Holy Superhero, Batman!

This year Festival Of The Sun will be giving you an excuse to party with your undies on the outside when they celebrate their tenth anniversary with a superhero theme. They want to take the party people back to do what we all did when we were ten years old… dressing up as our favourite superhero! The artwork for this year’s festival was created by Santa Cruz skateboard artist and designer Jimbo Phillips. Known for his hectic skate illustrations – think fluoro skulls and vomit, flying brains, eyeballs popping and general colour explosions – Phillips enjoyed interpreting the theme. “I like lots of bright colours and playful characters and having a good time, so I enjoyed creating the art for this year’s event.”

Phillips was brought up in the California art world and at age 20 went to work with his legendary father Jim Phillips, also a skateboard artist and the creator of the iconic ‘screaming hand’ logo. Phillips’ sometimes literally eye-popping art is synonymous with skating, surfing culture and rock music, so he was the perfect choice to bring the superhero theme of the festival to life.

Anyone can connect with the superhero, says Phillips – even the wallflowers. “I think it’s about finding your inner super outgoing persona. Even if you’re an introverted person, you can go dress up like a freak and let yourself free and have an insane time!”

Festival Of The Sun is a boutique, outdoor festival held at Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park in Port Macquarie, NSW. Since its first year as a ticketed event in 2005 when they brought The Mess Hall and Sarah Blasko on board, the festival has consistently proven it has its finger on the musical pulse. Its beautiful location, next to the sleepy town of Port Macquarie, and its people-pleasing line-up choices have seen it develop into one of the more popular summer festivals, and to ensure the good vibes and intimate atmosphere, promoters Simon Luke and Scott Mesiti have a policy of keeping the capacity at around 3,000, despite constantly fielding the ‘why don’t you make it bigger?’ question. Just like Meredith, they also have a BYO policy, which any festival-goer will know improves the quality of the weekend to the max. In 2008 the festival sold out in 15 minutes.

On this landmark tenth year, the supermen and wonderwomen of the Festival Of The Sun crowd will be entertained by, among others, The Jezebels, Violent Soho and Dune Rats, as well as hip hop superheroes Jackie Onassis and Adelaide MC Allday, aka Tom Gaynor, who says, “As long as I can bring a smile to one child’s face, I’ve done my bit as a super hero.” The force of FOTSUN’s hip hop vibe has also always been strong, with The Herd, Spit Syndicate and Hermitude representing in the last few years.

Jimbo Phillips says, “The perfect festival for me is good music, art, food and fun people ready to have a good time!” Bring it on.