Meredith music fest line up revealed

THE line-up for the thirtieth edition of the Meredith Music Festival has dropped, with headliners to include Caribou, Dry Cleaning, Yothu Yindi and Courtney Barnett.

Set to be held from 9 to 11 December in what organisers describe as a “supernatural amphitheatre” on a farm just west of the town of Meredith, the event returns after being called off in 2020 and 2021.

Fans are already putting their names down for the hotly contested ticket ballot.

In an email to subscribers last week, organisers who collectively go by the name Aunty Meredith said the 30th festival will be the “same size, same shape, still BYO everywhere, still independent, with no commercial sponsors, and one stage fits all.”

The headline for the event is Canadian four-piece electro act Caribou and Aunty Meredith said they, “flip out through every flavour of fun. That huddle around centre stage in a buzzing coil, powering up a gigantic aural adventure to make us dance and feel. And feel and dance.”

Caribou were slated to appear at the cancelled 2020 edition of Meredith, and Aunty Meredith said Snaith’s performance with Caribou “won’t be the last we see of Dan this weekend” in a “special treat” for attendees.

Other big names include South London’s band Dry Cleaning and are described as a squalling, ragged post-punk force walking in the ghostly shadows of Wire, Magazine and Joy Division

“[They are] a collection of searing, surrealist distillations propelled by the extraordinary weight of Flo’s [Florence Shaw] poetic beats and dents, her Sprechgesang-esque delivery and tricky, slippery words at the thumping centre of it all,” Aunty Meredith said.

Local acts include legendary Australian band Yothu Yindi, with Aunty Meredith saying their music “altered the very fabric of this country…. that reshaped the way we saw ourselves, the music we made, the stories we told”.

Meanwhile, Barnett is returning to Meredith seven years since her previous performance and nine years since her debut set at the festival.

“[S]ince then, all those songs, the wit, the quietly virtuosic guitar playing, the live shows, and the magnetic, enigmatic character she is have become adored all over the globe…. a once-in-a-generation songwriter telling her story, and sometimes ours too,” Aunty Meredith said.

Announced last week, other names currently on the line up for Meredith this year include

The Comet Is Coming, Tkay Maidza, Sharon Van Etten, Private Function, DJ Quik, Erika de Casier, Babe Rainbow, Derrick Carter, CLAMM, Minami Deutsch, Nu Genea, SHOUSE, Tasman Keith, Rot TV, Surprise Chef, POOKIE, Our Carlson, Darcy Justice, OK EG, Allara, Rubi Du and Daphni.

Organisers said more artists will be revealed “in a month or two.”