This year’s Yours & Owls festival will look a bit different: it’s taking place at two separate venues across its two-day itinerary on Saturday, 3 and Sunday, 4 October.
Last year, the event moved to Flagstaff Hill on the Wollongong Foreshore. This year, day one will be held at the same location, but on day two, the festival will host a “Wollongong City takeover.”
For said takeover, live music will pour out of every corner in the city centre, with closed-off streets, artists performing in big and small venues, and hidden shows taking place in laneways and through the streets.
Why the change? Festival organisers cite the excitement of mixing things up, as well as being affordable and accessible to all punters.
“The current festival model, in the current insane climate, isn’t working, so we gotta mix it up a little,” organisers continued. And they’ve had to swivel at times when “shit hits the fan,” such as the COVID-19 pandemic and worsening cost-of-living crisis.
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Walking the walk, the Yours & Owls team is releasing a limited number of discounted (15%) first-release tickets to their “most loyal, most organised crew.” Tickets are available now until allocation is exhausted. You can find tickets here.
Promoter Ben Tillman said of the changes, “Having run this festival for a touch over 10 years (some would call that a lifetime and others just the blink of an eye), one thing we have become accustomed to is a changing landscape.
“Whether it be bushfires, floods, a global pandemic, or the cost-of-living crisis, we have always found a way forward. At times this has meant being flexible and adapting to new conditions; a format change, moving sites or rethinking our approach entirely.”
Tillman continued, “But the one thing that has always remained, and stays with us still, is our commitment to deliver the best festival, grounded in what we believe a festival should be. A place to connect to music and community, a place to lose yourself, discover something new and have an adventure.
“In a world that feels increasingly heavy and chaotic, we want to offer a place to unwind and have a good time. We want to offer an unforgettable experience whilst making sure we're viable and able to come back and grow year on year, and we feel that this 2026 festival model will allow us to achieve that.”
The line-up for the 2026 festival will be announced in the coming weeks. You can sign up for updates here and follow Yours & Owls on social media to see the reveal as soon as it arrives.
The most recent edition of Yours & Owls Festival took place last March, dates the organisers settled on after sharing that logistical issues, such as headliner availability, meant they wouldn’t be able to host or uphold the standard they usually would and still hold the festival in October of 2024.
The 2025 festival was headlined by a string of diverse international talent, including Irish post-punk outfit Fontaines D.C., chameleonic rapper Denzel Curry, indie rockers The Kooks, and pop-rock band the Goo Goo Dolls.
Elsewhere, the line-up locked in Brad Cox, Courteeners, The Veronicas, Peach PRC, The Jungle Giants, Shame, Honey Dijon, JPEGMAFIA, MAY-A, Cyril, Keli Holiday, Magdalena Bay, and many others.
