Pako Festa
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Pako Festa

In a similar way to how the whole community comes together to celebrate multicultural Australia at Pako Festa, the seven members of Sol Nation combine to create an album and tour as one of the most functional bands in Australia.

“Paulo and I write the songs and everybody contributes and puts their own stamp on things – it works like a community I guess,” lead guitarist Colin Badger says.

“We just go out on the road and have a good time. You often hear stories about bands that don’t get on well and I find that quite strange because that doesn’t happen with us.”

With such a large band made up of Colin and Paulo Almeida (lead vocals), Deline Briscoe (vocals/guitar), Ann Metry (bass), Mark Grunden (drums), Jeremy Bennett (keyboard) and Zeca (percussion), it’s a wonder there aren’t any issues when the seven members are squeezed onto a tour bus to head on the road.

Instead, the band’s large size allows them to take multiple different influences from each member and create a sound that transverses the genres of reggae, funk, Latin, Afro-beat and Calypso.

It’s only fitting that with such a diverse cultural sound the band are headlining Pako Festa, hitting the Diversitat stage at 6.30pm.

As many locals will know, Pako Festa is the largest free celebration of cultural diversity in Australia. Each year since its inception in 1983, the event has gathered hundreds of people from Geelong’s local and cultural communities to bring the street of Pakington alive with the sounds, sights and flavours of the world. With each new year bigger than the last.

Up to 100,000 people head along on the day, enjoying in the many activities from the parade itself to the workshops, exhibits, live music and more.

While Colin may be from Melbourne, he’s been lucky enough to experience the wonders of the day via past performances on stage. This year he hopes to witness the main event of the morning parade.

“We do a lot of multicultural events and it’s always a lot of fun because there’s different things to do and a huge array of bands displaying different cultural music,” Colin says as the band currently make the trip to Canberra for the National Multicultural Festival.

“Hopefully this year I can get down [to Pako Festa] a bit earlier and experience everything.”

While Colin has a Scottish and Irish heritage, it’s his love for music in general that he brings to Sol Nation and what draws him to events like Pako Festa.

“My father was a classical musician so I guess there’s a big European influence with the classical music there – until I discovered rock ‘n’ roll which brought me onto things like reggae and Latin American rhythms. Everything gets all mixed up which is what Sol Nation is all about,” he says.

His introduction to performing in the rock ‘n’ roll world came in the early ’90s when he joined the Painters and Dockers – a band he is still with today, juggling the sounds of rock along with the diverse sounds of Sol Nation.

“I guess I wear different hats, to me it’s all music and it’s either good or it isn’t. The Painters and Dockers is the old school music thing where I play different guitars and different music. With Sol Nation I get to play differently again and that helps keep everything interesting,” Colin says of his diverse band roles.

“That’s probably what’s helped keep me going. If I had to do the same thing every night it’d get really boring. I don’t know how the Rolling Stones are still playing ‘Satisfaction’ every night, they’ve been doing that for 50 odd years, if I had to do that it’d drive me crazy!”

While there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of classic rock ‘n’ roll, you won’t be finding any of that at Pako Festa. Instead you’ll hear a broad range of music from the likes of Dog Gone South, Which Witch is Which, Andrea Robinson and more.

Also lined up for the day are guest appearances from contestants on Channel 7’s MKR, Costa Georgiadis from ABC’s Gardening Australia program and the popular Carmen Miranda Bar set up for another year showcasing food and wine from Clyde Park Vineyard Bistro, Furphy Beer, delicious Paella from Paellamigos, Coffee from Pako’s local 63 degrees cafe and entertainment until 8.30pm.

If you’d like to be fully prepared for Pako Festa, be sure to head to the website (www.pakofesta.com.au) and download the free app.

Written by Valerie Vatoosh

When & Where: 9am-5pm on Pakington St, Geelong West – February 27