Summer Festival Guide

Peats Ridge will return for your New Years celebrations with that chart-topping songster Gotye doing the midnight-on-the-31st duties, on a bill that also includes local roots legend Xavier Rudd, UK dance music stalwarts Stanton Warriors, US underground heroes the Dum Dum Girls, Chinese/Mongolian throat singing fusion sextet Hanggai, plus LTJ Bukem, Mountain Mocha Kilimnajaro, Salmonella Dub, the Holidays, A-Skillz, Hanni El Khatib, Hermitude, Sietta, Tijuana Cartel, Passenger, the Bird, Graveyard Train, Chase the Sun, Thundamentals, the Crooked Fiddle Band, Husky, San Cisco, the Paper Scissors, Fire! Santa Rosa Fire!, Marshall & the Fro, the Dead Leaves, Benjalu, Amelia Curran, Montpelier, Inga Liljestrom, Enola Fall, the Trouble with Templeton, Founds, Ellesquire, Claude Hay and Swamp Thing. 

Tickets go on sale 10am Mon 12 Sep, including earlybird camping passes for the 28th: bookmark their site now!

The festival by which all other festivals are judged comes back for the 20th - count 'em! - time, with its best line-up in years and plenty of surprises to come. Noel Gallagher, Nero, The Vaccines, Kimbra, Art Vs Science, Regurgitator, Das Racist, Bassnectar, Cavalera Conspiracy, Miss Kittin, Abbe May, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Bluejuice, Drapht , Papa Vs Pretty, Amity Affliction, King Cannons, Faker, Calling All Cars, Stonefield, Tonite Only, Shock One and T-Rek have been added to bill, joining Kasabian, Soundgarden, My Chemical Romance, the Living End, Best Coast, Hilltop Hoods, Royksopp, Cage the Elephant, the Getaway Plan, Frenzal Rhomb, Odd Future, Girl Talk, the Jezabels, Battles, Parkway Drive, Boy & Bear, Mariachi el Bronx, Architecture in Helsinki, Foster the People and – fresh from his Splendour in the Grass appearance – Kanye West (and lovers of Yeezy and/or deviant psychology can read all about his baffling performance right here). We're confident there'll be more.

The 2011 Laneway Festival was rad as rad -  as you can see by our review of the 2011 event - but this year's looking pretty rad as well. In alphabetical order, you'll be enjoying Active Child, Anna Calvi, Austra, Bullion, Chairlift, Cults, DZ Deathrays, Ema, Feist, Geoffrey O'connor, Girls, Givers, Glasser, Husky, John Talabot, Jonti, Laura Marling, M83, Oneman, Pajama Club, Portugal The Man, Sbtrkt (Live), The Very Best, The Drums, The Horrors, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Panics , Toro Y Moi, Total Control, Twin Shadow, Washed Out, Wu Lyf and Yuck!

New announcements include Bush, In Flames, The Black Dahlia Murder, Holy Grail, Hyro Da Hero, These Kids Wear Crowns, In This Moment, Black Tide, Kids In Glass Houses, Fireworks, Conditions and Cherri Bomb.

Playground are back, lovers of boutique music festival action, with a sweet line up and promises of a la carte dining and draught beer on tap, among other awesome-sounding things - and the first announcement includes Chic (featuring Nile Rogers, pictured), Fat Freddys Drop, Boy and Bear, Roots Manuva, UNKLE Sounds, Modeselektor Live, Manchester Orchestra, Ariel Pinks Haunted Graffiti, Bonobo Live, Neon Indian, Lanie Lane, The Orb, Bomb The Bass, Seekae, Greg Wilson, Damian Lazarus, Cuban Brothers, Canyons, Hudson Mohawke, Lee Burridge, Art Department, Rustie, Danny Daze, Kirk Degorgio, Toucan, Nantes, Northeast Party House, Millions and Elizabeth Rose.

Festival line-ups are coming at us thick and fast, and one that is out to get your attention is Future Music, especially with a second announcement that includes New Order, Friendly Fires, Gym Class Heroes, Mark Ronson vs Zane Zowe, Knife Party, Professor Green, Dubfire, John O'Callaghan, Oliver Huntemann, Flux Pavilion, Orjan Nilson, Porter Robinson, Kill the Noise, TuDi, Ruby Rose and Timmy Trumpet, joining the already announced likes of Swedish House Mafia with speical guest Fatboy Slim, Paul van Dyk, Tinie Tempah, the Wombats, Skrillex, The Rapture, Jessie J, Chase&Status, Sven Vath, Die Antwood, Azari & III, Aphex Twin, The Naked and Famous, James Murphy and Pat MaHony (LCD Soundsystem and DFA), Alex Metric and Gareth Emery, just to name a few. Grab tickets while you can, kids.

The first round has been announced, with Supafest revealing they'll feature P Diddy, Rick Ross, Ice Cube, Lupe Fiasco, Kelly Rowland and Trey Songz - which is a damned impressive line up no matter how you look at it.

The Falls Music and Arts Festival is one of Australia’s longest running festivals, now in its ninth year. There are around 70 performers on the bill ranging diversely from musicians to comedians and arts performers. The coastal locations are beautiful, all camping is free and it’s held over four days from December 28, 2011 in Lorne (and also Marion Bay in Tassie)

Acts confirmed include: Aloe Blacc, Arctic Monkeys, Arj Barker, Crystal Castles, Dan Deacon, Easy Star All Stars (performing Dub Side of the Moon in full), emma louise, Fleet Foxes, J Mascis, Josh Pyke, Josh Thomas, Lanie Lane, Metronomy, Missy Higgins, Nouvelle Vague, Papa Vs Pretty, Pnau, The Jezabels, The Jim Jones Revue, The Kooks, The Wonderful World of DJ Yoda, Tim Finn, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Young MC.

Festival season is upon us once more and adding their hat to the ring for your hard earned dollars and holiday leave is the Pyramid Rock Festival. This year's lineup boasts party-hardy fluro outfit Scissor Sisters, the grand-daddy of hip hop himself, Grandmaster Flash,  The Living End, Gotye, Drapht, Boy and Bear, Spiderbait, Cloud Control, Bluejuice, Spankrock, Muscles, The PAnics, Lyrics Born, The Herd, Dum Dum Girls, Illy, Salmonella Dub, Bertie Blackman, Jonathan Boulet, Ash Grunwald, Hanni El Khatib, The Bamboos, Calling All Cars, Grace Woodroofe, Graveyard Train, The Ashton Shuffle, Tim and Jean, Jim Ward, Thundamentals, Owl Eyes, Split Seconds, French Horn Rebellion and of course, everyone's favourite game show, Rockwiz.

Tickets go on sale 14 Sep.