It’s been an interesting time for music festivals in Australia, with the consolidation of the major music festivals, and the explosion of new and fresh boutique music festivals taking the country by storm.
Now Kyle Sandilands, who you might remember from such hits as vomiting live on air and asking Lorde if she was Taylor Swift’s lesbian lover, has announced on air that Kyle and his radio co-host Jackie O are hosting a new music festival with their radio network.
Branded iHeartRadio Australia Music Festival, it’s just the latest addition to our already bulging live music calendar.
“We have got a stack of artists around the world, all lining up changing their schedule trying to re route themselves to Australia,” Sandilands revealed on air today. “It’s about time Australia got the iHeart music festival as these are huge around the world and they are known for their huge line ups,” Jackie added.
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iHeartRadio music festivals have been held in Las Vegas for the past few years and have seen the likes of Coldplay, Lorde, Jane’s Addiction, Childish Gambino, Weezer, and Calvin Harris.
The Australian edition of the event however will see the likes of Miley Cyrus, X-Factor’s Redfoo, alongside locals such as rapper Miracle, pop rock band At Sunset, and DJ duo The Faders, descend on Sydney’s Allphones Arena for 6 punishing hours.
According to the radio duo, the station will be announcing more stars being added to the bill every day on the network. “We don’t really get these big pop music festivals in Australia,” said Jackie.
There’s no word yet on whether Kyle or Jackie O will be gracing the stage. It’s also unclear whether Frenzal Rhomb have been invited to perform.
In 2004, Sydney punk legend Frenzal Rhomb played AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ over the top of Jackie O’s MC shpiel at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin after she rocked up more than 9 hours late. “Jackie O what the fuck?” Frenzal’s Jay Whalley told the crowd according to FasterLouder. “ World Idol, Australian Idol, Popstars, fuck ‘em, fuck the fucking lot of them.”
Jackie O was reduced to tears, and Sandilands threatened to “bury the band”. The whole issue reached a crescendo when Whalley called up the station, which thanks to the magic of the internet you can relive again below.
The announcement comes off the back of a study released last week by ticketing company Eventbrite about Australian festivals.
According to their research, the average Aussie festival-goer is a twenty-something female, Soundwave and Splendour In The Grass are the most talked about events on the music calendar, while MasterChef’s Matt Preston and Wolverine are the tastemakers that get social media buzzing about Aussie music festivals.
The figures also demonstrate that it isn’t typically festival bros and teenagers dominating the festival scene anymore.
In fact, the majority of attendees across all festivals is twenty-something (20-29 years old) and female (55%), followed by the 30-39 year bracket (25%) and then attendees under 20. Meanwhile, the majority of festival-goers are also married (68%), have a deep interest in politics and news (48%) along with their passion for music.
For everybody else there’s iHeartRadio Australia Music Festival, taking place at Sydney’s Allphones Arena on Saturday October 18, kicking off at 4pm.
Tickets go on sale September 4 from ticketek.com.au and fans registered with iHeartRadio will have exclusive pre-sale access to tickets.
