The quiet town of Marysville will be transformed into a boisterous, bustle on the weekend of 14 to 16 October 2022 for Marysville Music Weekend.
An hour and 45 minutes from Melbourne, the Marysville community is one of humble nature and determination. Following the 2009 bushfires which devastated the town, the community banded together to reform their town. In 2015 the formatively titled, Marysville Jazz and Blues Festival was introduced.
“The Marysville Jazz and Blues Festival was a small event then, just as a community run event which it still is. It’s continued since then with impeccable Australian talent primarily in that jazz and blues realm,” festival director Bill Bate explains.
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“It started because, historically, October was sort of a quiet time in Marysville. Marysville was affected by the bushfires very badly in 2009, so it’s sort of like a way to rejuvenate the town.”
The festival historically has seen the greats of Australian jazz and blues artists take to the many stages of the festival weekend, but a name change in 2020 to Marysville Music Weekend has seen the broadening of the festival for more accessibility to audience and artist.
“In 2020 we actually changed the name but because of the two-year postponement with Covid, this is officially the first Marysville Music Weekend. The reason for the name change was just to be more accessible to more people and artists, allowing us to book a wider variety of people, but the blues and jazz and folk music still holds true to the festival.”
Whilst expanded, the festival has maintained its core approach to curation, and community has been the driving force behind the Marysville Music Weekend. A project of the Lions Club of Marysville and District, the festival is entirely volunteer-driven, operating on sponsorship from Creative Victoria, Murrindindi Shire Council and a long list of festival partners.
Bate says the community are the lifeblood of the weekend program and the Marysville live music scene.
“It’s a very small town so I think we punch above our weight in terms of music for that smaller community, you know, and Marysville Music Weekend is a Lion’s Club run event,” he says, “it’s definitely very, very community lead.
“This year we’ve branded it as ‘the little festival that could’; it is definitely a little festival and it relies on the strength of its volunteers. We also have a huge list of sponsors. Without all of those supporters, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”
It’s this unity of community that draws in the stellar lineup of artists to the event. The original lineup from the 2020 iteration have stuck through the Covid induced postponements to bring their music to the small regional centre.
That lineup, whilst condensed to a single stage this year, packs a punch including headline sets from roots duo Pierce Brothers, Australia’s leading jazz man James Morrison with his Motown Experience, and alt-country trailblazer Freya Josephine Hollick.
“We have the headline sets on the Friday, Saturday during the day and Saturday evening from the three big acts, Pierce Brothers, Freya Josephine Hollick and James Morrison and his Motown Experience, who is an absolute fixture in the Australian music scene and a legend, so I’m really looking forward to that one. On the Sunday we have a bunch of local acts as well which is exciting,” Bate says.
Aside from the luscious lineup of local and leading Australian talent, the major drawcard of the Marysville Music Weekend is the town centre and surrounding scenery. Bate encourages Marysville outsiders to take the trip down for the weekend to enjoy the festival and explore the beauty of Marysville.
“We’re letting people just explore the local area. Really. I mean, there’s so much beautiful stuff in Marysville that you can spend days up here without anything going on.
“So we’ll let it be to Marysville to do its thing outside of the festival. Marysville is beautiful this time of year. There’s waterfalls and walks and lookouts and all those standard things that you do when you come to the country and you are surrounded by beautiful nature. We’ve left it to let Marysville shine and do its own thing.”
Pack up the car and head to Marysville for the weekend from Friday 14 October until Sunday 16 October for the festival.
More details and tickets at https://www.marysvillemusicweekend.com/
