Looks like it's full steam ahead for the Wollongong festival.
With just over three weeks until it kicks off at the ‘Gong, Yours & Owls Festival has today confirmed the location for its upcoming 2021 event.
Summary
- Yours & Owls has moved its 2021 festival to Dalton Park in order to allow for a comprehensive, COVIDSafe event.
- Due to border restrictions, BENEE and Wax Mustang will be replaced by Dope Lemon and Nerve on the event lineup.
- The festival will also feature a radical rotating dual-stage setup to ensure the safety of artists and road crew and provide punters with a 360 degree view of the onstage action.
Catch up on all the latest live music and touring news.
After announcing that they’d received NSW government approval to go ahead earlier this month, the two-day live event will go down at Wollongong’s Dalton Park over the proposed weekend of April 17 – 18, marking a shift from the original plan to host the festival at Stuart Park.
A statement from the festival’s organisers have claimed that the new site is bigger than Stuart Park and will allow for a more socially distanced event, accommodating for their COVIDSafety plan.
Additionally, the festival have addressed some important lineup changes in light of the New Zealand border still being shut to Australia, with BENEE and Wax Mustang each being replaced by Dope Lemon and Nerve. They’ve also been forced to shuffle a number of set times to compensate for changing circumstances, which you can check out in full here.
Perhaps most enticingly, Yours & Owls have also unveiled a sophisticated dual revolving stage setup at the festival. This will allow for artists and road crew to enact changeover between sets safely and minimise contact, as well as providing all punters with a clear view of each performing act.
As previously detailed, Yours & Owls will still go ahead as a zoned event to enhance contact tracing efforts, with the site being split into four seperate zones with designated bars, exits, toilets, food and other utilities.
Each zone will be decked out with a state-of-the-art PA setup, while LED screens will provide optimised views of all the onstage action. Attendees are able to submit their zone preferences from now until March 31 to ensure they’re situated around their desired social group, which can be done via Moshtix or Festicket.
“We want to thank everyone for their patience and support this past year. It’s been one hell of a rollercoaster ride,” Yours & Owls promoter Ben Tillman said in a statement shared today.
“We are really thankful that we have been given the opportunity to bring you one of the only major festival events in the country since COVID hit. Without the support of our patrons, staff, stakeholders and industry, this would have been an impossible task.
“Our approval is the first step for our industry, we still have a long way to go to get back to the thriving live music scene we once knew. This year’s event is probably one of the most important we have staged, it is the first step in establishing that festivals can be run safely in NSW, so we need our patrons support to help open the door for a return of mass live music gatherings. We are working hard to make this the best experience possible and can’t wait to share it with you.”
Reacquaint yourself with the Yours & Owls 2021 lineup below.
Yours & Owls will go down from April 17 – 18 at Dalton Park, Wollongong NSW. For more details, head to their website.
