The Gum Ball returns to Dashville in the Hunter Valley this month, with King Stingray, Christine Anu and Don Walker to headline.
The Gum Ball is 21 years old. Since starting the event in his early 20s, Matt ‘Magpie’ Johnston has transformed his family’s Hunter Valley property into a customised festival site. The property, known as Dashville, hosts not only The Gum Ball, but also the country and Americana festival Dashville Skyline and the heavy music event Thrashville.
The Gum Ball remains Dashville’s flagship offering, and the festival will welcome up to three-and-a-half thousand people over the final weekend of April.
The Gum Ball
- Friday 24 to Sunday 26 April
- Dashville, Hunter Valley NSW
- Tickets here (selling fast)
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
“I think the future has a lot of positive signs,” Magpie says, reflecting on the 21-year milestone. “I look at the ticket sales, and I’m worried about what’s going on in the bigger, wide world, but people are signing up, ready to come along. In fact, it’s looking to sell out soon. It’s like, thank fuck for that. We worked pretty hard to put this festival on, so it’s nice that people appreciate it.”
King Stingray, Christine Anu and Cold Chisel’s Don Walker will headline this year’s three-day Gum Ball. The lineup also includes the likes of Meg Washington, These New South Whales, Pinky Beecroft, Emily Lubitz and Bluebottle Kiss.
View this post on Instagram
Magpie, who’s in charge of the artist programming, pays close attention to the sequencing of acts, making sure that each performer will accentuate those on either side of them.
“I program a bunch of bands and then we place them into the running order and then it’s very painstakingly fine-tuned with other bands in and around to create that flow,” he says. “I’m visualising every moment most of the time.”
The Gum Ball owes its longevity to this sort of attention to detail. The goal is not infinite growth and booking household names. Rather, Magpie and the team are focused on curating an event that’s as much about shared discovery as it is big ticket headliners.
“I see an issue with some festival producers and bookers who always try and be better and stronger and higher, and you’ll see that those are the festivals that have fallen over and have kind of gone outside of their zone,” he says.
“I’ve always been pretty comfortable just sticking within our capacity and what our purpose is and what we’re doing. The most exciting part of any festival for me is watching those bands that nobody knows about and watching them hit the stage and people going, Oh fuck yeah, that’s cool, that’s my new favourite band.”
There are several names on this year’s lineup that Magpie is eager to introduce to The Gum Ball’s loyal audience.
“There’s those Brown Spirits guys. They’re going to be a lot of fun,” he says. “They’re coming in after King Stingray too. People aren’t really going to be too familiar with Brown Spirits, I’d imagine, but that’s an awesome way to close out the night after King Stingray. Immy Owusu as well, that’s another big sort of fun party thing.
“There’s quite a few WA bands as well. They’ve got this awesome scene over there. Lots of camaraderie. It feels like Newcastle on a larger scale. I’m looking forward to Timothy Nelson and Joan & The Giants.”
The Gum Ball is a family-oriented event, and there’ll be plenty of activity outside of the main stage performances, including kids and adult yoga, skating workshops, poetry readings, mushroom growing and circus workshops.
There’s also late-night programming for anyone eager to stay up past the last live performance. Tainted Burlesque runs on Friday Night and The Late Show runs on Saturday and Sunday Nights.
“Tainted Burlesque is a local theatre group,” Magpie says. “It’s just like going to the theatre. Everyone sits down and gets all cosy and warm in the big shed. I think it’s a lot of 90s grunge soundtrack to provocative dancing and some great theatre performers. The Late Show is a bit of a revue. It’s different artists, drag queens, comedy, dancing; you know good, late night wholesome stuff.”
The fan-favourite Silent Disco runs from midnight till 2am on Friday and Saturday nights.
“The Silent Disco is probably the most popular thing,” Magpie says. “Everybody on site camps, and when the music stops they could just wander back to camp and have a party, but we try and keep it central. So it’s just a crowd management thing, but it becomes the most memorable thing of the festival.
“Sometimes, if we don’t actually write silent disco, we’ll get a flurry of emails or texts saying, ‘Are we doing silent disco again? That’s my favourite.’ And I say yes, no reason to change.”
The Gum Ball is on from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 April. Find all the details here.
This article was made in partnership with Dashville.
