Summer is in its twilight, but the City of Frankston’s events calendar is still in the box.
To celebrate, Frankston Council is putting on a two-day summer party. The Frankston Waterfront Festival, which is set to take place on, erm, well… Frankston’s waterfront… kicks off Frankston’s 2023 events plans with a stacked schedule of live music, festival food and drinks, market stalls, rides and amusements, along with a Saturday night sky full of fireworks.
Waterfront Festival
- Location: Frankston WaterfrontFrankston 3199
- Date: Sat 18 – Sun 19 Feb, 2023
- Time: 12pm-10pm
- Lineup: You Am I, Casanovas, Melbourne Ska Orchestra
- Price: Free entry
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Following on from a breakout 2022 festival, this year’s event dials up the festivity and frivolity to newer heights. As Frankston’s Mayor Nathan Conroy says: “Last year was spectacular, and this year we’ve got even more, pushing that little bit extra to ensure our residents enjoy memorable moments, and our city continues to be a destination for events.”
Whether you’ve already made up your mind to attend the free event, or still plan to make it up, here is what you need to know. You can also check out their handy family-friendly festival guide here, or their specific foodies festival guide here.
The Garden Bar
Plonk with friends on this patch of emerald, and enjoy all the beelines to the surrounding stable of vendors that you like. Local beer-masters to investigate include The Cheeky Squire, Dainton Brewery, and Mr Banks Brewing Group. For cocktail hour, Sugar Rims spares no excess mixing and dusting cocktails and mocktails that it injects with elements such as watermelon elderflower lemonade, mango, and strawberry coconut. Once wine-o-clock strikes, the Brown Family Wine Group and Chirping Bird Winery will be waiting with everything from pinot gris, to rosé and lemonade, to prosecco and moscato.
The Waterfront Market
It might feel like a feat to cede real estate in the Garden Bar – especially with the stilling of the ocean for your backdrop – but the Waterfront Market is a compelling divergence any time your Garden Bar experience emboldens you to voyage into the wider wilds of the festival. Add the Waterfront Market to your itinerary to explore the stalls of 40 creators and makers. The market will inspire just enough whimsy in festival-goers to introduce the homewares, beauty products, clothes, accessories, and art and craft that they never previously realised they needed in their lives.
Ventana
The Ventana Precinct is a celebration of Latin, Mediterranean and Filipino culture. As well as that, it’s a festival in its own right, residing all the meanwhile inside the City of Frankston’s flagship festival. Explore the Ventana precinct to experience Latin, Mediterranean and Filipino culture through dance, music, food, art, crafts, film, poetry, and educational workshops. Or if you really like wrestling, go for the LuchaLibre wrestling. You say you don’t want to be the audience jester who guinea pigs into the ring, but you know that’s exactly why you’re here. It sounds strange to say, but the almost-too-close spectacle of acrobatic beasts in masks and active wear is one of the festival highlights.
Amusements and Rides
If your children need to make sure you’re taken care of, they can keep a watchful eye on you while they ride everything there is to ride in the Waterfront Festival’s Rides and Amusements precinct. Firstly, you’ll need to be old enough – or young enough – to have kids. Secondly, your kids will need to be old enough to roam independently around all that bleeping neon and popcorn perfume. If that’s all so, it just so happens that the amusements and rides precinct is a handy decoy that technically frees you to sneak off to some of the live music acts on the festival bill.
But back to the roar of those rides for a jiff. There is one called the Sky Flyer, and another called Cliff Hanger. For two or three ride tokens ($4 each), you can be screaming. And you can be nauseous. When the adrenaline kicks in, you probably won’t even care if there’s a difference between the two.
You Am I, The Casanovas, and more
In 2023, the Waterfront Festival has added a little extra hot sauce to the live music bill.
You Am I, a perennial festival act with heritage status and aces up its sleeves still, continue to put out vital records, and tour with the grit, sweat, and half-shirtlessness of 1995. Their latest album (their 11th), The Lives of Others, does plenty of favours to a canon that resonates as brightly today as any other day.
The Casanovas, meanwhile, have hit more high notes than ever since their second life began with Terra Casanova in 2015. Recently, the trio, which now features the well-placed peacockery of Brett Wolfenden on drums, launched new single When You Want Something From Me, ahead of its 2022 European tour. The new single has the spirit of Slade, Cheap Trick, and Kiss, in spades, and guitarist/vocalist Tommy Love’s wide-legged riffs are made for festival lights.
Fireworks
To cap off Saturday night, there will be totally legal fireworks colouring the sky from 9:45pm, with some of the best vantage points including the beach, pier promenade, and Oliver’s Hill.
Waterfront Stage: Saturday 18 February lineup and set times
12.05pm: Joshua Batton
1.05pm: Mathilde Anne
1.55pm: Peninsula Aquatic Recreation Centre (PARC)
2.10pm: Emily Barker
3pm: Welcome to Country including Smoking Ceremony, Mayor’s Welcome
3.20pm: Melbourne Ska Orchestra
4.40pm: Phil Para Band
5.40pm: Fulton Street
6.40pm: The Merindas
7.40pm: The Casanovas
8.45pm: You Am I
Waterfront Stage: Sunday 19 February lineup and set times
12.05pm: Troy Wilson And Aaron Gillett
1pm: Riley Catherall
1.40pm: Peninsula Aquatic Recreation Centre (PARC)
1.55pm: What We Become
2.50pm: Grey Horizon
3.45pm: Tillerman Pete
4.45pm: Tanya George
5.45pm: Kylie Auldist
6.45pm: Thndo
For more info, head to The Waterfront Festival 2023 (discoverfrankston.com.au) or follow along for live updates on Facebook and Instagram.
This article was made in partnership with Frankston City Council.
