The Yarra Valley is in for a treat as Rock the Valley festival aims to bring everyone together to enjoy amazing local music and relaxing vibes.
The Yarra Glen Racecourse is about to become more than just a venue for races, with Rock The Valley festival director Ash, along with her identically-named husband Ash (singer/songwriter of Smoke Stack Rhino), transforming it into a rollicking blues, rock, roots, psych and soul music festival. Rock The Valley will run from 1:30pm to 10:00pm this Saturday March 5. There will be two music stages, along with food trucks, an outdoor bar with local beer and wine, and other exciting goodies.
“You can spread yourselves out, bring a picnic rug, bring a camping chair, and it’s pretty much your backyard and you get to see awesome live music,” Ash says.
What you need to know
- Rock The Valley will run from 1:30pm to 10:00pm this Saturday March 5
- The blues, rock, roots, psych and soul fest is happening at Yarra Glen Racecourse
- Tickets are an extraordinary bargain at just $30 for adults
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
“It’s such an awesome venue, we’ve got both dry and wet weather options including a large shelter we can move the event under if it rains, there’s parking, it’s really conveniently located with heaps of shady trees, and noise restrictions are pretty good.
‘We wanted to make it super family friendly, making sure everything is really affordable as well, an adult ticket is only $30. Everyone can come, just have a nice afternoon, and then stay or go, because we’ll have pass outs, if people want to go home and then come back. We’re making it a really relaxed vibe.”
Rock The Valley was inspired by Ash and her husband’s love for live music, which motivated them to work together in making this dream a reality.
“Both of us just thought ‘You know what, if we’re going to do it, let’s do it now,” Ash says.
“With my background in events and Ash’s knowledge of the music industry, knowing so many local bands, we’re like ‘We think we can pull this off!’ We were also very thankful that Creative Victoria and the local Council got on board.”
The festival line-up includes bands such as The Delta Riggs, Smoke Stack Rhino, The Ugly Kings, Steph Strings, Whoopie Cat, Sunfruits, Murmurmur, Bill Barber & The Revelators, Iseula, Sunedun & The Seg Street Jam, Rhys Sund, Richie Langford and Brielle. Over half the lineup is from the Yarra Valley.
“So many people were just so keen to jump on board and help us out, because we’ll have two stages going, we’ll have a main stage and a little local acoustic stage,” Ash says. “When the main stage is doing their changeovers, we’ll have the local stage running with some really cool little acoustic artists that are local to the town as well.
“Everyone has been awesome with promoting the festival on their own socials and tagging us, so it’s been really nice to have all these artists get around us as well, and we’re going to try and look after them as best as we can.”
Along with these amazing music artists, Ash is also excited to announce a special guest that will be performing at the festival.
“We’ve also got a very special ‘Welcome to Country’ by Murrundindi, Wurundjeri Ngurungaeta and Elder. He is always out at Healesville Sanctuary, and he’s going to be playing some didge on stage. It’s very cool that we were able to hook that up, because he’s a very special guy to us.”
Ash and her husband are also both passionate about bringing more live music into the Yarra Valley – a place that people don’t often visit unless they’re from the area.
“The festival had to be Yarra Valley based, because we’re both from Yarra Valley,” Ash says. “Ash actually grew up in Healesville, so it’s funny that now we live here, we just wanted somewhere that would fit all those criterions and be accessible.
“Everything is usually in the city – you have to travel to go see your favourite band or live music, so I think the most important part of this is just to get this area [Yarra Valley] more known for local music.”
Aside from bringing people together, Rock The Valley was also created to support people who have been struggling in the music industry.
“We’ve been able to give work to over 100 people that are involved, which are the artists, the production companies, the security etc,” Ash says. “We wanted to be able to support them and be able to pay them for what they do best.
“I think that’s probably the big thing we’ll get out of it, knowing that we helped them out, and you know it all comes back round eventually.”
Rock The Valley happens, come rain, hail or shine this Saturday 5th March at Yarra Glen Racecourse from 1.30PM to 10.00PM. For tickets and further information see https://events.humanitix.com/rock-the-valley
