The story of the first Big Day Out is the stuff of legend.

One of the wildest gigs in Australian music history, it bagged the biggest band in the world and in turn created a cultural icon — even though it ran out of beer.

But "Kenfest", as it was initially called, might not have existed at all if two men hadn't been arrested.

Viv Lees and Ken West were the masterminds behind the Big Day Out. ( Supplied: Sophie Howarth )

In the 1980s, Ken West was a fledgling music promoter putting on gigs in Sydney.

"I was living in a squat in Surrey Street, Kings Cross. I set up an office. The phone got disconnected every three months. I got it reconnected again under another name. It was how it was then," he says.

In the early days, West was a jack-of-all trades.

"I was a graphic artist, poster designer, poster printer, poster-gluer-upper, record company, manager, agent, driver, loader, everything," he says.

"I was good value for $25 a show, or less I think I was at the time — that included the lights because I borrowed them."

West had success putting on shows for The Ramones, Deborah Harry, Nick Cave and The Birthday Party, The Beasts of Bourbon and The Church.

When he reached out to a guy in Melbourne called Vivian Lees, he had no idea he was about to change the course of Australian music.

The Big Day Out would go on to become a cultural icon. ( triple j )

A funny rapport

Lees was managing Hunters and Collectors when West called and invited him to Sydney.

"We wanted to come so Ken put together some dates for us," Lees recalls.

On the night of Hunters and Collectors' first Sydney show, Lees and West were arrested for putting up gig posters on public property.

"We had to do penance. We had to go clean up other bill poster sites for a day or two," Lees says.

Viv Lees and Ken West created one of the largest festivals in the world. ( Supplied: Sophie Howarth )

It was "really boring" — but also an important bonding experience for the men.

"That kind of created that funny rapport," West says.

"And I said, 'You're doing a masters in economics and I'm the arts person. You're in Melbourne, I'm in Sydney. Do you want to do some tours together?'"

It was the beginning of a groundbreaking partnership.

Blister in the Sun

By the 1990s, Lees and West were seasoned music promoters.

They decided to bring Violent Femmes out to Australia for their biggest tour yet, and Lees was eyeballing the cost of some of the bigger venues.

"We had to get a mid-level band to go underneath them if we wanted to take them into bigger rooms like The Hordern and Festival Hall," he says.

They started scouting for a support act; a band on the rise that music fans would be keen to see.

Not just anyone could support the Violent Femmes. ( Getty: Gie Knaeps )

It was a music promoter called Stephen Pavlovic who had the band they needed.

"I was fortunate enough to bring out a band called Mudhoney from Seattle who were a part of that whole alternative rock scene," Pavlovic says.

"I remember after doing that tour they were like, 'You should tour our friends Nirvana.'

"They were like, 'Here's Kurt's number and here's Chris's number, you should just call them up.'"

So he did.

"Hey do you guys want to come to Australia?" he asked.

"Yeah we'd love to come to Australia!"

The 'big' idea

At the time, Nirvana wasn't yet the biggest band in the world. ( Supplied: Tony Mott )

Nirvana were keen to support Violent Femmes, Pavlovic says, because they had grown up on the band.

"They really loved that band," he says.

And so in 1991, Nirvana were booked for their first Australian tour, playing support for the Violent Femmes.

But West wanted more.

A few years earlier he'd been tour managing the Femmes across America, and was blown away by a music festival in Milwaukee called Summerfest.

He'd never seen a line-up so diverse — heaps of bands playing different styles of music on multiple stages.

The idea rattled around in his head for years.

"Sometimes in life, it's a slow-motion version of a critical incident. The boat's sinking, the cyclone's coming. You just know that it's now or never," he says.

With Summerfest in mind, West decided to expand the Sydney Violent Femmes show.

The Hordern Pavilion was where his experiment could take place.

He had Nirvana and Violent Femmes playing on the main stage.

He added another stage outside next to a skate ramp, and expanded the bill to include a who's who of the local alternative music scene: Beasts of Bourbon, Ratcat, The Clouds, You Am I, Yothu Yindi.

Big Day Out wasn't only about music. ( Supplied: Sophie Howarth )

Other bands heard what was being planned and they started hitting West up.

"I better add another stage then," he thought.

He ended up with 21 bands across three different stages.

Kicking off at midday, it was to be a full day of live music with Violent Femmes closing.

He named it "Kenfest" — then, at the last minute, fortuitously changed it to the Big Day Out.

He wanted punters to know exactly what to expect — a big day of live music.

A poster advertising the first Big Day Out — aka Kenfest. ( Supplied )

There was just one problem.

His business partner Lees had no idea that he'd organised the big one-day show.

"He didn't really tell me the extent of what he was doing," recalls Lees.

West was attempting something that had never been done on this scale before, and ticket sales were slow.

It wasn't good.

He needed a miracle. And that's exactly what he got.

The 'hottest ticket in town'

In September 1991 Nirvana released their second album, Nevermind.

Jen Oldershaw was working at triple j at the time and remembers the buzz the album was getting.

"I had that moment. That real moment when you hear something and you just go, 'Oh wow. This is amazing,'" she says.

All around the world, thousands of music fans had the exact same reaction.

"It was just that jump from where they'd been, this kind of indie band that had this big following, that were very raw, to move into this incredibly polished hit factory, it was just extraordinary," Oldershaw says.

Nevermind marked a point in music when indie and alternative sounds became mainstream.

On January 11 the next year the album hit number one on the US charts.

They were suddenly the biggest band in the world and they were coming to Australia for the Big Day Out.

When triple j interviewed Nirvana, Kurt Cobain seemed to be struggling with the band's sudden success.

"Who wants to end up like the Rolling Stones 40th anniversary thing anyway?" he said.

"You know, you don't want to make it seem like a career."

Big Day Out marked the first time Nirvana toured Australia. ( Getty: KMazur )

Oldershaw wasn't surprised when the Big Day Out started to gain attention.

"People were just dying to see this group live. It was the hottest ticket in town," she says.

West says the buzz went all the way to Paul Keating's office.

"I get a call from the prime minister's personal assistant. 'Mrs Keating wants to take the kids to the show but the Canberra Box Office has sold out,'" he recalls.

A legendary gig

The first Big Day Out was held on January 25, 1992.

As the gates opened, thousands of fans were already lined up waiting to get inside.

"We went there planning to see it right from the first band to the last band," Oldershaw says.

West's lighting designer Peter Mackay, who goes by the name of Duckpond, was blown away by what he saw.

"The atmosphere was just electric, people couldn't believe their eyes and ears at what was happening," he says.

"It was really a groundbreaking experience for all of us."

People who were there remember a fun and electric atmosphere. ( Supplied: Sophie Howarth )

The beer runs out

At 2:00pm West experienced his first major hurdle of the day. The beer ran out.

"It was a bit like a bad warzone scene," he says.

Thinking on his feet, West grabbed the keys to the cold-room of the Sydney Cricket Ground next door.

"We borrowed eight or 10 pallets of beer and brought it in on a flatbed truck right through the audience," he says.

"They could have attacked the truck. Instead they helped carry the pallets off. And then they bought it!

"It was so innocent and lovely."

Indie band The Clouds was among the performers. ( Supplied: Sophie Howarth )

While the punters were looked after, the bands had to look after themselves.

"There was no backstage. There was just the dressing room of the Hordern Pavilion for 21 bands," West says.

"It was just tubs with booze and loaves of bread and a toaster and some vegemite and some ham. That was it."

By 4:00pm, three hours before Nirvana was due to play, the Hordern was already packed.

"It was probably the most intense and responsive crowd we'd played to," says rocker Tex Perkins.

But as excitement was building to see the biggest band in the world, Perkins noticed a problem.

Nirvana might not play

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Cobain was not in a good way.

"He was literally crouched in a ball at the side of the stage," Perkins says.

"It looked questionable whether he would really even go on stage."

The waiting crowd was at fever pitch.

There was limited security and nearly 10,000 pumped up kids trying to squeeze into a room meant for only half that.

A sea of people were moving backwards and forwards in a sweaty, human swirl.

Fire hoses were brought out to spray the front rows to stop people passing out.

"People were just flipping their lids. It was so insane," Duckpond says.

All West could do was hold his breath and pray.

You Am I frontman Tim Rogers remembers the moment Nirvana hit the stage.

Tim Rogers will never forget seeing Nirvana play Big Day Out. ( Supplied: Tony Mott )

"You know when you jump on a plane and they say 'look for the exit'?"

"I was looking for the exit until they came on and I thought, 'Well, f**k it. If I'm gonna go, this is a good way to go.'"

Duckpond says the band lived up to the hype.

"Krist Novoselic was throwing his bass guitar up in the air four or five metres. So he'd strike a note, and then throw his guitar up in the air, and then catch it and strike the next note," he says.

If Cobain had been unwell earlier in the day, Oldershaw couldn't tell.

"He was just so magnetic. Pure energy. Raw, rock emotion with this voice. It was huge," she says.

"I remember us all piling out at the end, and people were strewn across the concrete concourse outside the Hordern Pavilion at that point. Lying down trying to regather themselves, half-dressed and sweaty.

"It was one of those gigs that you know you're going to go to your children one day and say, 'I was at that show'."

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But the Big Day Out didn't end when Nirvana left the stage. There was still hours of music to come.

West says people don't remember now that Yothu Yindi played after Nirvana.

And then there was the headline act.

Violent Femmes bass guitarist Brian Ritchie says there was a real rock'n'roll attitude in the house.

"That was probably the biggest show we'd done in Australia up to that point," he says.

"They ate it up. They loved it. It was our usual chaotic, no setlist show."

An Australian icon

The Big Day Out, seen here in 2011, pulled in huge crowds of people over many years. ( Supplied: Sophie Howarth )

West had done it. The Big Day Out was a hit.

The big punt had paid off, and business partner Lees was happy.

"He actually conceived this show, good bands, multiple stages, good food, rides, a place where you can get a drink and treat people nicely," Lees says.

"He did it and you couldn't doubt that what had happened was fresh and new and worth pursuing."

The Big Day Out would eventually become a cultural icon.

At one point it was the biggest touring music festival in the world.

For 22 years it ruled summer, drawing huge international acts like Björk, Sonic Youth, Rage Against the Machine, Muse, The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and Iggy Pop.

Local bands like Powderfinger, You Am I, Magic Dirt and Grinspoon cut their teeth on the Big Day Out stages.

It became a rite of passage for thousands of music fans who rocked up for their biggest day of the year.

In 2001, one of those days ended in tragedy for a young music fan. Jessica Michalik died after being crushed in a mosh pit during a performance by Limp Bizkit.

Big Day Out has since wound up, but the first gig will always be special for fans like Oldershaw.

"It happens so rarely that you get this band on this incredible ascendency and this event that then becomes this iconic event in Australian music and they meet at the absolute perfect time," she says.

This month Double J is celebrating the legacy of the Big Day Out with a five-part podcast series Inside the Big Day Out, in collaboration with RN's The History Listen.

You can also hear 20 years of live music recordings, and read incredible stories from the festival.

Thanks to Big Day Out photographers Tony Mott and Sophie Howarth for providing images for this article.