The Splendour 2018 Arts Program Is Here

Someone once said “Earth without art is just eh” and Kmart’s across the country rejoiced at the prospect of finally taking “Live, Laugh, Love” off the mantle.

Come July, Splendour In The Grass will take the same mantra and turn it up to 100, with the announcement of their 2018 Arts Program and Artist in Residence.

In what will become an annual collaboration with the best and brightest, Australian contemporary visual artist Brooklyn Whelan will be the first Artist in Residence, creating the 2018 event artwork and video mapping project – projecting moving images on the Mix Up Stage tent top.

If that doesn't quench your inner blood lust – make sure you check out The Barn with Andy Forbes, inspired by the realms of religious cults, fetish and socio-political taboos. Anyone up for a graveyard boogie around a large-scale, wicker human effigy?

Pickle’s Funeral Parlour will also make a comeback to fulfil all of your walk-through haunted house fantasies...or is that nightmares?

Splendour is often synonymous with mud and in tongue-in-cheek style, a brand new performance installation by Shock Therapy Productions will see a stark white living room hoisted in the air and bombarded with mud-filled balloons. Just like every ‘Instagram model’ you’re bound to come across, two cleaners in white uniforms will take great pains to maintain the room’s cleanliness. Somehow I don’t think a wet-wipe shower in the tent will be enough.

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Sam Songalio loves drum machines. Sam Songalio hates the person that posted a sticker at the Grace Emily hotel that read: “DRUM MACHINES HAVE NO SOUL.” Sam Songalio decided to create art that embodies electronic music and questions the importance of a soul. Painting, installation, video, sound and sculpture – don’t miss his highly immersive Gateways 2.

Happy Kanye, Nicholas Cage in a Cage – iconic! Now the purveyors of Cool Shit are back with... a garden of Snoop Dogg Hot Dogs? I don’t really know fam. Apparently Snoop Dog was invited onto Jimmy Kimmel Live! to find out how hot dogs were made and has since sworn off the franks. Ketchup and mustard on mine please.  

If all this art has got you feeling like Banksy, make sure you grab a permanent marker, make your mark on Laith McGregor’s Hide Your Eyes and help build an alternate communal persona.

Also check out the entrance tunnel on the drive-in, painted this year by Melbourne-born visual artist Ash Keating​, so you don't have to wait to get into the festival to start 'gramming all the action.

For locations and performance times, check out the website.