Laurence Kain has been keeping Canberrans watered, fed and entertained for 20 years. Photos: Supplied.
Don’t get me wrong.
Like the rest of Canberra, I love Capital Brewing Co.
But when I got the chance to sit down with brewery co-founder Laurence Kain after he was inducted into the Australian Hospitality Association’s ACT Hall of Fame, I really only wanted to talk about one thing: Foreshore Summer Music Festival.
Because long before he was brewing beer by the million litres, Kain was the bloke behind a legendary annual dance music event that brought some of the world’s biggest DJs to our quiet capital.
I wanted stories that people never knew about Foreshore. Here’s what he told me.
Man, we danced right out of our soaking-wet thongs in 2007. Photo: Facebook.
1. The money they made at Foreshore 2007 had to be put in a clothes dryer so they could count it
Laurence: Sneaky Sound System was headlining at the height of Pictures‘ chart run. Crazy rain came down that day, the biggest recorded rainfall ever for 1 December. The punters loved it, and it made a very memorable event, swimming around in the mud.
It was pre-debit card at events, and all the money was so wet we actually had to use a clothes dryer to dry it out before we could count it.
If you weren’t drenched at Foreshore 2007, are you even Canberran? Photo: Facebook.
On the bump out of the festival, we bogged tractors, then the tractors sent to get the trucks out got bogged. Forklifts got bogged.
We gave Commonwealth Place an absolute flogging. The entire site was pretty much destroyed, but we repaired it and kept the event going.
Crowd control was a huge part of Foreshore, which drew 20,000 punters from across the region. Photo: AP Photography
2. Someone forgot to put water in the chicane water barriers at Foreshore 2008, and there was almost a crush
Laurence: We had The Presets headlining at the height of My People in the charts. We knew the Commonwealth Place bowl would become a crush zone, so we put in chicane water barriers at the entry to manage crowd weight coming down toward the stage, but … the head of security responsible for them forgot to fill them with water.
The crush started, and I was there because we knew it would be where crowd management might get spicy. And it got really spicy.
With the crush of people, the barriers started sliding, trapping people between these massive water barriers. Thankfully everyone was fine, but there was about 10 minutes of pure panic, and I came close to calling in on the radio to pull the stage.
Foreshore 2008 was a step change in the event’s size and scale. It required much more planning and carried greater risk.
Laurence Kain in 2008, in his mid-20s and one of the biggest music promoters in the nation. Photo: Supplied.
This was an intensely stressful year, and I remember having panic attacks leading into it. Without my now-wife, Mayuri, helping me through this mentally, I am not sure if that festival would have made it.
It was our first Big Top year, and Bloody Beetroots were headlining that stage. I’d never project managed a Big Top going up. When the guy arrived, he came with this excavator and 2.2-metre tent pegs that had to go into the ground. I hadn’t planned for this at all.
I ended up having to give the guys from Gemena and ACTEW some free VIP tickets to be on site when the pegs went in because they were positioned between the water and gas mains feeding Parliament House. And they were only 1.2 metres apart. The pegs went into the ground in this gap. I was sweating bullets in a big way.
Dutch DJ Tiesto live on stage at Foreshore in 2010. Photo: Facebook.
3. Tiesto refused to go on until the team did a 3% change in speaker angle
Laurence: By 2010, we were partnering with Stereosonic on the lineup, and we had private jets flying backwards and forwards between Sydney and Canberra. One set of artists would play early at Stereo, then fly down on a private jet to play Foreshore in the afternoon, or vice versa.
We had Tiesto on early that year, maybe third act, on the Big Top stage. We had about 20,000 tickets sold. So the gates are ready, I’m on the radio at the gates ready to call it open and get word Tiesto’s team are not happy with the angles of the line-array speakers.
$80,000 worth of lights, just for Tiesto. Photo: Facebook
The production team had to drop the speakers from the rig, change the speaker angles by 3%, and fly them back in. Doors opened 30 minutes late for a 3% change in speaker angle.
There’s a reason Tiesto’s production is the best. We had $80,000 worth of lights in the rig just specified for him that weren’t permitted to be used by any of the earlier artists. When Tiesto got on stage, the whole thing lit up. It was unreal.
YOUR ALL NEW ‘EVERYTHING’ FITNESS OASIS
Train. Recover. Reform. Rest.
Only after he performed did Gotye discover he’d been robbed. Photo: Andy Vermeulen.
4. They managed to piss off the nicest man on the planet: Gotye
Laurence: 2011 was my last year running Foreshore. Headlined by Gotye at the height of Somebody That I Used to Know and Avicii at the height of Levels in the charts. Gotye’s backstage changeroom was broken into and his laptop was stolen. He’s a really nice dude, but I remember he was super pissed about it and I felt terrible.
It was also the last time I would put on Avicii. RIP Tim, you were one of the best to do it and one of the nicest dudes.
Imagine partying with Salt-N-Pepa at The Lobby after their event!? Photo: Andy Vermeulen.
5. They had to pay for a total of six weddings at The Lobby
Laurence: I’ve had to pay for six weddings at The Lobby. They were on our stakeholder approval list for Foreshore, and they didn’t love that this noisy festival was going to come and mess up a bride’s big day, so we booked the place out for lunch and dinner on the event days and used it as our communal green room. The artists were very well fed! (They also had private green rooms.)
The Lobby turned into a pretty fun backstage party vibe with some of the biggest names in music globally partying there after their sets. Salt-N-Pepa were particularly memorable characters!
Some of the biggest nights were at Academy. Peking Duk played frequently and tore the place apart when they were a couple of young lads working in a cafe before they blew up.
Ah, 2010 fashion. I miss you. Girls in the Foreshore crowd. Photo: Facebook
6. They hung 2 km of streamers for one very special act
Laurence: One time we decided to hang two kilometres of red streamers vertically in the truss for Fake Blood, who were huge at the time. It was one of the most epic productions we’ve done.
We also used to put on Warehouse in the AIS Arena. That one was more of a massive warehouse rave with some huge artists. We put on Skrillex, LMFAO, Deadmau5, Martin Solveig, Wynter Gordon, Steve Angello, MSTRKRFT over a few lineups there.
LMFAO playing Foreshore in 2011. Photo: Andy Vermeulen
The AIS Arena was perfect for that festival. We really lit that place up and the team there was great to work with.
In addition to Laurence being inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 2026 Australian Hospitality ACT Awards, Capital Brewing Co. won Best Environmental/Sustainability Practices and Best Event Concept and Delivery, while Lager House (owned by Capital Brewing Co.) was named Best New or Redeveloped Venue, Best Steak, Best Parmi and joint winner of Best Draught Beer Quality.
