This is a Wheelie Bin Sound System documentary put out by ‘Howzyabin’ wheelie bins and put together by ‘Vectorpunk’ artist Peter Strong.
The doco charts the rise of the popularity of sound systems made out of wheelie rubbish bins in Sydney. The Wheelie bin sound system emerged at the beginning of the millennium when local Sydney art-ivist John Jacobs decided to make a mobile sound system utilising a wheelie bin, taking it to many protests and a Kraftwork concert at Enmore Theatre.
The 12v car stereo in the bin idea took a while to attract more versions but a decade later they seem to have exploded in numbers in Sydney and beyond. The mobile music machines are a great asset at any protest and can often keep the peace or create irony and theater out of potentially volatile scenarios.
They are easily furnished with a mic and become useful at demos or live hip hop cyphers and have more recently become popular at picnics and barbeques.
At Earthdance 2008 the bin was the last thing belting out tunes when the police closed the global festival for peace down earlier than its advertised 6pm curfew. The Figure 8 concert sized solar powered sound system was off the grid of the festival power so when the generator power was cut the stage was able to carry on for a bit as a dub act from New Zealand had just taken to the stage to play their set when they were told to stop.,when this zone eventually folded,the Figure 8 ‘bass heavy’ wheelie bin rig ended up providing entertainment and then Pied Pipe-ring the crowd away from the menacing riot cops that had gathered to evict the last of the punters.
The noisy precession snaked its way out of the site to an impromptu rave outside the Devonshire entrance to Sydney’s Central Railway station where the actual time of the Earthdance linkup occurred with the North western hemisphere Earthdances.
As more of the bins started to appear from 2006-2009 the movement started gaining momentum and soon a street festival in Newtown was planned called Reclaim The Lanes(RTL)in February 2010.
The event gave many a deadline to get their wacky races style wheely bin contraptions into action. Many bins were made at Tortuga Studios in St Peters including the Wheelie big bin a 2k skip sound system that was devastating at RTL. The small business called Howzyabinemerged out of the frenzy of activity around the sound system bin creation in the lead up to RTL. The event went well despite wet weather and attracted around 1000 people to a mobile Pop up festival happening on the streets of Enmore and Newtown. There were around 14 different mobile music machines at the moving mini technival that ended up in Camperdown Park. Police assisted the event as meetings prior to the festival had produced a co-operative vibe on the day.
Here the heavens opened and drenched the festival creating a mud wrestling mosh pit in front of one of the skip sound systems in attendance.
One of the first Wheelie Bin Sound System hire jobs for Howzyabin was to promote the Latin American Festival at Bondi Pavilion,The Solar powered Wheelie Bin Sound System and the White Tiger bin spent the day playing Cumbias along the promenade and ended up hosting D.J Spex and M.C Hernan and a random reggeaton M.C who turned up and performed a set in front of Bondi Pavilion.
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