Anglesea Music Festival overview for Forte

The Anglesea Music Festival (AMF) is a grassroots, community-organised, not-for-profit event with a lot more to offer than a killer line-up of performers.
AMF is now into its fifth year, and in 2016 has moved to a new home in the idyllic natural amphitheatre at the Ellimatta Reserve, Anglesea, and changed to a jam-packed one-day format: 45 incredibly diverse acts on five stages over 12 hours!
The organisers are providing a platform for young local musicians and other music industry hopefuls, while Geelong and Bellarine/Surf Coast produce and crafts will be in abundance at the community market within the festival grounds, and a series of music workshops will be run for budding musicians.
But first things first…
The Line-up
With Mick Thomas (‘Weddings, Parties Anything’) and his hot new band The Roving Commission as lead act on the main stage, the festival takes on a distinctly ‘rootsy’ character.
The Bellarine Peninsula’s own Chris Wilson, along with Jimmy Hocking and Geoff Achison add to the bluesy flavour, along with Cleveland Blues from Queensland, local blues veteran Wayne Jury, renowned blues/country chanteuse Kelly Auty, festival favourites 19 Twenty and funk, groove, blues and soul diva Andrea Marr.
Fans of rock and pop haven’t been ignored, with the voices of Boom Crash Opera’s Dale Ryder and Taxi Ride’s Jason Singh leading a band of top-flight players performing numerous Top 40 Hit Songs. Multi Platinum #1 Albums, ARIA Awards, and Sold Out Live Shows wherever they play Dale Ryer and Jason Singh will each take the stage to perform their bands’ biggest hits from the 80s, 90s and 2000s – three decades of home-grown hit songs packed into one electric live show that will ‘lift the roof’ towards the end of the night.
Mick Thomas has been a staple of Melbourne’s music scene for well over 25 years. Raconteur, troubadour, balladeer and poet, Mick Thomas is best known as the Blundstone-wearing frontman for Weddings Parties Anything. The Roving Commission re-unites him with original Weddo’s member Mark Wallace (‘Squeeze Box Wally’) on piano, accordion and backing vocals, complemented by a rotating schedule of talented performers.
Chris Wilson (‘Crown of Thorns’) has been at the heart of blues and rock music in Australia since the ’80s, as one of our finest vocalists, harmonica players and songwriters. Chris has appeared at every major Australian festival and his performances always a highlight. He is quite simply as master of his craft.
– And Chris will not be the only member of the Wilson family performing at the Festival. His sons Fenn and George Wilson will also take the main stage, having impressed the judges at the ‘Best Foot Forward’ auditions for younger musicians at Geelong’s Oxygen College.
Geoff Achison (who recently released an album with Chris Wilson, ‘Box of Blues’) is an internationally revered blues guitarist, named one of the Top 10 ‘Hot New Guitarists’ on the US scene by Guitar Player magazine. He is also a past winner of the Albert King Award at the International Blues Festival in Memphis, USA.
Jimmy Hocking (‘Screaming Jets’, ‘Blues Machine’) is also a winner at the International Blues Festival Challenge in Memphis, taking out the solo/duo performer category. Described as ‘the electric love child of T-Bone Walker, BB King and Jimi Hendrix’ Jimmy is a consummate performer with guitar or mandolin in hand, and one of the ‘must-see’ acts in blues today.
Andrea Marr is the third Anglesea Music Festival performer to represent Australia at the International Blues event in Memphis! She has been delivering her brand of feel-good, high energy original funk, groove, blues and soul music around Australia and the US for 15 years. She is a winner of the VIC/TAS Female Artist of The Year and Blues Performer of The Year Award. She will be performing with the full (and funky) Andrea Marr Band in Anglesea.
19 Twenty are winners of the Blues at Bridgetown Festival’s People’s Choice two years running. Their blues and roots performance is rowdy, fun – and absolutely not to be missed.
‘We are so proud of the line-up this year,’ said AMF Director, Karren Stoneham. ‘We believe this is one of the strongest and most diverse group of performers to appear in Australia at a one-day community festival.
‘It’s going to be a fantastic day and night of music for young and old alike, in a beautiful setting. We would love to see music lovers secure their tickets early. They will save money, ensure they don’t miss out – and it would certainly help us with our planning!’
When & Where: Ellimatta Reserve, Anglesea – January 23