Tent Pole Festival

Welcome to Tent Pole: A Musical Jamboree! Twelve acts. Two stages. And a no-holds-barred attack on your aural senses. Come for the music, stay for the experience.

Tent Pole: A Musical Jamboree will turn the festival experience on its head with a line-up curated for maximum enjoyment over two stages, with the inaugural event taking place at Geelong’s Mt Duneed Estate on their newly developed Top Paddock site on Saturday 4 March.

More than just the music, it’s a cross-generational, neo-nostalgic celebration and gathering for like-minded music, art and culture lovers; the weird, the wonderful, the outsiders and everyone in between. Remembering, discovering and absorbing. All-inclusive and accessible. All senses catered for. All sensations welcome.

Auslan Stage Left, a national organisation specialising in the arts and performance interpreting, will be at the event, providing access for the Deaf Community.

Tent Pole is the first collaboration between Roundhouse Entertainment (the team behind Australia’s iconic outdoor summer concert series a day on the green), Love Police (led by music maverick Brian ‘BT’ Taranto, promoter of excellent international tours Out On The Weekend & Boogie, merch guru, book publisher and record label wiz) and Johann Ponniah, founder of I OH YOU (home to one of the country’s most successful independent record labels). They are combining their decades of expertise in booking the finest bands from all over the globe to give music fans the ultimate experience.

In a celebration of art, music and retro road trips, OK Motels will take over the second stage, curating a line-up that will embrace their unique love of all-things rural and retro. And with a nostalgic nod to the ’70s – Kate Berry, the founder and photographer behind everyone’s favourite Instagram account – with Shaun Adams, will produce a very OK program celebrating music, nostalgia and the great Aussie road trek.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of seminal 1992 debut album Slanted and Enchanted,PAVEMENT – who last toured Australia in 2010 – will feature the unbeatable line-up of Stephen Malkmus, Scott ‘Spiral Stairs’ Kannberg, Mark Ibold, Bob Nastanovich and Steve West.

Since topping 1996’s triple j Hottest 100 with Buy Me A Pony (the first Australian band to do so), seven studio albums and combined sales of more than one million units and 500 million streams, SPIDERBAIT – Kram, Janet and Whitt – have consolidated their status as national rock treasures.

With a voice as smooth as silk – and ancestory that traces back to American folk hero Davy Crockett – Texan singer-songwriter CHARLEY CROCKETT will make his highly anticipated Australian debut next March when he and his band bring their unique rootsy take on Americana music to audiences down under.

BLACK LIPS will tear up the Tent Pole stage with their raucous southern-fried, garage punk, sonic glory. Considered one of the best live acts around today, their recent 10th studio album, Apocalypse Love, shows they’re definitely not slowing down as they enter their third decade.

Geelong’s own MAGIC DIRT have cemented their status as one of Australia’s best loved and highly respected bands. The seminal alternative rock band fronted by Adalita are back on the road blitzing the live music scene once again.

Powerful, dynamic, raw, honest and intimate, Melbourne quartet FLOODLIGHTS meld ’80s alternative rock with ’90s New Zealand jangle-pop. The indie pop-rockers gained global attention in 2019 with Backyard and their critically acclaimed debut album in 2020, From a View.

“CLAMM may not be the first group to venture out into the fuzzy Australian wilderness, but they might just be the best,” declared DIY Mag. Combining a frenetic pace with thought-provoking lyrics, the Melbourne punk power trio hope to achieve “community, creativity and catharsis” through their music.

US garage duo THE SCHIZOPHONICS, hailed by Spotify as the “wildest live band in America”, play “fuzzy, psychedelic rock mixed with nasty funk, played with energy, passion and freakiness”. Their live set taps into the same unstoppable combination of rock 'n' roll energy and showmanship that fuelled The MC5, James Brown, Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard, and The Sonics.

BLACK ROCK BAND are a talented and outspoken rock outfit out of NT’s Kakadu, West Arnhem Land. The band draws on their deep musical family history and celebrate their connection to country, fighting for social justice and the future they want to see for the next generation.

Melbourne’s grungy post-punk trio MOD CON released their debut album Modern Conveniencein 2018 with NME Australia calling it, “One of the most inventive, attention-grabbing local debuts in recent memory.”  This was followed by last year’s hotly anticipated Modern Condition, charting a course through ’60s garage-surf rock, late ’70s post-punk and ’90s melodic punk-pop.

All eyes will be on THE PRIZE when they bring their power pop, proto-punk and pub rock sound to Tent Pole’s OK Motels stage. Three guitars, five voices and joyous harmonies making some of the finest blend of power pop and rock ‘n’ roll, their dynamic live show delivers harmonies, hooks and energy with melody to burn.

Making waves on the Surf Coast are Bellarine-based, psychedelic dream-pop band SIRENS, a 4-piece girl group collective bringing together a combination of psychedelic, progressive rock and dream pop music.

Prepare for iconic, indie, lo-fi, hi-fi, post-punk, alternative, renegade rock. Celebrating an eclectic mix of artists, while showcasing a musically diverse mix of seminal and highly influential international and Aussie acts, as well as local, up-and-coming and emerging artists. So magnificent, it will take two stages to contain them all! Arrive early and discover your next favourite band!

Tickets from Ticketmaster & 136 100