Grinspoon frontman Phil Jamieson will be leading the Rock 'N' Ride motorcycle trek from the Gold Coast Big Day Out to the Adelaide leg five days later as part of an awareness campaign for national mental health foundation headspace.
Joining Jamieson will be co-founder of the event and CEO of Big Day Out Adam Zammit, Jamieson's wife Julie Jamieson, Chris Joannou (Silverchair), Jake Stone (Bluejuice), Paul Mac, Nathan Hindmarsh (Parramatta Eels legend), Kate Peck (MTV presenter) and Steve Andrews (Black Dog Ride).
The trip – sponsored by Valvoline – will visit a number of headspace centres during the trip and the foundation's CEO, Chris Tanti, said, “Every year we get involved with Big Day Out festivals across the country and this year we're excited to take this partnership to another level. Rock 'N' Ride gives us the chance to engage regional young people in their communities and at headspace centres to create awareness of the mental health issues young people face and where they can go to get support.”
Zammit added, “Over the 21 years of Big Day Out we have seen hundreds of thousands of young Australians from 15 years and older and many musicians and artists grow up and get through a variety of personal challenges, as we all do in life. It is important that we continue to remind young Australians that there is always support and that its important and OK to talk about mental health, we hope the Rock 'N' Ride is start of a great enduring partnership between headspace and Big Day Out to keep youth mental health at the top of everyone's agenda.”
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Riders will meet the community, media and youths during the trek, while Jamieson, Mac and Joannou will offer acoustic performances. The itinerary is as follows:
Sunday 20 January – Gold Coast Big Day Out (departure)
Monday 21 January – headspace centre, Warwick/Connabarabran (live performance)
Tuesday 22 January – headspace centre, Bathurst/headspace centre, Wagga Wagga
Wednesday 23 January – headspace centre, Bendigo/Swan Hill (live performance)
Thursday 24 January – headspace centre, Berri/Headspace centre, Murray Bridge
Friday 25 January – Adelaide Big Day Out (arrival)
