From its roots as a small landcare party in 2005 to being one of Australia's foremost transformational gathering, Earth Frequency Festival (EFF) is gearing up for another huge edition in 2019.
With three line-up announcements already revealed and one still to go, party-goers can look forward to heart-thumping sets from local, national and international music guests such as Clozee, Luigi Madonna, Desert Dwellers, The Upbeats, Nanoplex, Birds Of Paradise, The Strides, Tetrameth and heaps more spanning the breadth of electronic music as well as a wide selection of live music.
EFF also offers a packed programme of activities to ensure attendees make the most of their Earth Frequency experience.
The Frequency Village is a cultural village with a focus upon transformational workshops, healing, speakers, panels and experiences. The Village is designed to raise the frequency of festival attendants through conscious content and evolutionary experiences, comprising multiple realms.
Check out an inspirational panel, catch an evolutionary speaker, immerse yourself in sacred sounds, learn a new life skill, get a massage, join in on yoga daily, and more.
2018 Earth Frequency Festival - image © Liam Hardy
Earth Frequency is aligned with the emerging visionary art movement. Over the past few years, visionary art has risen to the forefront of the transformational festival experience worldwide. This movement is particularly focused on exploring themes of spirituality, consciousness, connectivity, and personal and planetary transformation.
Visionary art merges many vital and current ideas in to a medium of technical brilliance and exists at the cutting edge of human creative expression. Artworks from the festival can be viewed at EFF's own gallery, The Luminarium.
At its core, EFF values respect – for yourself, each other, the local community of Ivory's Rock where the event is held and of course the Earth. They also champion diversity and tolerance, family and community and the continual improvement of the festival as a collective.
After the success of the EFF Grounded Permaculture Retreats in 2017 and 2018, it is happening it again in 2019. Designed to give a small group of participants a solid grounding in a broad range of areas based on projects happening on site, this workshop programme is designed for those who are ready to gain the practical knowledge and skills to sink their roots deep into radical self-determination and productive land regeneration.
2018 Earth Frequency Festival - image © Liam Hardy
A collaborative partnership between Earth Frequency Festival, Grounded Permaculture Action Party and Peak Organics at Ivory Rock, the five-day programme will cover: Permaculture Ethics, Principles & Techniques, Bio-Dynamic & Certified Organic Farming, Social Permaculture, Natural Sequence Farming (Leaky Weirs), Fresh Food & Ferments, Orchard Planning, Design & Maintenance and Volunteer & Community Based Agriculture.
With so much on offer, festival-goers can customise their experience to get the most of what they want from the weekend, making it an all-inclusive sojourn for the mind, body and soul.
We catch up with EFF promoter and founder Paul Abad for a quick chat ahead of the 2019 event.
What were some of the highlights and successes of last year's festival?
2018 was probably our best-vibe festival to date. We achieved permanent approval from the local council mid 2017, so this was the first year of rolling the festival out with that solidity. Standout sets included the Grouch in Dub Band which are on for an encore performance this year.
And on a personal note, it felt like the most mature festival vibe we've had - we have very low incidents in terms of medical and road police stats, but it was the first year we saw a noticeable decrease from the norm, which really shows that our audience is not taking the festival space for granted and are looking after themselves and their mates, which makes our job a lot easier.
2018 Earth Frequency Festival - image © Liam Hardy
Last year you spoke of ending the festival's reliance on diesel-powered generators by farming solar power. How has this project developed since?
The answer to this isn't so exciting - the venue is in to it, but they have had a major management restructure, so plans are on hold till mid 2019.
Outside of music, what other experiences will EFF 2019 offer attendees?
This year we're excited to be hosting Android Jones, one of the world's highest regarded visionary artists. He's one of the few artists of this calibre who works entirely digital.
He's been to Australia a few times now: Earth Frequency 2012, the Eclipse festival and he also did live projections on the Sydney Opera House for Vivid Festival. His art is totally next level, and now he's exploring immersive 360-degree projections and virtual reality. He'll be showing art, VJing and speaking at our festival, and also presenting his 25-minute film 'Samskara' in full 360 mode at the Brisbane Planetarium just before and after Earth Frequency.
We'll also have our usual array of art, workshops, performances, plus a community tree plant. And on a personal note, there's two weddings happening at the festival - although these will be privately held, there's going to be a lot of LOVE flowing around the festival :)
With so much to see and do, what's a good strategy for getting the most out your time at EFF 2019?
Check the set times in advance, work out what you really want to see, but also be open to all the adventurous avenues the festival experience can take you though. Enjoy in moderation and get a bit of sleep each night, and you'll be high vibing even by day four!
Your volunteer army is essential for pulling off Earth Frequency each year. Can people still get involved, and how?
Yes. We have applications open until 31 December for volunteers. Seriously, we couldn't pull this festival off without our awesome volunteers. For anyone keen to work for their ticket and meet a bunch of awesome people behind the scenes of EFF, hit the website for our volunteer applications.
Click here to read our 2017 Q&A with Paul.
