BRISBANE — The end of the pandemic is still a long way off, but the summer festivals season is already starting to take shape Down Under.
Tones And I, Benee, Cosmo’s Midnight and DMA’S lead the bill for the Yours & Owls 2021 fest, due to take place Jan. 23-24 in Stuart Park, Wollongong, about 90 minutes drive south of Sydney.
Lime Cordiale, whose new album 14 Steps To A Better You, is the best-seller on Australia’s albums chart this week, is also booked for the show, alongside PNAU, Hockey Dad and many more.
Yours & Owls is the festival template of the future or, more specifically, until a vaccine is widely available.
With rigid quarantine restrictions placed on any visitors to these parts, international acts won’t be playing Australian stages anytime soon. Yours & Owls sidesteps this dilemma with a homegrown lineup.
The previously-announced editions of Falls Festival and UNIFY Gathering 2021 are also striding ahead with talent sourced from Australia and New Zealand.
And the Bigsound conference and showcase event in Brisbane, originally announced for Sept 1- 4, has announced plans for a reduced, two-day, two-night event from Oct. 21.
Yours & Owls will, naturally, follow COVIDSafe protocols. “The safety and wellbeing of our community is supreme,” reads a statement from organizers, “we will be working with local health advisors right up until gates open to ensure the festival is operating within whatever parameters are needed come Jan 2021.”
The pre-sale kicks off from Wednesday, July 22 here, with the general on-sale starting Thursday, July 23 from Moshtix.
Australia’s live industry has taken a battering from the pandemic and the unprecedented bushfires and floods. According to the I Lost My Gig tracking platform, more than $340 million in income has been lost to this triptych of calamities.
