Going strong for more than two decades now, the Deans Marsh Festival is a combined treat of live music, street performers, Otway food and wine and a unique artisans’ craft market – and is set to return again at the end of this month.
Taking to the Deans Marsh Recreation Reserve from March 20-22, this year’s festival theme is “Experience Our Hinterland” and provides the perfect opportunity to experience what makes the community unique, delving deep into what the hinterland has to offer and the amazing things the locals are creating, growing and making.
With fun for the whole family, you’ll find a range of great local produce from the region, market stalls with all sorts of craft-y, quirky, delicious, useful and produce-y stuff for you to browse and buy, and a tonne of kid’s activities, including games, foot races, puppet shows, a jumping castle, a circus space, pony rides while the grown-ups indulge in great food and wine. There will also be a range of vintage displays, line dancing sheep-dogs, and festival-favourites the dog-jump and Jack Russell races.
And of course, what is a festival without music? This year, Music at the Marsh has been working alongside the Deans Marsh Festival to present a stunning line-up of musical artists guaranteed to get your feet tapping and your soul singing at the Marsh Stage on Sunday.
Performing under the stage name OTTA, dynamic duo Josh Rigg and Toby Johnson will be taking to the festival stage, capturing sounds and inspiration from the minds and landscapes around them. Hailing from the Otways, their emotive rhythmically driven melodies promise to take you away to other worlds.
Erik Parker joins OTTA on this year’s lineup. Parker is known to spend his days concocting and recording songs in his studio, in the Dandenong Ranges which results in beautiful self-produced releases. Often performing as a solo act, Parker explores a blend of soul, blues, dub and rock. The sound is tied together with live-looping, beatbox, guitar, vocals and harmonica, which is sure to get the crowds moving early on.
Forté favourite Alister Turrill will also join in on the fun with honest, flawed, gravel-throated, folkin’ blues. Renowned blues/folk/rock/roots artist, Alister has been referred to as a songwriter of the highest order, and a sign that the future of Australian blues is in good hands by Lloyd Spiegel himself. Do you really need any more convincing than that?
Festival-goers can drown themselves in reverb-soaked indigo blue ballards and dreamy nightmares with Lorne based artist PJ Holloway, while The Ming Ming Gift Shop Band round out this year’s lineup, with their Acapella and instrumental folk bangers from many traditions via the Maribyrnong Delta.
Witness the heart of Deans Marsh come alive from March 20-22. Visit deansmarsh.org.au/deans-marsh-festival/
