There’s nothing better than a sunny summer festival with great music, great friends, and cold drinks. In this spirit, we’ve partnered with Smirnoff, purveyor of the festival favourite Smirnoff Seltzers, to help you get the most out of this summer festival season. 

In many ways, the new Smirnoff Seltzer Cocktails are great pre-festival option. Available in Spicy Margarita and Watermelon Margarita flavours, they’re bubbly, fresh, and low in sugar and calories compared to full sugared drinks. So, if you’re looking for a drink that’s light on carbs to share with mates before heading off to sing and dance your way through a festival weekend, this is the drink for you.

Speaking of festival music, with live music now back in full swing, we’re spoiled for choice in terms of fresh Australian talent to catch live. Most of us don’t have the money or annual leave saved up to see everyone, which is why we’ve partnered with Smirnoff Seltzer to highlight the must-see acts for this festival season. Let’s get started.

King Stingray 

To give you an idea of the banner year King Stingray are having, in early August, days after announcing a national tour in support of their self-titled debut album, the Arnhem Land crew were required to add extra dates in Meanjin (Brisbane), Warrang (Sydney), Naarm (Melbourne) and Boorloo (Perth).

The album – which debuted at #6 on the ARIA chart – is the culmination of a couple of years’ worth of singles from the Yolŋu surf-rock collective, including the Hottest 100 entries ‘Get Me Out’ and ‘Milkumana’, the latter of which won Song Of The Year at the 2022 National Indigenous Music Awards.

Appearing at: Heaps Good (SA), Falls Festival (NSW)

Arno Faraji 

In conversation with Tone Deaf earlier in 2022, Arno Faraji made his post-genre ambitions clear. “I’m hoping to have a long career,” he said. “So I want to be able to release a funky track whenever or I want to be able to release a hard gym track some other time.”

This aim is backed up by Faraji’s latest singles, ‘Gravity’ and ‘On the Move’, the latter of which features production from Young Franco and Jack River collaborator Xavier Dunn. Both tracks can get the dance floor moving and signal a departure from Faraji’s hip hop-oriented early releases.

Appearing at: Ice Cream Factory (WA)

Caroline & Claude

Sibling duo Caroline & Claude pressed play on their indie pop project during the 2020 Covid lockdowns. The pair’s songwriting and production feeds off their individual and aesthetic discrepancies, with Claude prone to perfectionism and introversion, while Caroline is more impulsive and extroverted.

The single ‘IDK YOU’ features electronic production, voice modulation, drum programming and hooks aplenty, finding an unlikely meeting point between PinkPantheress, Craig David and Mystery Jets.  

Appearing at: Ice Cream Factory (WA)

FOURA

FOURA’s eclecticism as a producer is built into her musical DNA. FOURA was an avid creator of mixtapes in her junior years, using her intuition to curate wide-ranging collections for her friends.

Over the last couple of years, FOURA has exercised an impressive level of genre-defiance, imbuing her releases with shades of UK garage, breakbeat, bass and house music, while also collaborating with Big Skeez and Jordan Astra.

Appearing at: Ice Cream Factory (WA)

Elsy Wameyo

Elsy Wameyo’s appearance at this year’s Splendour in the Grass was a landmark moment for the Kenyan-born, Adelaide-based hip hop artist. Wameyo had little time to preen and primp in the aftermath, however, as she jumped straight onto a headline tour, followed by a high-profile support slot on Hilltop Hoods’ ‘Show Business’ tour.

Wameyo’s debut EP, Nilotic, came out in April, demonstrating the artist’s sharp wit, fiery flow and manifest intelligence. The record got its name from the African peoples to whom Wameyo traces her heritage, and beneath the musical assuredness, Wameyo carries out a journey of spirituality and personal growth.

Appearing at: Falls Festival (NSW)

Nyxen

Nyxen has described seeing Sydney indie-synth outfit Van She perform live in the late-2000s as a formative moment. The band’s knack for merging elements of rock and electronic music has shaped Nyxen’s own work over the last half a dozen years.

Nyxen caught the attention of an international audience with her 2016 single ‘Running’ and delivered a handful more singles in the lead-up to her 2022 debut album, PXNK, the title of which is a nod to cyberpunk. The album fuses Nyxen’s affection for Metric, New Order and the soundtracks of John Carpenter in service of an entirely agreeable synth-pop sound.

Appearing at: Ice Cream Factory (WA)

RONA.  

Kaytetye producer and DJ Rona Glynn-McDonald is a woman of many talents. In addition to releasing melodic and sometimes euphoric dance music under the RONA. moniker, Glynn-McDonald runs the First Nations not-for-profit Common Ground, which amplifies Indigenous knowledge and focuses on overhauling the justice and education system.

RONA.’s debut EP, Closure, draws influence from the world-blending Waak Waak Djungi and contemporary maestro Ross From Friends, while the Helena-featuring title track sounds like a First Nations repositioning of The Avalanches.

Appearing at: Falls Festival (NSW)

Dameeeela

Dameeeela will be a name on everybody’s lips by the close of this festival season. The Meanjin-based Yuggera woman has risen to become one of the country’s most in-demand DJs in recent years. Not only has Dameeeela spun the wheels as a support act for the likes of A$AP Rocky, Charli XCX, Skepta, Anderson .Paak, and RÜFÜS DU SOL, but she’s played two Boiler Room sets this year alone.

Dameeeela released her debut single, ‘The Shake Up’, featuring Tjaka, in the early months of 2022, taking Tjaka’s didjeribone (slide didgeridoo) playing and transposing it into a hard dance track. A second single is expected soon via NLV Records.

Appearing at: Falls Festival (NSW)

Telenova  

Prior to forming Telenova, bass player Joshua Moriarty had success as a member of Miami Horror and guitarist Edward Quinn was fifty per cent of the indie-electro duo Slum Sociable. Angeline Armstrong, Telenova’s lead vocalist, is not only a filmmaker but previously worked alongside producer Jarrad Rogers in the electro-pop duo Beachwood.

On their two EPs to date, 2021’s Tranquilize and this year’s Stained Glass Love, Telenova’s three constituents interact with a kind of familial ease, making pop music that breathes easy, and emotional music that won’t leave your lips.

Appearing at: Falls Festival (NSW)

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