It’s about more than just the music at The Gum Ball. But let’s face it, the 36-act bill at this year’s event is a lot to be excited about.
Dashville, the secluded bushland event venue and campground in Wonnarua Country (Lower Belford), stages a thriving calendar of boutique music, art, and food festivals annually. Chief amongst these, for many, is The Gum Ball festival. The Gum Ball, which kicked off in 2005 as a much rawer version of today’s festival, has evolved into a glamping (if you like), workshop, culinary, educational, and restorative experience for many.
The bushland amphitheatre is a perfectly breezy environment for taking in bands, and the BYO drinks policy complements the relaxed community spirit the festival is renowned for.
Although this year’s festival features 36 acts from both Australia and overseas, that’s just one aspect of a festival that also offers everything from beautiful bush camping locales to a dedicated kid’s zone to market stalls. For anybody who’s attending the 19th Gum Ball foremost for the music however, here’s a select list of acts for your shortlist.
The Gum Ball
- A brilliant festival in a bushland amphitheatre
- Thu 25th Apr – Sun 28th Apr
- 103 Kirkton Rd, Lower Belford NSW
- Tickets here
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
Who’s Playing at The Gum Ball?
Hard-Ons
You Am I’s Tim Rogers has been the Hard-Ons’ lead singer for more than two years now (more near three). To hear him rev his battle-scarred voice amongst the frenetic squeal of Hard-Ons speed-riffs is as good as it is to see him strangle the mic stand in cut-off denim shorts.
Hard-Ons are on tour supporting The Damned along Australia’s east coast at the time of writing. 40 years in and two albums down with Rogers, they’re prime bill real estate at The Gum Ball is well deserved.
RVG
RVG’s third album, Brain Worms, has marked a great chapter for a band that has long been well and truly great.
The band, which was nominated for Double J’s artist of the year category at the end of last year, also finished last year as winners of the Australian Music Prize, with Brain Worms edging out nine other shortlisted Australian albums.
Brain Worms, flush with spacey jangle in widescreen sonic mindscape, is characteristic of a lot of what you can expect to get from RVG at The Gum Ball: emphatic, triumphant, and intensely epic post-punk anthems to burn, with an underrated twist of good humour, wherever the gallows might be.
Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds
Come on. Really.
Gun Club. The Cramps. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds….
Kid Congo Powers is the only person in the world who can tell you what it’s like to play in all of those bands. Punk nihilism, necrotic jazz, and offbeat blues is all inherent in the palette of this self-taught guitarist. Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds tour Australia in April. Chances are high the far-out party act will have The Gum Ball stomped into a dust bowl by set’s end.
Dallas Crane
Dallas Crane is like a sweaty pizza. Brilliant at its worst. At its best, even better.
The Melbourne pub-rock act’s biggest albums (Dallas Crane and Factory Girls) and trajectories are historical by now, but the band continues to switch on audiences with its marriage of double-barrelled guitar and high-wire vocal gusto.
The gigs are damp (with sweat, beer, and microphone spit) and custom-made for The Gum Ball’s 6:30pm Saturday night slot.
As old as well-run favourites such as Sit on My Knee and Sold Me keep getting, they never get old.
Amen.
Tropical Fuck Storm
Gareth Liddiard kicks off the festival on Anzac Day Eve, before he’s joined for the musical equivalent of a fever dream, Tropical Fuck Storm.
It doesn’t seem so long since Tropical Fuck Storm sprung out of the ashes of The Drones, but that was more than five years ago, and its three awesome albums – A Laughing Death in Meatspace, Brain Drops, and Deep Staes – later now.
Mid-year this year, TFS is slated for European shows, including Primavera Sound slots and supports with Bikini Kill
Their molten live shows are one of the most hallucinogenic reasons to let it all hang out at The Gum Ball.
The Gum Ball’s full lineup
- Dan Sultan
- Tropical Fuck Storm
- Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
- The Lachy Doley Group
- RVG
- Hard-Ons
- Gareth Liddiard
- Teeny Tiny Stevies
- Coterie
- Dallas Crane
- Emily Wurramara
- Battlesnake
- Vaudeville Smash
- Bullhorn
- Melody Pool
- Marvell
- Karl S. Williams
- Queenie
- Dave Wells
- Checkerboard Lounge
- Burger Joint
- Claire Anne Taylor
- Jet City Sports Club
- Junior Burger
- Radium Dolls
- The Main Guy & The Other Guys
- SF Wrens
- Sitting Down
- The Bures Band
- Joe Mungovan
- Salarymen
- Chimers
- Don’t Thank Me, Spank Me
- Georgie Winchester Special
- Joey Leigh Wagtail
- Butterknife
- Dashville Progress Society
The Gum Ball takes place between April 26-April 28 this year. Get your tickets here.
