Jungle Love Festival is stepping it up a notch this November; offering patrons more music, more arts and a larger venue in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.
The minds behind this boutique, BYO music and arts festival have been creative in ensuring the growth of the festival which, in its second year, continues to support local artists and vendors.
Launching a crowd-funding campaign, co-director Raymond Williams said they set themselves a financial target to reach in the first month, encouraging punters to “take responsibility” for buying tickets that would make, or break, the festival. “The reality is, if we didn't do the Pozible, people would leave it to the last minute.
“As a couple of recently graduated ‘business people’, we couldn't wait around until a week before the festival, to see if people were going to show up or not. It would be a different story if we were a big, corporate entity.”
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Their community-inspiring strategy worked, with their initial target met, with time to spare. “We didn't have to put in any money ourselves, it got there organically. That's enough to get us started; hopefully we get even more people buying tickets, so we can deliver a bigger and better show.”
The new site at Imbil will allow the festival to have music across four stages, with over sixty acts booked over the two day, camping event. The line-up includes: The Cairos, The Belligerents, Bullhorn, Resin Dogs and MKO Sun.
Raymond is excited to have added two international acts to the bill. “We're quite sure that most of our audience won't have heard of them. We're not too interested in names, we're more interested in top quality performances. There should be surprises in the line-up… a good festival should always leave someone walking away with three or four new favourite acts.”
Taking place in the height of summer, punters will be pleased to know they'll have access to something a lot of festivals aren’t able to offer; somewhere to swim. “Where the two main stages are, there is a lush, flowing creek right next to it. So people can be sitting in the creek, listening to music.”
On the subject of security and safety, Raymond is confident in the type of crowd this still fledgling festival attracts. “We give our audience a lot of freedom and trust. We're pretty confident in the people that come – that they can take care of themselves – they can be respectful of the freedoms that are given to them.
“We need security to make sure nobody has glass bottles, especially near the creek, but we're happy to give people that trust.”
This trust definitely extends to the BYO aspect of the event. “To me that's important, just so people understand the reasons why we're doing the festival. First and foremost, we want people to have an enjoyable experience, and for them not to feel that they're part of a money-making exercise. The way we look at every body is: it's an 18-plus festival, everyone's an adult, they've all reached legal drinking age. We didn't want it to be up to us, to hold them at ransom, and charge ten dollars a drink.”
For those that aren’t too keen on keeping their own supply cold, there will be a new, licensed bar area on site, as well as food stalls catered by Brisbane cafes Lost Boys and Kettle and Tin. Patrons are also encouraged to bring push bikes to get around the site, with the festival supplying a communal fleet of bright pink bikes for people to ride.
Jungle Love Music And Arts Festival takes place at Borumba Deer Park 27-28 November.
