Two New Festivals Move Ahead With All-Aussie Lineups

Two new festivals will mark the end of 2020 with all-Australian bills and the aim to bid good riddance to an excruciating year.

Vandemonian Touring will stage Dec. 29 to 31 on the waterfront of Hobart, Tasmania. The still-untitled event took the same dates as Falls Festival when Secret Sounds dropped the Tasmania stop from its four-state run this year.

Festival director Brendan Self said “We want to see 2020 out in style. It’s been a difficult year for so many and we think this event will be a way for people to forget their troubles and start feeling optimistic about the New Year.”

Adelaide could celebrate New Year’s Day with a star-studded concert “inspired” by the sold-out Australia Made touring festival. Over the summer of 1986 and 1987 INXS manager Chris Murphy and Jimmy Barnes’ manager Mark Pope toured five states with their acts and six others including The Divinyls and Mental As Anything and proved to local crowds homegrown talent was equal to international ones.

Murphy and Pope are not involved in the 2020 version, pitched by the South Australian National Football League, to hold an 8-act show for 25,000 at Thebarton Oval. It is currently under consideration by the local council with an announcement expected September.