Wanderer Festival Brings Together The Best Elements Of Beloved Events

If you’re still re-learning how to be a human out in the world enjoying music with other humans, a nice soft landing is an outdoor festival. Fresh air, a notable absence of walls (had enough of those lately!) and some stellar artists keen to get back to it. DMA’S, Wolfmother, The Dandy Warhols, Alice Ivy, Emma Donovan, as well as cabaret and comedy like Die Roten Punkte, Geraldine Hickey, Children Are Stinky – what’s not to love?

Simon Daly, pioneering festival producer and Wanderer programmer, is as passionate about live music and arts now as ever. With decades of organising under his belt (Falls and Lost Lands being his handy work), the Wanderer festival has now found its home at NSW Sapphire Coast’s Pambula Beach, taking place from September 23-25.

With the support of the local council and community, the aim is definitely to bring the artistic love for punters as well as those that live and work in the area all year around. “Everyone you meet around there is really lovely too – and I think it’s a fairly charmed life [there] with a really friendly collective, but also keen to have people share that space,” Daly tells.

When talking about putting this all together, Daly says with a laid-back laugh, “I suppose I’ve had some practice over 44 festivals.” Providing the literal space for generations of musical memories to be made, he’s still as passionate as ever about making room for everyone. “I feel like we've got lots of experience getting different types of festivals – from Falls Festival then to the family experience of Lost Lands. So for me, it was like bringing all of that into one for Wanderer, and curating it in a way that really does suite everybody really well.”

With the shifts in industry continuing due to travel, weather and ongoing health concerns, Daly continues to champion the industry that still uses “creative ways” to get by. He says though that getting artists interested is never tough. “To be honest we just sent the artists a piece on what Pambula is, because it’s such a hidden gem,” says Daly by way of recruitment for the event. “So it’s that ability to let artists and audiences find the area – somewhere that hasn’t had a festival like this before – and let them find each other.”

It’s worked a treat, proving what he calls a ‘unique model’ of festival vibe with a comfortable, chilled out experience.  “It’s got a really great stadium-like feel in the natural environment, as well as forest backdrop, so it’s beautiful.” As with all of Daly’s festivals the experience is key, and this one is going to be big enough to mingle, but not so big as to be overwhelming. “We’re going to cap it at 10,000 people,” he explains. “A regular festival is usually between 20-50,000 so we’re going for something smaller and more comfortable.”

Important for Daly and the team was the mix of music and arts, allowing for something that is family friendly but with room for new and emerging artists alongside bigger names to really develop. The idea is that there’s space for families, but also for those who want to explore things that are more for an ‘over 18s punter’. “It’s all on the one ticket though, coming together of Wanders and Lost Landers” is how Daly describes the idea. Putting together a line-up with enough for everyone, but also enough space to move around easily and safely.

Talking about the venue he’s still clearly smitten. “September will definitely have a lot of sunshine and that changing of the seasons where things are just nice. But this guy [from the BOM] explained to me that his choice of where to retire, based on the weather, was Pambula. It’s just got its own microsystem so even when there’s significant change in the weather, leading into a storm, it’s remarkable that there’s almost no effect ever there. It’s just the local mountains surrounding it, which gives it a bit of a rain shelter as well.”

Always with his organiser’s hat on, Daly continues into excellent weather-meets-music-nerd territory. “Especially from a wind perspective, I reckon there’s only about 12 nights in the year where there’s actually some wind. The rest it’s dead still, which makes it as a venue a really reliable spot as well as somewhere really nice to be.”

For more details and tickets, click here.