A Day On The Green: The Royal Family of Australian Festivals
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A Day On The Green: The Royal Family of Australian Festivals

Since Australia Day 2001, A Day On The Green has seen festival promoters Roundhouse Entertainment play their cards well to bring some of the biggest artists around the globe to Victoria, but lately, they’ve been producing a royal flush. Most recently Australian music royalty Cold Chisel reunited for the festival circuit alongside the King of Australian music Paul Kelly, and the festival has boasted a number of stars who have received a knighthood including Sir Tom Jones, Sir Elton John, and Sting.

Engraving his name into that A Day On The Green alumni list for a second time, and debuting at Geelong’s Mt Duneed Estate, is Sir Rod Stewart who will be making his way to Australia in October. It didn’t take a lot of convincing to get the ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?’ heartthrob to return down under.

“We’ve done nearly 500 shows and artists now know what a Day On The Green is – they know they are going to get high-quality staging and production and an event that is delivered where punters are going to be happy and it means a lot. It also means a lot to us that managers and promoters trust us with big performers like Rod, Fleetwood Mac, Elton, and Chisel. They know they are going to be looked after and presented properly and it comes across that way when you are at the show,” festival promoter Michael Newton comments.

Like a fine wine (supplied by the A Day On The Green venues, of course), Rod Stewart gets better with age. Having just hit a whopping half a decade milestone as a solo artist in 2019, Stewart celebrated by blowing the UK away on his summer tour and triumphantly taking over the US during his touring circuit and acclaimed multi-year residency at Casers Palace in Las Vegas, and he sold out LA’s Hollywood Bowl three times over for a landmark reunion with his former bandmate, Jeff Beck.

He was also honoured by Warner Music with something almost as noble as knighthood; an album titled You’re in My Heart: Rod Stewart with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra which pairs classical vocal tracks from Stewart’s hits with heavenly arrangements performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. For the Day On The Green series and Stewarts The Hits Tour, Stewart along with his revered band will be reverting back to the original versions to deliver nothing but the hits the way they were intended: rocky and with a hint of sex appeal.

“All of [the ADOTG] artists have been around for a long time and have a lot of massive back catalogue of songs and when they tour they put on great shows. Rod is no exception, he has so many songs that not many people realise. When he puts on a show he has an incredible band like Elton with really incredible players and it’s just song after song. He plays a lot of old stuff from the ’70s,” Newton says.

“Those guys have been around for a while and have played so many times that they have it down to a fine art. It will be a lot of fun!”

As one of the best selling music acts of all time, with more than 250 million records sold worldwide across an mindboggling career which saw him claim 27 Top 40 hits in Australia, including four number one singles, plus seven number one albums, nine number one albums and 26 Top 10 singles in the UK, and 17 Top 10 albums and 16 Top 10 singles in the US, make no mistake Stewart has a few hits to his name. Accolades include the aforementioned ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’, ‘Hot Legs’, ‘Tonight’s The Night’, ‘You Wear It Well’, ‘You’re in My Heart’, ‘Sailing’, ‘Forever Young’, ‘Infatuation’, ‘Some Guys Have All The Luck’ and the masterpiece that is ‘Maggie May’.

Atop of this musical mountain, his two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (solo and with the Faces) are perched alongside Grammy Living Legend proclamation, his Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and his shiny star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was also the first recipient of the Diamond Award from the World Music Awards for over 100 million records sold worldwide. And that’s not even half of the long list of accomplishments the man has made but we won’t bore you or give you any more reasons to buy a ticket to the already fast-selling show.

Support announcement are on their way, but we promise you won’t want to miss this royally huge performance at Mt Duneed Estate on Saturday 31 October 2020.

Tickets are on sale now at www.adayonthegreen.com.au

Written by Tammy Walters
Feature photo by Penny Lancaster