Untitled Group has become a juggernaut in Australia’s music scene, known for its innovative approach to events, festivals and as of late, even their own vodka brand. From humble beginnings, the company has grown to cover a wide range of endeavours, most notably their flagship festival Beyond The Valley (BTV).
To celebrate the reopening of The Wool Store – an industrial warehouse venue in the north of Melbourne – as well as 10 years of Untitled Group, co-founder Christian Serrao joins us to share insights into the company’s evolution, its challenges, and the magic of the unique venue The Wool Store and its grand reopening.
The recent restart of The Wool Store featured two headline acts: Dom Dolla and Solomun, both with deep ties to Untitled Group. For Serrao, their inclusion was a natural choice. “Dom [Dolla] has played Beyond The Valley eight times now. He’s even played right from the start of Untitled when we launched our nightclub ‘Anyway’. And in fact, he was actually designing the club flyers for us back then.” Serrao recalls “when it comes to Solomon, he was the first one to play at The Wool Store when we ran our first event there. So it was just the perfect duo and the timing was perfect with both of them here, so it made a lot of sense.”
The Wool Store’s industrial charm has captured the hearts of music fans, but the venue poses unique challenges. Serrao explained the major challenges “it’s a lot of the red tape and the cost. It’s not a traditional venue, so everything needs to be brought in. There needs to be deals struck with landlords. Then in a space that is not a traditional music and event space, there are permitting issues and complexities that come with all sorts of events.” He continued; “There’s just added layers of difficulty when it comes to a space like this. We’re really fortunate this time around to have support from the Victorian government [in the form of a post COVID support grant], which helped us with a lot of not only the cost but also the red tape that comes with spaces like this.”
Despite the challenges, Serrao and his team are committed to making it work; “We lease the venue directly from the landlord. It’s not an easy venue to get up off the ground. It’s part of the reason why we or anyone else haven’t done heaps there lately.“ He praised the incredible venue, explaining “there’s arguably no other venue in the country with that level of enormity. Personally, we’ve run four gigs there now and I still walk into that space whether it’s during an event or before and my jaw drops every single time. It’s actually so exciting watching people walk into the venue for the first time and just watching their eyes light up at everything, like the expansive windows and the natural light flooding into the space. It transports you to a European warehouse rave.”
While Serrao remains tight-lipped about future events at The Wool Store, he hints at exciting possibilities. “Watch this space,” he teased.
The Wool Store and similar unique venues are rare in Australia, but Serrao believes they bring the country closer to international markets. “We will continue to strive to activate spaces like this. A big part of Untitled Group as a company is to provide the best, unique and unforgettable experiences for our patrons.” he explained “We believe that unique venues like The Wool Store definitely do that. We can only hope that we can continue to do more like this and open our Melbourne and Australia more broadly to an international market by offering amazing spaces like this.”
The announcement of Dom Dolla and Solomun’s show came with a quick turnaround, but Serrao reveals it was anything but last-minute. “we’d actually been planning it for a pretty long time. We knew both artists were going to be in the country and they were keen to play together – it just all made sense and something that we’ve been planning for a long time. We intentionally announced it with the short lead time because we also think that this aligns with the warehouse rave culture.“
Reflecting on a decade of Untitled Group, Serrao shares some of his proudest moments. “Sunday’s Wool Store event with Dom Dolla and Solomun is right up there,” he expressed.“It really reaffirms what we do and it really makes me proud of what we have been able to create over the last 10 years. That being said, you know, there are many highlights over the years. The first BTV was one of the biggest highlights, we were only in our early 20s at the time and we ran into it full speed with not much knowledge at all and were able to pull off a pretty incredible event considering our lack of knowledge in the space.“
However, the journey hasn’t been without its challenges. “COVID was incredibly challenging for not only us, but the whole industry.“ Serrao admits. Thankfully were able to come out of it on the other side really strong. But earlier; the first BTV, we lost $1 million. It’s something that was a real low light for us not knowing what our next steps were. I’m forever thankful that we doubled down, but it was definitely a challenge.” He expanded further on a more recent challenge; “how quickly we have scaled after COVID has probably been a challenge for us too. We’re constantly learning while scaling and it’s something that we have to continually keep a very close eye on as a business because we’ve got to be wary of it.“
Untitled Group’s portfolio is already impressive, spanning festivals, artist bookings, investments, and the Ugly Vodka brand. So what’s next? Serrao reveals, “we’re going to be continuing to grow in the touring space. In 2025 especially, but even more over the next few years there’s a really big focus on our major festivals. We’re continuing to grow and expand the Ugly Vodka brand, there may be more coming there. Overall, I think the real overarching theme here is to focus on what we are currently doing and focusing on that growth.”
As Untitled Group enters its next decade, Serrao and the further team’s passion for creating unforgettable experiences remains unwavering. From unique venues like The Wool Store to boundary-pushing festivals, the future looks bright for this industry powerhouse.
Relive the Dom Dolla & Solomun set here
