The Secret Garden music festival, nestled in the Dookie Quarry with a musical line-up to match the uniqueness of the garnet landscape, will be held onSaturday, December 3.
Festival organiser Jamie Lee said the venue is a stunning location that has been hosting the event for five years and shows the pain and beauty of the earth. It also offers the best of the Australian landscape.
“It is an unreal location with a pain and beauty all wrap in round one, which makes it a powerful space to host this type of event,” Ms Lee said.
Ms Lee said the location in combination with the acts that take part in this year's event create a family fun atmosphere on a summer evening to match it with the best music festivals across Australia and the world.
“We want to make a family fun time, and we know it is in a quarry, so parents must be mindful of this, especially if you have little ones,” she said.
She said the event is an opportunity to highlight the array of Australian talent on offer.
“Secret Garden for the last nine years is a chance to showcase the incredible talent that is uniquely Australian,” she said.
To start the night off will be a Dookie indie-folk singer Tom Harrington with his acoustic indie vibe.
“Cannot wait to start the night with Dookie local Tom Harrington, it will set the scene perfectly,” she said.
The following acts for the upcoming show include Beechworth indie artist Liv Cartledge who, according to Ms Lee, is a firecracker of a performer.
“Liv Cartledge is a firecracker of an artist, and when I saw her for the first time, she could light up a stage,” she said.
Shepparton’s very own The Dean of Soul, a First Nations band, will bring a funky flavour to the stage with its soul-based music later in the night.
“They are a band that always brings a funky flavour to the stage with a mixture of First Nations entertainment, and their drummer is a Shepparton local, which is exciting to see more local artists come to the event,” Ms Lee said.
The headliners of the event will be Australian music legends in Ella Hooper and SAM + SAM, who will be belting out their new tracks to give the audience a taste of their musical progression.
As Ms Lee said, the ‘local legends’, the CFA, will be chipping in with helping out with car parking at the quarry, with the town of Dookie getting around the event by supplying food and drink to the event.
Ms Lee said it is a perfect opportunity to give back to the town of Dookie and regional Victoria as they have been resilient through the COVID pandemic.
“CFA are local legends and will help with car parking and we are always running down to pub to get things such as ice and drinks every time we are here and that is what makes a great little town like Dookie survive,” she said.
The event will be held on Saturday, December 3, with gates opening at 4 pm, and there will be a courtesy bus from Shepparton library to the quarry.
Ms Lee said there would be an eye to the future in wanting to run the event over the course of the weekend with plans in place to see if this is possible for future events.
For more information regarding the Secret Garden music festival follow https://www.thesecretgardengigs.com/