The second installment of Apollo Bay’s annual WinterWild Festival is happening this weekend.
Shrouded in the darkness and elemental power of Victorian winter, the Dark Arts Festival WinterWild will return to Apollo Bay for its final weekend August 26-28 with live music, theater, gourmet food, outdoor performances, installations, beach bonfires and more. dark heart of the Otway coast.
Having already taken place during its first winter weekends, from August 12 to 14, the festival comes out strong this weekend with an ambitious musical, gastronomic and artistic program promising to bring the public in search of adventure to the confines of the Great Ocean Road.
So what’s up this weekend? Here are some of the highlights worth checking out.
Keep up to date with the latest music news, feature films, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
The Wild Feast | Saturday August 27 4 p.m.
At the heart of WinterWild is The Wild Feast free game.
Located in the Festival Brazier, here you’ll find roaring fire pits and charcoal grills, bubbling cauldrons and giant smoker barbecues…that’s how we celebrate the end of the deep, wild darkness of winter on the coast from Ottoways!
Food tastes so much better cooked outdoors, so wrap up and settle in for a wild feast around the fires, with local seafood bouillabaisse cauldrons, giant paella pans, smokehouse-style meats, freshly caught seafood grilled on the hibachi, and local seasonal vegetables buried in the coals. The amazing local vendors serving the feasts will be Workers BBQ, Peter Ford Catering and Apollo Bay Fish Co-Op, and Great White Buffalo.
Warm your hearts and hands with a cup of mulled wine, a range of Prickly Moses dark ales and Apollo Bay Distillery whiskey in a hot grog or gin cocktail.
Alongside the food, there will also be entertainment from Alister Turrill, The Huxleys and a two-hour Wild Women of Music Tribute show featuring a range of WinterWild artists and Apollo Bay locals.
As part of this, the festival will provide reusable tableware to all food vendors, resulting in a 95% decrease in waste going to landfill. Each person attending The Wild Feast will pay a refundable $5 deposit to contribute to this important environmental initiative, refunds will be available directly after the event when the dishes are returned.
The event is free, but you must reserve your free spot here.
The DogWatch Part 2 | Saturday August 27 6 p.m.
At the beating heart of WinterWild is fire. And nothing embraces, sculpts, worships and glorifies fire quite like The DogWatch. It is the event with which the festival begins and ends – which defines it, energizes it, ignites it.
This year’s theme is centered on the Sirens, these mythical creatures, half-woman, half-bird, with an irresistibly bewitching song that lure sailors to the bone-covered rocks of their island.
DogWatch will once again be led by Roderick Poole, a veteran of the outdoor show, his works having been performed in over 40 countries. He will collaborate with Eloise Wood and WildHoney Performing Arts, as well as a horde of local artists, performers, dancers, musicians and Apollo Bay stalwarts. It will be a passionate and eerie performance that goes to the dark heart of Apollo Bay.
Live music by Leah Senior + Sid O’Neil | Saturday August 27 8 p.m.
Another highlight will be two intimate live performances by Apollo Bay’s Leah Senior and Sid O’Neil at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Apollo Bay.
Leah Senior silences the audience with her ethereal voice and lively lyricism. Hailed by critics as a divine masterpiece, his latest album The Passing Scene is a charming extension of his two previous records that oscillate between springtime baroque pop and 70s folk. impermanence, the natural world, loss and ultimately hope. Leah Senior’s voice has the clarity of British folk diviner Sandy Denny, while her writing style ranges from contemplative folk to Paul McCartney-like playfulness.
Sid O’Neil is a person who plays the guitar and the piano and who sings. He is releasing his highly anticipated first solo album. He plays all the instruments there except for a synthesizer and a Mikey Young sampler.
Tickets can be purchased for this event here.
Lunar Garden | Saturday August 27 9 p.m.
The Moongarden is WinterWild’s epic closing ceremony that will be an unforgettable event. Festival-goers are encouraged to dance by the water’s edge under the moon with some of Australia’s best alternative electronic artists, including KIM – The Presets DJ Set, Big Yawn (live set) Sleep D, Post Percy and Donalds House for close the 2022 party in style.
Multi-ARIA award winner Kim Moyes is one half of iconic Australian dance music duo The Presets and so much more. Working alone as KIM, he has produced and co-written with DMA’s, DZ Deathrays, Northeast Party House, Digitalism, and Kirin J. Callinan, among others. He has also created acclaimed remixes for a wide range of artists including Tove Lo, Kings Of Leon, Cassius, Tiga, Ajax, Flash & The Pan, Bag Raiders, Rinse and Midnight Juggernauts.
KIM has been touring his acclaimed DJ sets locally and internationally over the past 15 years and has released several solo EPs through Modular Recordings, Motorik! Records, Unknown Records, Rallye-Klee Records (Japan) & Bang Gang 12 Inches. In 2018, he launched “Here To Hell”, a new label for emerging electronic artists which Kim runs with veteran Melbourne DJ and Zero Percent partner Mike Callander. His work with The Presets includes co-writing and co-producing all of the band’s work and performing live behind his drums at some of the biggest music festivals in the world.
Sonic explorers, label heads, stalwarts of Melbourne’s underground, Sleep D explores the rave unconscious – driving beats, hypnotic bass, echo worlds and the hazy bliss of the morning after. Childhood friends with Iraqi and Maltese lines, the duo and their coveted Butter Sessions label ushered in a new era of sensibility and productivity in the city that raised them.
Melbourne quartet Big Yawn make experimental electronic music by fusing a mix of sweeping synthesizers, heavily refracted vocal sampling, motorik-style percussion and disorienting dub effects. The group draws musical inspiration from artists like Hiroshi Sato, Hype Williams, Shinichi Atobe and many more.
Rounding out the event are DJ sets from Sleep D and Post Percy and Donalds House, promising to bring the heat for the last weekend of winter.
Tickets here.
WinterWild is part of On the Road Again, a Victorian government initiative to bring live music back across the state. WinterWild will run from August 26-28. To see the full program, go here.
