TWO local musicians are working together to put Broken Hill on the heavy metal map, hoping to bring the music festival, Metal to the Max, back and better than ever.
Last year the event went ahead against all odds, organised by a team of metalhead locals such as Tomo Jovanovic from Firestorm, and with help from the local arts community.
“We sort of pushed it through last year and just made it happen because we wanted to,” Jovanovic said.
“It was like a prototype really, and was put together on pure adrenaline and will; it cost a lot emotionally and physically.”
Following the chaos of last year’s event organisers had paused the event, until further notice, due to lack of manpower and funding; with no event for 2025 or beyond in site.
This was until a fresh face, Aarron Vella, moved back to Broken Hill from Queensland just a month ago – giving the stagnate project a boost.
“I’m born and bred Broken Hill and then left; I operate a maintenance business here so I’m planning to stay here for the long haul,” he said.
Vella, who just finished an Asia-wide tour with his band Speedball, posted on the Broken Hill community Facebook page in May, hoping to gauge interest in an ongoing heavy metal event.
He soon found out the history of Metal to the Max, and is now joining forces with Jovanovic and past organisers to get the event back to its former glory; with the event already receiving expressions of interest from national and international artists.
“I’ve got some pretty strong connections with international artists and booking agents and all kinds of things throughout the world now, and I just thought if we can just combine our synergy, we can manifest some really cool stuff,” Vella said.
“That’s when I reached back out to Tomo and we properly connected.”
Jovanovic said that there used to be lots of heavy metal shows in Broken Hill at various pubs, including The Palace and BHP, which led him to his festival vision.
“It had always been a vision of mine, going back 25 years ago, to have a festival in Broken Hill and Aaron’s had the same idea; everyone’s had the same idea,” he said.
“It’s a great location; music is key, but it’s also about giving an experience to people.
“When you run a festival, it’s about the location, like a getaway, like ‘we’re going to this location with all these unique things like Silverton, Mad Max, etc’.”
The last festival was themed around the iconic Mad Max movies, some of which were filmed around Silverton.
“Metal, Mad Max and heavy metal fit in together really well; the synergy works,” Vella said.
“I’m originally from North Queensland, and involved heavily with the music industry in there, and that festival alone was extremely appealing even to us up there.”
With the future of the festival up in the air, funding is needed to bring the show back for potentially 2026, or even end of this year.
“We need to secure funding, we need to get the board sorted out; there’s a lot of fundamentals,” Jovanovic said.
Jovanovic said getting new people involved, like Vella, is the key to getting the festival back on its feet.
“If anyone else would like to reach out then we certainly can use assistance for grant writing,” he said.
“I’ve got other board members that I’ve got in line; we’ve got a treasurer who will only do finance; we’ve got to get the system right this time so that we can make this sustainable and hopefully have it run as an annual or bi-annual event.”
For those interested in being a part of the project, or have any advice or funding recommendations, email aarronant@gmail.com
