Think of a musical festival as being a little like the Ekka. Sure, the price of admission seems excessive, but not when you consider everything that's inside. At the Ekka, it's loads of shows, workshops and displays. At a musical festival, it's dozens of national and international artists. So who will be visiting the Australian shores this year?
A massive day of music kicks off a massive season of festivals.
Big Day Out is an international (well, Australia and New Zealand) event and one of Australia's biggest. This year's line up delivers a little of everything – Iggy and the Stooges, M.I.A., Bloody Beetroots, Julia and Angus Stone, John Butler Trio, Lupe Fiasco and loads more. The Brisbane Big Day Out takes place on 23 January at
Gold Coast Parklands (
corner of Smith Street and Parklands Drive, Southport). Tickets are $155 per person.
For the fourth year in a row,
Raggamuffin presents some of the best and most popular names in reggae. Mary J Blige, Maxi Priest and The Black Seeds are just a few of the names on the bill. Raggamuffin crops up on 30 January at Pine Rivers Park (
Gympie Road, Strathpine). Tickets are $129 per person if purchased before hand, or $140 on the door.
St Jerome's Laneway Festival is a celebration of the alternative, the indie and the underground. If you've heard of them, then they probably won't be on the St Jerome's bill. But I'll list some for you anyway – Violet Soho, Two Door Cinema Club, Cut Copy and Blonde Redhead. This event takes place at Alexandria Street, St Paul's Terrace, Fortitude Valley on 4 February. Tickets are $110.
Good Vibrations brings the love and the peace to the Gold Coast. Good Vibes offers a diverse range of acts, such as Faithless, Ludacris, Phoenix and Mike Snow. The festival sets up at Gold Coast Parklands on 19 February and tickets prices start at $149.90 per person.
Soundwave brings some of metal and punks biggest names to Brisbane. This year, Iron Maiden heads a line up that also includes Queens of the Stone Age, Slayer, Rob Zombie, Sum 41, The Ataris and Pennywise. See them at
RNA Showgrounds (
Gregory Terrace, Bowen Hills) on 26 February. Tickets are $159.15.
And gear up for a week of blues in Byron Bay. The
Byron Bay Bluesfest presents five days of laid back coastal chill and rock n roll. Nearly every Australian hippie musician is on the bill (Xavier Rudd, Kasey Chambers, John Butler Trio) plus some pretty big international names like Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Michael Franti. The Bluesfest goes from 21 April until 25 April at Tyagarah Tee Tree Farm (
Black Rock Road, Byron Bay). See the website for a complete list of ticket prices.
Australians love a good musical festival and with half a dozen major events scheduled between now and April, the hardest part is choosing between them.
