More than 45 acts, four stages, food trucks, a beer hall and Mojito bar and a spectacular fireworks finish promise to light up Geelong’s Labour Day weekend.
The third annual Motor City Music Festival brings the party back to the region with an eclectic mix of rock, rhythm and blues and country.
The event returns to the Geelong Showgrounds over three big days on 11 to 13 March and offers a smorgasbord of great adult rock on Friday and Saturday, complemented by blues and roots all weekend.
The family-friendly fun-day Sunday will be an ideal time to bring the kids, tweens, teens and grandparents for an all-ages day featuring the fun of the showgrounds plus kids’ entertainment.
The festival weekend wraps up on Sunday night with a huge fireworks display at 8.45pm.
The festival is the only one of its kind in Geelong and is the brainchild of seasoned music curators Hugo T Armstrong and Chris Longmore.
“In the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s a lot of Australia’s biggest bands toured through Geelong at venues like the Collendina, Golf View, the Dinosaur, the Eureka and the Palais,” Armstrong said.
“We’re celebrating those halcyon days through the Motor City Music Festival.”
The opening night gets the festival rocking to get everyone in the mood with the likes of Miss Quincy direct from Canada and Geelong’s legendary Glitter Gang.
Australia’s only tribute fest takes over on SDaturday night with seven of Australia’s biggest tribute acts on one stage including the amazing Kisstroyer and the electric Thunderstruck.
Then the stages get handed over to the kids for Sunday fun-day featuring Dean Ray and the Melbourne Transformers.
Lovers of country music can rejoice at the country music muster, the biggest of its kind in this neck of the woods, featuring ARIA and Golden Guitar superstar Shane Nicholson and Australia’s Got Talent participants the Wolf Brothers.
The all-weekend blues and roots line-up features more than 20 of the best including Tex Perkins and Australia’s hardest hitting Hammond organ trio Cookin’ On 3 Burners’ along with a guest appearance from Stella Angelico.
Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges comes direct from Texas, mixing it up with legendary Sydney band, the Bondi Cigars and Jimi Hocking’s Blues Machine.
The entertainment and fun continues with free carnival rides and a massive fireworks display.
To make the weekend even easier to organise, the new onsite camping facilities has 56 powered and 24 unpowered sites available to Motor City attendees, with toilets and showers available.
A weekend pass to Motor City Music Festival offers a saving of $40. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster and details are at motorcity.com.au.
