The second instalment of Apollo Bay’s annual WinterWild fest is going down this weekend.
Wrapped in the darkness and elemental power of the Victorian winter, Dark Arts Festival WinterWild will return to Apollo Bay for its final weekend on August 26-28 bringing live music, theatre, gourmet food, outdoor performance, installations, beachside bonfires and more to the dark heart of the Otway Coast.
Having already taken place over its first wintery weekends, August 12-14, the festival is going out with a bang this weekend with ambitious music, food and arts programming promising to bring adventure-seeking audiences to the far reaches of the Great Ocean Road.
So what’s on this weekend? Here are some of the highlights worth checking out.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
The Wild Feast | Saturday, August 27 4pm
At the core of WinterWild is the all-encompassing free The Wild Feast.
Located within the Festival Brazier, here you’ll find roaring fire-pits and char-grills, bubbling cauldrons and giant smokehouse barbeques… this is how we celebrate the end of the deep, wild dark of winter on the Otways coast!
Food tastes so much better cooked in the great outdoors so rug up and settle in for a Wild Feast around the fires, featuring cauldrons of local seafood bouillabaisse, giant paella pans, smokehouse style meats, fresh caught char-grilled seafood on the hibachi, and seasonal local veggies buried in the coals. The amazing local vendors serving the feasts will be Workers BBQ, Peter Ford Catering and Apollo Bay Fish Co-Op, and Great White Buffalo.
Warm your hearts and hands with a mug of mulled wine, a range of Prickly Moses dark ales, and an Apollo Bay Distillery whisky in a hot toddy or gin cocktail.
Alongside the food, there will also be entertainment from Alister Turrill, The Huxleys and a two-hour Wild Women of Music Tribute show featuring a range of WinterWild artists and Apollo Bay locals.
As part of this the festival will be providing reusable crockery to all food vendors resulting in a 95% decrease in rubbish heading to landfill. Each person attending The Wild Feast will pay a $5 refundable deposit to contribute to this important environmental initiative, refunds will be available directly after the event upon return of crockery.
The event is free, but you need to book your free place here.
The DogWatch Part 2 | Saturday, August 27 6pm
At the throbbing heart of WinterWild is fire. And nothing embraces, sculpts, worships and glorifies fire quite like The DogWatch. This is the event that the festival begins and ends with – that defines it, energises it, enflames it.
This year’s theme centres around the Sirens – those mythical creatures, half-woman, half-bird with an irresistibly haunting song that lures sailors onto the rocks of their island piled with bones.
The DogWatch will once again be directed by Roderick Poole, a veteran of outdoor spectacle, his works having been performed in over 40 countries. He will collaborate with Eloise Wood and WildHoney Performing Arts, along with a horde of local artists, performers, dancers, musicians, and Apollo Bay stalwarts. This will be a passionate, eerie performance that goes to the dark heart of Apollo Bay.
Live Music from Leah Senior + Sid O’Neil | Saturday, August 27 8pm
Another highlight will be two intimate live performances from Leah Senior and Apollo Bay’s own Sid O’Neil at Apollo Bay Our Lady Star of the Sea Church.
Leah Senior silences audiences with her ethereal vocals and vivid lyricism. Hailed by critics as a divine masterpiece, her latest album The Passing Scene is a charming expansion on her previous two records lilting between springtime baroque-pop and 70’s folk. The Passing Scene effortlessly weaves together themes of impermanence, the natural world, loss and ultimately hope. Leah Senior’s vocals have the clarity of British folk diviner Sandy Denny whilst her songwriting style ranges from contemplative folk to a playfulness likened to Paul McCartney.
Sid O’Neil is a person who plays guitar and piano and sings. He has his first-ever highly anticipated solo album coming out. He plays all of the instruments on it apart from some synthesizer and sampler by Mikey Young.
Tickets can be purchased for this event here.
Moongarden | Saturday, August 27 9pm
The Moongarden is WinterWild’s epic closing ceremony that will be an event to remember. Festival goers are encouraged to come and dance by the water under the moon with some of Australia’s best alternative electronic artists including K.I.M – The Presets DJ Set, Big Yawn (live set) Sleep D, Post Percy, and Donalds House to close out the 2022 festival in style.
Multiple ARIA Award winner Kim Moyes is half of iconic Australian dance music duo The Presets plus a whole lot more. Working on his own under the moniker K.I.M, he has produced and co-written with DMA’s, DZ Deathrays, Northeast Party House, Digitalism and Kirin J. Callinan amongst many others. He has also created acclaimed remixes for a wide range of artists including Tove Lo, Kings Of Leon, Cassius, Tiga, Ajax, Flash & The Pan, Bag Raiders, Rinse and Midnight Juggernauts.
K.I.M has toured his renowned DJ sets locally and internationally for the last 15 years and released several solo EPs via Modular Recordings, Motorik! Records, Unknown Records, Rallye-Klee Records (Japan) & Bang Gang 12 Inches. In 2018 he launched “Here To Hell”, a new record label for emerging Electronic artists that Kim runs with veteran Melbourne DJ and Zero Percent partner Mike Callander. His work with The Presets includes co-writing and co-producing all of the band’s work and performing live behind his drum kit at some of the world’s biggest music festivals.
Sonic explorers, label heads, pillars of the Melbourne underground, Sleep D explore the rave unconscious – driving rhythms, hypnotic bass, worlds of echo and the hazy bliss of the morning after. Childhood friends with Iraqi and Maltese lineage, the duo and their coveted Butter Sessions label have ushered in a new era, sensibility and productivity to the city that raised them.
Melbourne quartet Big Yawn make experimental electronic music by fusing a wash of sweeping synthesizers, heavily refracted vocal sampling, motorik style percussion and disorientating dub FX. The band takes musical inspiration from artists like Hiroshi Sato, Hype Williams, Shinichi Atobe and many more.
Rounding out the event will be DJ sets from Sleep D and Post Percy and Donalds House, promising to bring the heat for the last winter weekend.
Tickets here.
WinterWild is part of On the Road Again, a Victorian Government initiative to bring live music back across the state. WinterWild will run from August 26–28. To see the full program, head here.
