A new boutique mini festival is set to take place in Ocean Grove on February 12.
Americana On The Bellarine is a newcomer as far as events go, one which celebrates the fusion of genres of blues, roots, folk, country, bluegrass, rock and even gospel; or Americana music, as it is often referred to.
Ocean Grove singer/songwriter Andrea Robertson originally had grand plans for this event to take place in mid-2020 and plans to do so were well-underway but COVID came along and spoiled the party.
Like many other musicians, Robertson decided to go ahead and run the event as a livestream in July 2020, creating a link for people to donate to rather than charging a fee, and splitting the proceeds between the five artists involved.
“It gave me a focus, a purpose for my music, and the opportunity to reach out to other artists and audiences at the same time,” Robertson says of the online event.
This livestream event, along with a number of others Robertson organised during COVID, brought a lot of joy to music-lovers during a long, bleak lockdown, and in turn, those music-lovers were generous with their support and appreciation.
A couple more attempts to run the event were impacted by further outbreaks and snap lock-downs.
Fast forward to 2022, an opportunity came along to apply for funding through Creative Victoria and Robertson’s pitch was successful. With it, her vision to run Americana On The Bellarine as a live, face-to-face, ticketed event will finally become a reality this Sunday.
Americana On The Bellarine will feature an impressive line-up of some of the region’s finest song-writers and story-tellers including Sarah Carroll, Alister Turrill, Annie-Rose Maloney, Nathan Seeckts and Robertson herself, all artists with strong connections to the Bellarine region.
The boutique mini festival will be at BrewiColo in Ocean Grove. Tickets: trybooking.com/CFDNQ
