Farm fundraiser to take the stage

ENJOY live Aussie music surrounded by picturesque views and furry farm friends when animal sanctuary Loki’s Lodge hosts Pig Day Out next month.

A play on the popular music festival Big Day Out, the concert will see musicians, food trucks, local wineries and a craft brewery descend on the 80-acre property on 27 March to raise money for the rescue, rehabilitation, rehoming and educational organisation.

Despite having no prior farming experience, Loki’s Lodge founder Danielle Press bought the land nine years ago, which came with cows left by the previous owner.

“I’d found a guy that would come and take them away and the day before he was due to come, one of them dropped a calf and I’m thinking ‘well, you’re not going anywhere anymore’ so I kept the cows,” she said.

“Then another friend had rung, and they were downsizing and they had alpacas. I had cows now so I thought ‘well, I may as well take some alpacas as well’.

“There’s lots of places where you can rehome dogs and cats but it’s really hard to rehome farm animals.

“But they’re friends, they’re often part of the family and you don’t want to send them to market, or they just get abandoned on land and people don’t know what to do with them.

“I thought someone should do something about that and worked out that maybe that someone was us.”

Since it became a charity five years ago, Loki’s Lodge has saved almost 600 animals, with about 240 currently in their care including chickens, horses, alpacas, sheep, goats, donkeys, dogs and so many more.

While fully funded by private donations, the sanctuary’s treasurer and Danielle’s brother, Richard Press, said they haven’t been able to hold their regular fundraising open days or Melbourne quiz nights for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the money raised from concert ticket sales will support the farm, which costs on average $100,000 a year in mostly feed and vet bills, as well as musicians and event organisers hit hard by the pandemic.

“It will be a bit of fun and something a bit different to our normal open days, and it really does help a couple of different sectors that we think have done it pretty tough for the last couple of years,” he said.

The concert’s line-up includes headline act McNamarr Project, Eugene Hamilton & The Money, Shed Zeppelin III and the Audrey Twins.

For tickets, head to bit.ly/33CF5hu.