While many young music festivals attempt to become the next Meredith or Falls Festival overnight, for the organisers of Blackwood’s Shady Cottage, the charm is in maintaining the intimacy.
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Gearing up for its second year, the three-day festival has moved five minutes down the road from its 2016 location in Trentham to the current camp in North Blackwood.
However, festival organisers are not in a rush to see massive growth in the event’s early stages.
Festival organiser Ted Mitchell said the event, which was inspired by a 21st birthday party held on a nearby property, would again focus on providing a Melbourne-based line-up in a picturesque setting.
The event will host just 500 attendees.
“We’re keen to keep it small at this point because if you look at some of the proven models they tend to start out as successful micro-festivals,” Mr Mitchell said.
“We’ve been lucky that we’ve been able to make the transition to another fantastic space so close to the site of the first festival.”
The March 31 to April 2 festival will showcase a range of electronic, funk and rock music from the likes of Northside Records heavyweights Sex on Toast, Ballarat-bred garage rockers Apes and Melbourne party-starters Wax’o Paradiso.
The 2017 event will also have the inclusion of a local act to the line-up which will be chosen via a competition.
Artists throughout the Hepburn Shire and surrounds encouraged to send their tracks to festival organisers who will then pick their favourite to be added to the 22-act bill.
Mr Mitchell said organisers were keen to encourage local musicians to become involved in the festival and hoped it would also help generate a larger local audience for the event.
“Last year we had (Ballarat band) Crepes play which was an awesome local addition so we really want to keep that going,” Mr Mitchell said.
“We’ve got a solid Melbourne market but we’re really looking to build it locally.”
The event will also include artistic collective Lucifer’s Monacle, returning again in 2017 with a pop-up art gallery.