New Year's Eve doesn't have to mean overpriced cocktails and a disappointing countdown. Tanglewood Festival is making a case for doing it differently.
Tanglewood Festival returns to Thornton, Victoria from 30 December to 2 January 2027, offering a boutique New Year’s celebration built around music, art and community rather than big-name sponsors and bloated crowd numbers. The festival is intentionally capped in size, keeping things intimate and prioritising a genuine sense of connection over spectacle.
Held about two hours north-east of Melbourne near Lake Eildon, Tanglewood Festival spans two stages and delivers more than 40 hours of live music across an impressive spread of genres: acoustic, blues, folk, funk, reggae, rock and roll, metal, hip hop, dub, electronic, glitch, bass music, drum and bass, trance and techno.
Tanglewood Festival
- 30 December 2026 – 2 January 2027
- Thornton, Lake Eildon, Victoria
- Tickets and info at www.tanglewoodfestival.com.au
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Beyond the stages, there’s a packed program of other stuff to keep you busy: art galleries and installations, workshops, roving performers, healing spaces, artisan markets, community jam sessions and a dedicated children’s activity area. Street food vendors and a licensed bar serving local craft beers, cider and wine round things out nicely.
Tanglewood operates as a BYO event with a strict no-glass policy, and sustainability is a genuine priority rather than an afterthought. Single-use plastic bottles, nitrous oxide canisters, disposable novelty costumes and glitter are all banned on-site. Punters are encouraged to pack reusable cups, bottles, plates and cutlery, with limited reusable alternatives available on-site for a small fee if you forget.
Every dollar the festival generates gets reinvested into production, artist programming and experiences, with a volunteer crew keeping the whole thing running year after year.
The festival platform supports emerging and established artists from across Victoria, with a focus on the kind of creatives you’d usually catch at a local venue or community space rather than a stadium tour.
Families are well catered for, with dedicated spaces and age-appropriate programming throughout the event. Tanglewood has a zero-tolerance approach to harassment and unsafe behaviour, and attendance is conditional on agreeing to the festival’s terms and conditions.
For more information, head here.
