YOURS & OWLS FESTIVAL… IT’S A WRAP!
“It was a massive logistical challenge, with many eyes watching, but the festival rose above it all to pull off a victorious return for Australia’s live music scene… Yours & Owls had managed to pull off the first successful festival in NSW since March 2020, and there was nothing left to do but dance.” Tone Deaf
“The goosebump-inducing singalongs, the unrivalled euphoria when the first chords of your favourite song begins, and the chance to see more than 70 local acts across two days - they were all there. It reminded plenty of people why you save up to go to these big festivals.” triple j
It has taken us a couple of days to catch our breath and find space to reflect on what has been one of the most intense, emotionally draining, exhausting, scary, exhilarating, fascinating, sleepless few months of our teams working lives.
But here we are, we did it, and we want to say a massive thank you to everyone who came down to Dalton Park over the weekend to experience Yours & Owls Festival, the pandemic edition.
Hearing you guys singing, watching you all dance, and seeing the pure joy on your faces as some of Australia's finest took to the stages reminded us of why we do what we do and made all the stress worth it. We want to thank you all for your patience, acceptance and support (yes, even you crazy MOFO's in the Peach Section, you took a while, but you got there in the end) with the event this year. It warmed our hearts to see you all getting your grooves back!
Knowing that we could have been cancelled at any stage due to health orders, no matter how prepared we were or how hard we worked, with no insurance cover, added an incredible layer of stress to this year's event.
Watching the disparity between large-scale sporting events and large-scale music events continues to be confusing and frustrating, to say the least. Being told there is a difference between sports fans screaming, and music fans singing is infuriating.
Our industry is working within a lottery system right now; no matter how prepared we are, how well we do our jobs; it is down to pure luck as to whether we go ahead successfully or end up in financial ruin.
This isn’t right. We need the same respect, support and certainty that is being awarded to sport.
Music fans need to be able to access music, the same way sports fans access games.
We are grateful to be in a country where large scale live music events can even consider going ahead right now, thankful to all artists, agents, industry folk, stallholders, stakeholders and patrons whose patience and flexibility allowed us to go ahead. And appreciative that luck smiled down on us to get us through to the end.
We hope more of our industry colleagues will be able to present their shows to music fans moving forward, with more protection and certainty and minus some of the stress we have experienced.
But we gotta say, it felt so good to be back with you all!
Y & O xx
