events, and what do you do?

 

PAIGE:

We’re Alpaca Events, we host gigs around Bristol for grassroots artists and bands. We have two main principles: the first is accessibility for everyone, including audience and bands – we kind of go over all the genres, so everyone has a chance. And paying our artists fairly, we think is very important.

 

Our second principle is professionalism, going by the book so we’re taken a bit more seriously. We just want to be good at what we do, and thought we’d start professionally from the beginning.

 

CONNOR:

Yeah, we just didn’t want to mess anyone about at the start. We wanted to keep the tickets affordable: instead of paying like £10 when you’re going out, we keep them at about a fiver.

 

We’re in the middle of working out a loyalty scheme at the moment, so previous artists can then come to the gigs for a set price, people who are working at the venues we’ve hired, they can all come for the same price as artists as well. It’s just about bringing people, and building a community.

 

How did Alpaca come together?

 

CONNOR:

Well, it all started from Alpaca Dreads, which was my indie folk duo. After my musical career slowed down, I chose to branch out and use the Alpaca logo, the Alpaca brand, and build it into a promotion company – so we could get all different genres in; because I love rock, metal, post-punk, which is where we started.

 

I was just working with different teams, and I really enjoyed working with certain companies, like Output Promotions – I did a couple with them. But then you see how some people work, and the communication could be a bit annoying.

 

It originally started with me and my friend Joe, we were doing this one event and it took far too long, so we just went: “Shall we just do it ourselves?” We just started doing it, and then reached out to Paige, because I knew she had lots of experience in events, knew she’d want to get involved. The team just kept building from there really.

 

Where does “Alpaca” in the name come from?

 

CONNOR:

It was a few years ago now. I was jamming with a friend, playing guitar and piano – and he was like “Aw, I really like your dreads, man.” I said “Ah, thanks”. He said “My Alpaca’s got dreads”. I was like “Oh, that’s quite cool, I need to come see them Alpacas”.

 

After my mates, they were like “You need to call yourself Alpaca Dreads.” I thought it did beat some of the names I was thinking of at the time; they were not good names, in the slightest. So Alpaca Dreads, it just stuck from there.

 

Do you remember any of the failed names?

 

Ah, god yeah...It was all from my outdoor education days, so it was like “Something Endless” or “Endless Summer” – I couldn’t call myself that, it’s just too cheesy, isn’t it? So, Alpaca Dreads – once the logo was done it was just perfect. But, ironically, now I have no dreads.

 

 

What are some of the venues you’ve been working with – what’s it been like?

 

PAIGE:

A bunch of them, really. We’ve done The Crown, Exchange, Crofter’s [Rights], Cosies, Mr Wolfs, Art Club. Connor did a Ukraine benefit gig in Elephant House. There’s another one coming up on the twenty-third. Which we’re not hosting, but are involved with.

 

CONNOR:

Yeah, it started off all at The Crown. That was our first gig there, and then we thought “Right, where’s the next place in mind? Well, it’s either the Exchange or Crofter’s.”

 

It’s just about finding your venue where you wanna be the most. Because Crofter’s is great, and we’ve been putting on a load more gigs there. It’s ideal for us because our uni is just down the road from there as well – but then the Exchange has always been nice; because of their music I’ve come here a lot as a gig-goer, so it fits with us well.

 

What about acts – any highlights or personal favourites?

 

PAIGE:

My personal favourite is the first one I got involved with, in the Exchange basement. We had Sunshine Blues opening, followed by Holy Reptile and Electric Effigy – then Foot Foot headlined. We sold out before doors opened, which was super exciting. I was like “Woah – is this what it’s like?”.

 

Then, when Sunshine Blues came on – which is another one of our business partners, Ollie, it’s his band. He’s been a diamond absolutely all the way through, so we wanted it to be a good turnout – the room was basically empty. So I was absolutely...not going to swear, but I was not feeling great about it.

 

Then by the time Foot Foot came on, we were talking about hiring a bigger venue because the turnout was so good. It was just that moment when we were all standing at the back and we were just like: “This is why we do it, man!”

 

CONNOR:

I’ve had a couple, Foot Foot was definitely a big highlight because it was our first sold-out gig.

 

Quite quick after, we had quite a busy week, because we had three gigs in one week – we had Crofter’s, we were asked to be promoters for Folio at Mr Wolfs, and then we teamed up with a new label called ‘Ridonkulous’. The Shlug gig was amazing, that was Crofter’s room two – I was just stood at the back, the same feeling as when we did the basement. Just like: “Wow. This is sweaty. This is amazing”.

 

Got another one coming up with Ridonkulous, just in talks at the moment so I won’t give too much away...As of yet.

 

Back to Alpacas – favourite things about Alpacas, any fun facts you know?

 

CONNOR:

I follow a couple Instagram pages, picked them up over time. Just because they’re funny to watch – I don’t know if anyone watches Alpacas, but they’re just the funniest creatures.

 

When I started, everyone was like “Oh, you must love Alpacas”, and I would say “I...don’t. I have no connection with an Alpaca”. Until I started following some Alpaca pages and they’re just incredible. It’s the way they bounce, they run...and then they can be a bit aggressive to people. They’ve spat on someone we know. We weren’t there, we won’t mention names…

 

But yeah, they’re just happy creatures, y’know? Just bobbing around.

 

PAIGE:

I took my godchildren to a farm once, with Alpacas, but they were really really far away and we couldn’t see them. Then my goddaughter – and I thought this was absolute genius – she asked me to get my phone out, and play some Alpaca calling noises.

 

We did, and they came right up to us – and they weren’t spitting on us or anything. It was one of those moments where I was just like: “You’re gonna be a genius when you’re older.”

 

I think when we eventually get a venue – if and when – you know how some people have a pub cat, or a pub dog? We should have a pub Alpaca.

 

CONNOR:

Can you imagine? If we can’t get a real Alpaca we’ve got to get an Alpaca slide. That’d be amazing.

 

PAIGE:

He could be on the door.

 

 

What’s your take on Bristol’s music scene?

 

CONNOR:

It’s just amazing, you’ve got these big bands coming out of Bristol. At the moment you’ve got Idles, you’ve got Heavy Lungs – that’s the punk scene of it. Look at Katy J Pearson as well. Just so many eyes on Bristol all the time, it’s incredible.

 

When you go down to the grassroots level, it’s just bands everywhere. Fighting different promoters – well, not *fighting* different promoters – competing against different promoters to get different bands, different venues. It’s such a competitive world, that it’s thriving every day. Every day and night there’s something going on.

 

PAIGE:

Absolutely. I’d say the level of the music scene in general, with the lockdown – even though it’s unfortunate that a lot of people have had to step down from being musicians, because of funds and whatnot – it’s made a lot of room for the people who were practising during lockdown to get into the scene. There’s a lot of leeway, and people are more desperate to find new acts because of the lack of music over two years. It’s a bittersweet situation, but overall I think we’ve adapted well.

 

CONNOR:

It’s a pretty open city for artists as well. It’s such a welcoming city. Look at all the open mic nights that are around, people get snatched up at open mic nights, and then end up playing a half-hour set. You’ve got loads of different promoters who just want to give bands their first opportunity to play.

 

It’s just a big city that’s got a big heart.

 

PAIGE:

Yeah, I think there does need to be a little more diversity with race and gender, but I think that’s just kind of the backlash of predominantly male bands being the norm, and now we’re kind of changing out of that. It’s a lot easier to get these bands that are male, predominantly.

 

CONNOR:

We’re trying our best. It is hard, because so many bands are male dominated, but there’s a lot of bands now that are mixed now – if you look in the DJ scene as well.

 

It’s just about...trying to book female, non-binary as well. You’ve just gotta do your research, and go to different gigs, and walk around, and book people from there.

 

PAIGE:

Yeah, if you’ve got to book a line-up, and you’ve got like three days to fill that line-up, It will probably be male-dominated...but if you’ve got time and you organise your time right, you can do it.

 

Anything you want to shout out that you’ve got coming up?
 

CONNOR:

Yeah, so we’re taking over the Exchange Basement again on the 20th of October, that’s got Bad News First headlining. Minas, from Wales, he’s coming over, with Infinite Horse and Ben and Ellie’s Spaghetti Deli.

 

Great name; love Ben and Ellie’s Spaghetti Deli.

 

At the moment we’re just booking the venues for November and December – making sure we can have at least three gigs or a club night on each month. Then we’re gonna take January off because...assignments.

 

PAIGE:

Yeah, not ‘off’, just off from Alpaca.

 

 

If you were Mayor of Bristol for the day – what would you do?

 

CONNOR:

Put the bills down in venues. Waiting for all that to skyrocket at the moment, it’s not fair on venues. I think it’s about being more fair for hospitality venues as well – I just went to the Coronation, they’re having their outdoor seating taken away. It’s not just them, it’s loads of venues.

 

These people work day in, day out, it’s not very good for them...It’s about being more fair to the independent businesses Bristol has. If you’re taking that away...well, I don’t want to go work for a Spoons.

 

PAIGE:

There’s a big homelessness crisis at the moment – it would be things like: if you see a tent on the street, don’t take it down. Just little jobs like street sweeping, little jobs you can give to people so they’re not just...waiting for their money to come through – there are plenty of jobs to be done that people with no experience in anything can do.

 

Thanks guys, good luck on the 20th.

You can find Alpaca on Facebook and Instagram - if you're interested in helping venues fight to keep their outside space, you can sign the petition here.

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