Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Rooting for the Blues Festival

If you’re heading to Sydney between the 24 – 26 October on business or for a social visit, you must check out the Sydney Blues and Roots Festival. As now one of the city’s most prominent events in the music scene, the stunning village-like historic town of Windsor to the festival is only an hour drive from Sydney.

The lineup is pretty hefty and includes headliners such as Busby Marou, The Black Sorrows, The Flood and The Radiators alongside another 32 national and local bands.
Unlike San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park ‘Hardly Strictly Festival’ with freebie access, you do need to pay for tickets yet there are early bird passes and consider the 3 day weekender at $149.00 AUD. Alternatively, you can submit an application through the website to volunteer and then you’ll have free access to the venue. Do note that applications for this close 3 October and only 50 volunteers are needed.
 
The beauty of this festival is that, unlike Golden Gate Park’s no-camping rule, the Blues and Roots Festival encourage you to tap into your inner eco meets nature traits. With that in mind, there is a Tent City that’s walking distance to the venue. In this camping ground, you can bring your own tent or camper and for all fabulous glampers, well you’ll probably bring along champagne with your designer rain boots and Burberry hat, and make it a long weekend, right?
Take into account there will be a cyclone of food and drink vendors but you can bring your own picnics in the public areas, if you’re looking to keep to a budget.
Regarding the lay of the land, the website has a map you can download but for easy understanding, there are various locations that bands will be playing so keep an eye on the schedule and you can plan which band & stage you want to pitch a seat at:  Trentino’s is a bar in Windsor, hosting some of the performances yet the Main Stage is in the Oval, where all the action will take place by the big name artists. Then there’s the Roc Boots Stage at the Fitzroy Hotel, at the Inside Stage area. All within easy distance of each other, the shows run from 6pm to 2am on Thursday and 4pm to 2am on Friday. Obviously on Saturday and Sunday the shows start at 10am so you have a full run of music till 2am on Saturday and 10pm on Sunday.
Since the ticket prices may have dented your credit card a tad and you’re planning to head back to the city on a business or personal trip, check out one of the most affordable Sydney boutique hotels. If the Festival’s inspired you, take a look at Cremorne Point Manor’s home page video, where the hotel overlooks the Sydney Harbour. It’s a sure bet to blow away your blues now the festival’s over!

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