Melbourne summers have a way of turning festival-going into a logistics puzzle: surge-priced fares, a paddock somewhere past the outer suburbs, and a long haul home in the dark.
Queenscliff Music Festival makes a quieter case.
Ninety minutes from town, on the Bellarine Peninsula, the little coastal settlement of Queenscliff hands its streets over to live music across 27–29 November. Drive it before lunch, cross the bay by ferry, or stretch it into a proper weekend away.
The pitch is refreshingly simple — a getaway you can knock over in a day if you must, or delve deep over an entire week if you’re clever. All minus the interstate airfare, with a site compact enough to wander end to end on foot.
Queenscliff Music Festival
- When: 27–29 November
- Where: Queenscliff, Bellarine Peninsula — around 90 minutes from Melbourne (festival hub at 1 Hygeia Drive)
- Who: Baker Boy, Kate Miller-Heidke, Lime Cordiale, Matt Corby, Meg Mac, Magic Dirt, Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos and roughly 80 more
- Tickets: on sale here
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
A festival you can reach by boat
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For anyone starting in Naarm, half the appeal is the trip down. The drive runs about 90 minutes, with street parking a short walk from the action — there’s no dedicated festival car park, so keep an eye on the local signs and the neighbours’ driveways.
Better yet, make the drive count. Point the car down the Bellarine, windows down, detour for a beach stop and a counter meal, and roll into Queenscliff unhurried. Two nights of salt air and late live music beats any day trip.
Rather arrive by water? Searoad Ferries runs a 40-minute crossing from Sorrento, while Port Phillip Ferries links Docklands to nearby Portarlington. There’s also the V/Line train to Geelong, with McHarry’s buses handling the last leg into town.
However you arrive, there’s a whole town waiting once the music stops for the night. Queenscliff wears its history on its sleeve — 19th-century streetscapes, grand bay-front hotels and a pier built for lazy fishing.
Between shows you can swim, surf or paddle Port Phillip Bay, book in for a dolphin and seal swim, or swap the water for dry land at Fort Queenscliff, the maritime and historical museums, or a slow chug on the heritage Bellarine Railway.
The eating is a drawcard in itself, from harbour-side tables to local bakeries and cool-climate cellar doors — and the wider Bellarine, from Point Lonsdale’s lighthouse to Barwon Heads’ beaches and Portarlington’s fresh seafood, sits a short hop up the road.
And if you’d sooner not clock-watch the final sailing, campsite is just down the road, an easy 5 minute walk, and the local guesthouses fill fast. The full easy and affordable travel and accommodation options, right in the heart of town for camping lovers, lives here.
Who’s playing
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- A.C Saunders
- Alaska
- Azure Ryder
- Babe Rainbow
- Baker Boy
- Bebop Circus
- Bonnie Jackson
- Cam Walter Blues
- Candice Lorrae
- Charley Castle & the Boys in the Well
- Chorus Club – New Swell Choir
- Cool Out Sun DJs
- Cosmic Wilderness – Chloe Holliday
- Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird
- Damian Callinan
- Dangerboots
- De Porsal
- Denise Scott
- Docker River Band
- FARAH
- Fee B-Squared
- Giant Seagulls
- Gillian Cosgriff
- Guru Dudu Silent Disco
- Harriet Wraith
- Hussy Hicks
- Immy Owusu
- Jack Meredith
- Jam Session – Imaginary Millions
- Jesse Valach & The Testaments
- Joey Lightbulb
- Jordie Lane
- KAIIT
- Kate Miller-Heidke
- Kerryn Fields
- Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
- Krazy Koala Puppet Show
- Kyle Brew
- Lime Cordiale
- Liv Cartledge
- Magic Dirt
- Marimba Taters
- Matt Corby
- MEAN TEETH
- Meg Mac
- Merpire
- Mia Dyson
- Midnight Chicken
- Mika James
- Musical Plants – Playable Streets
- Nat Harris
- Nicholas Ridiculous High Wire
- Oscar LaDell
- Owelu Dreamhouse
- Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos
- Reflection – Playable Streets
- Rob Major
- Rupert Bullard
- Sing Out – Shedding The Blues
- Slow Art Collective
- Small Town Romance
- South Atlas
- Steph Strings
- Sunday Lemonade
- Suren Jayemanne
- Sweethearts
- Tarsh Jago
- The Bamboos
- The Foxy Junes
- The Gnomes
- The Listies
- The Maes
- The Pretty Littles
- Tim Rogers
- Tom Harrington
- Ukulele Death Squad
- Velvet Bloom
- Vince Peach
- Wayne Jury
- Willie J’s 6V6s
- Woody’s World Ukulele
- Yoga & Live Music
- Zindzi & The Zillionaires
The bill leans on a deep run of Australian names. Baker Boy, Kate Miller-Heidke, Lime Cordiale, Matt Corby and Meg Mac anchor the top of the poster, with grunge stalwarts Magic Dirt and Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos on hand to bring the volume.
Around them sits a generous undercard — Tim Rogers, The Bamboos, Babe Rainbow, Mia Dyson and KAIIT among them — plus a comedy contingent featuring Denise Scott, Damian Callinan and Gillian Cosgriff, and a kids’ program to keep the littlies busy.
It all spills across a handful of town venues, from the Esplanade Hotel to the returning Blues Train, which rolls for one night only. The complete list of who’s on is here.
It takes a town to run a festival
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What holds the weekend together is the place itself. QMF is a registered not-for-profit, staged on Wadawurrung country, and run in concert with the local businesses, community groups and volunteers who lend their hands (and their venues) each year.
That investment in the local scene isn’t just festival-weekend window dressing, either. The organisation ploughs money and effort into year-round workshops, mentorships and performance slots, with a clear eye on the next crop of Bellarine talent.
Where the next lot earn their break
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The clearest example is the busking competition, which turns Queenscliff’s footpaths into a stage. Approved performers busk across the town over the weekend, punters vote for their favourites, and the act with the most support plays its way onto the 2027 line-up. Full busking details are here.
There’s a youth stream too. The Foot-in-the-Door competitions, part of the festival’s Amplify program, hand 12- to 25-year-olds a proper festival slot and all the live experience that comes with it. More on the youth programs here.
Tickets are moving now, and given the size of the place, beds and campsites tend to go well before the acts do. Sort your accommodation early and the rest — three days of music by the water — takes care of itself.
Grab yours here.
This article was made in partnership with Queenscliff Music Festival.
