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Annie McLoughlin, Booking Agent/ Holy Pavlova
WELCOME TO GOOD CHATS. I SAT DOWN MYSELF AT THE START OF THIS YEAR TO REALLY GET ALIGNED WITH MY VALUES AND FIGURE OUT SOME DIRECTION AND WHAT FELT IMPORTANT TO ME. I REALISED NOTHING FIRES ME UP MORE THAN WORKING WITH, AND CHATTING TO OTHER CREATIVES. I FEEL VERY LUCKY TO KNOW AND WORK WITH THIS OH SO KIND, PASSIONATE, AND BUBBLY LADY, ANNIE. IT FELT VERY NATURAL TO BRING HER IN HERE FOR 001.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR ROLE WITH HOLY PAVLOVA FOR ME? IN WHATEVER TERMS YOU LIKE!
My role at Pav is a bit of an ever-changing one. My main realm would be programming the weekly live music for a bunch of different venues like pubs/cafes etc. I also assist in some band bookings for certain events which is really fun - involves going down a lot of artist research rabbit holes and often leads to new music which is sick. Then another big part is assisting in the delivery of all our own events and festivals. This involves the setup and pack down of the spaces as well as jumping on the door/bar/liasion work. Basically a huge melting pot of stoke, bookings and good tunes.
WHEN/ WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOU GET TO BE THE MOST CREATIVE OR EXPRESSIVE IN YOUR WORK? WHAT GIVES YOU THAT BUZZ?
I am super blessed to work in an environment that is really open and creative, honestly all ideas are always encouraged so I fortunately have creative expression in most elements of the role. I'd say having input in the curation of the lineup and producing music that I think will land with a certain space and demographic is fun. I also really really enjoy event days where I'm tasked with bringing the vision to life. Every tiny detail I get to play with from the bar lighting, plants, disco balls, you name it. Pav tends to gravitate toward spaces where you wouldn't typically expect live music to be which makes the job of pulling the space together visually really fun. Seeing your vision—from the lineup to the decor—come together and be received well by a bunch of sick people is a pretty incomparable buzz.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS MEANINGFUL ABOUT YOUR WORK? WHERE DO YOU SEE THE BIGGEST POSITIVE IMPACTS IN COMMUNITY?
Instantly when I read this question my brain went "connection". Every time I work one of our events I seem to walk away with a very familiar buzz, and through time I've come to realise its literally me riding the high of human love and connection in its simplest form, which has such a strong presence at all of our shows. Knowing I get to play a part in creating and fostering that for people is beyond fkn cool. Art truly is everything. And music can expose a really vulnerable side of people in an incredibly empowering way. Whether its through dancing/rhythm or even just connecting to the words and story of the song, good live music just seems to unleash something in people. Its such a privilege to work in a role that allows me to be a witness to that with so many cool humans across so many different environments. You start the event as strangers and leave more connected than when you entered regardless of your similarities or differences - I think that's pretty meaningful.
WHAT DOES YOUR ROLE MOSTLY ENTAIL? POV ANNIE FOR A DAY?
We work from a really cool co-working space so the day always starts with a coffee and delegation of who's on tunes for the day. Task wise, throughout the week its all admin/laptop time. Just communicating with our venues and artists to ensure all neceesarry dates have been booked, ensuring people have all of the info needed for their gigs, staying ahead of event bookings in the cal, bit of social media stuff etc. We are also focusing on expanding to some newer areas so at the moment its also a lot of venue and artist research outside of the Illawarra which is really exciting.
Event days I basically become a fortified furniture removalist. Loading the cars with all the event gear, unpacking it all at the event space, greeting all the artists on arrival, setting up the bar, manning the door and setting the vibes for punters (always a good boogie thrown in there), then packing it all down till the next time.
Always a lot of music, caffeine and laughs regardless though.
SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE MIGHT BE SURPRISED ABOUT IN YOUR ROLE/ INDUSTRY?
We're all broke ha. Nah I think the events world could potentially be a tad glamourised from the outside looking in. For all the really cool parts, there's a lot of pretty brutal hours, always on your feet, an ungodly amount of last minute cancellations, heavy lifting of so much gear (takes way more than you think to make a space look cool). Its the best job ever but don't get me wrong it has its fair share of bathroom cleaning and ciggie butt clean ups for sure.
Fav or proudest work moment from 2025?
Would be almost impossible to choose between two. 2025 was when I started to feel as though I was really coming into my own at Holy Pav. Bloomfield last year was definitely a big one. Just ended up having way more responsibility and had to make decisions/ do things I didn't really have to in the first year - was an absolute mammoth few days and Harry and I were running off like 3 hours sleep each day so showing up and achieving what we did was a very big moemnt for sure. I remember at one point on the last night I just took myself to the back of the crowd and just sat watching, immersed in this joy going on around me and it was this insane rush of pride I'd never really felt before.
I also was fortunate enough to curate and run a sensory stage/ program at PK Fez last year. It was a crazy merge of my two worlds and having free rein to get creative and provide a safe yet still cool and geuinely fun space for our sensory sensitive punters was truly a dream. There was so much beautiful feedback on the space and the current need for it in our industry, which sparked some really cool conversations amongst people.
Curating events is a lil different to other creative fields. I'm wondering if you can identify any creative processes/ what do you think is creative about your work? I imagine a lot of problem solving?
Coming back to that concept of the overall vision and experience, each event is so different and to produce quality shows on often really limited budgets you just have to get so creative in finding new ways to appeal to your punters. For Bloom we have a "Purple Cow" section of our spreadsheet where we'll dump the roguest ideas of what might be a memorable moment at the fez. I personally can get super in my head about creative expression and second guess my ideas a lot, so this is a really easy and non - confronting way of throwing all my ideas out there.
A big part is also finding the right spaces, and the best process I've learnt for this is to just always ask. We've literally walked into a running/shoe store we thought looked cool for an event as we walked past, and just chatted to see if they'd let us run some music there - always ask and act on your visions, worst case you just get told no and try something different! Taking risks with the spaces, elements of the lineup, and smaller details/surprises you can throw into the event is where the creative magic really seems to happen.
Most importantly - What keeps you in this work, or what is this work giving to YOU!?
Honestly so much I could talk on this topic for days. This work really has played such a significant part in my journey the past few years and has truly shaped the young woman I am. It's taught me to express myself in whatever way feels authentic, and to do it with confidence and freedom. It also really has been such an eye opener to how many beautiful humans there are out there who are so ready and willing to connect and welcome you in. I have made so many friends and experienced moments that have just reminded me to find the joy, dance, sing, and just trust the power of good people who feel safe to show up in their purest form. Providing a space and experience for people to do this, whilst also being able to experience that feeling for myself, and then call it work, is just so surreal.
Soundtrack
Recently my focus has been to just find the joy in the simple, mundane moments. I feel like this time of year its easy to fall into the pre winter slump so I'm really trying to focus on finding the joy / gratitude in the smallest little moments of my everyday routines. Whether it's the drive to work, my morning coffee, the sunset on the drive home. So most of the music I'm gravitating to at the moment is stuff that just makes me smile and wanna dance. 3 songs I'm playing heaps at the moment that align with that are:
Blossoms - honestly any song from their Fooling Loving Spaces album, but they also just released a new track called "Joke About Divorce" and I'm bloody rinsing it.
Going Gets Tough - The Growlers (perfect song to drive with the windows down to)
Dance Now - Girl and Girl. I've seen this live twice with the same friends and it was so much fun, We were just being idiots and having the best time so its one of those songs attached to a really nice memory now - also it actually does just always makes me wanna dance.