The music festival arrives on the coast this weekend for its 17th year - and the set times have arrived to help plan your weekend!
Returning for its 17th year, the Aireys Inlet Music Festival is set to take over this coastal town from Friday 17 – Sunday 19 March 2023, with Ella Hooper headlining another cracking lineup of homegrown talent.
The festival, now in its 17th year, continues to draw on the cream of Geelong and Surf Coast bands this year, including Rocket Science, Bones and Jones, Foggy Notion, Immy Owusu, Forever Son, the Beachniks, Matt Bourke and the Delusional Drunks, Dear Buffalo and De Porsal. They will be joined by Sydney country star Andy Golledge Band, Frankston’s finest rockers the Belaire Lip Bombs, space disco popsters Zoe Fox and the Rocket Clocks, all female mariachi group Queen of Hearts, and boisterous country rockers Sin City.
Keep up with the latest music news, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
Set Times
Friday March 17 2023
Saturday March 18 2023
Sunday March 19 2023
A couple of Aireys Inlet Music Festival Highlights for 2023
Ella Hooper
Playing Friday 17th March at 9.30 on our main stage. Having Ella here is very exciting for us. Ella Hooper was still a teenager when she burst onto the Australian music scene – Unearthed by Triple J when she was just 13, Ella scored her first number-one with the single ‘Mascara’ on her 17th birthday. And at 18, she became the first woman to be awarded APRA’s Songwriter of the Year. After releasing three hit albums with Killing Heidi, Ella embarked on a solo career. Her newly released album, Small Town Temple – written in her hometown of Violet Town – has been hailed as a new beginning, showcasing Ella’s deeply personal songwriting.
After a multitude of gold and platinum records and four ARIA Awards, Ella remains committed to her craft. As she sings on Small Town Temple: “Still strong, still on a mission.”
Andy Golledge
Playing Sunday 19th March at 5pm, Andy Golledge was on the Aireys Inlet Music Festival wishlist from the very start.
He has variously been sketched as “an intriguing man with a horny moustache”, “your old man back in the day”, “an alt-country superstar” and “trapped in a ’70s tuna fisherman’s body.” He says of the latter, “The MC at Dashville festival shouted that out across the crowd and I thought, I’ll accept that.”
If Golledge is only just now beeping onto your radar, we almost envy you the voyage of discovery. His name has practically become folklore in Sydney’s Inner West, both for the exhilarating unpredictability of his live shows and the curveballs of his repertoire, genre- hopping between ’60s country and ’80s Greatest Hits rock.
ARIA-nominated for Best Country Album of 2022, Andy Golledge embarked on his first national tour this year in celebration of his debut album release ‘Strength of a Queen’ which also charted #3 on ARIA’s Top Vinyl Albums and #4 on ARIAs Australian Country Albums. Golledge has made notable performances at various festivals such as Out Here in the Field Festival, Meadow Festival, Tamworth Country Music Festival, Winter Bites, and Splendour In The Grass.
Bones and Jones
Playing Saturday 18th March at 8pm, six-piece Victorian based country tinged alt rock’n roll band Bones and Jones are well renowned for their unique brand of infectiously memorable songwriting and impressively tight live show.
With two critically acclaimed albums and a collaborative EP with Folk Bitch Trio to their name, the band’s output matches the frenetic energy of their live show which has seen them support notable artists including King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, The Nude Party (USA), The Murlocs, Twin Peaks (USA) and appear at festivals including Port Fairy Folk Festival, Meadow, Boogie Festival and more.
Their unique blend of uplifting rock’n roll puts Bones and Jones as one of the most exciting bands in the country and if recent double single ‘My Friend’ / ‘Taxi’ is anything to go by, their new music will only support this case more.
Zoe Fox and The Rocket Clocks
Playing Friday 17th March at 8pm, Zoe Fox and the Rocket Clocks’ 2020 debut album Clockwerks received national praise for its multidimensional meanderings through psychedelic and disco pop, with psychedelic collages of whimsy, creative playfulness and intergalactic ventures aplenty.
No stranger to the main stage, Fox has performed at a string of Australian festivals, including Falls Music and Arts Festival, NYE on the Hill, The Hills are Alive, Loch Hart Festival, Happy Wanderer Festival, Grampians Music Festival, Moomba and more.
Now she can add Aireys Inlet to that long list.
Sin City
Playing Saturday 18th March at 7pm, this will be one roaring and rollicking set you won’t want to miss.
Originally hailing from Auckland, New Zealand Nick Armstrong and Jack Beesley formed SIN CITY in the dusty streets of Spain’s Costa Blanca when they found themselves sharing a squalid room in the town of Alicante during the pandemic. Fuelled on tortilla and cheap cervesa they spent their days writing songs inspired by their mutual love for outlaw country, barroom soul and rock ’n’ roll.
From Marty Robbins to Mink Deville, Glen Campbell to Gram Parsons and Bobbie Gentry to The Band, SIN CITY draw their roots from a gumbo of 60s & 70s country-soul Americana.
Matt Bourke and the Delusional Drunks
Drawing inspiration from artists such as The Drones, Grinderman and many of the old blues greats, Matt Bourke has created his own blend of dirty, blues-driven rock ‘n’ roll. The Delusional Drunks bring a raw and uncontrollable energy to the stage whilst still remaining as a tight-knit workhorse. With performances at festivals such as Meadow and Winter Wild, as well as sold out shows across Melbourne and Geelong.
The Delusional Drunks have hit the ground running post pandemic. Bourke’s song writing style is often tongue-in-cheek, at times pushing the boundaries of social norms and lyrical traditions.
You never know where you’ll end up in the twisted song writing of the Delusional Drunks; they’ll be playing Saturday 18th March 5pm.
Tickets can be purchased for $60 for the weekend here or for $25 on the door each day (until capacity is reached). You can find out more at the festival website.
