Yours & Owls is back and better than ever

Photographs by Alira Fratantaro

After a small hiatus last year, Yours & Owls is back and better than ever at a brand new location!

DAY 1

When I arrived at the festival site, I was able to experience one of their accessibility implementations firsthand. They had a fantastic area for accessible parking that was blocked off from the general public. They then take you up on a buggy, to the front gates of the festival.

All of the staff here were lovely, accommodating and super helpful.

The first act I caught on day 1, was DICE from Western Australia. The crowd was packed for their set, and I think I spent more time singing and dancing than taking photos. DICE are one of my personal all time favourites, and clearly are a fav of the rest of the crowd too!

They kicked off with ‘This Is Not A Love Song’, a track from their recent album Midnight Zoo. Their set contained a nice mixture of newer songs and classic crowd favourites, along with treating us to their brand new track, ‘Chasing Hearts’. They had incredible visuals and smoke effects that matched the vibe of their performance perfectly. After a very quick 30 minutes, they closed out their set with the signature crowd crouch down during the bridge of ‘Stop Sign’.

The next artist I caught was Peach PRC on the main stage. The crowd definitely showed up for Peach and were super hyped for her set. She played a lot of her popular songs, including ‘God Is A Freak’, ‘Josh’, ‘Like A Girl Does’  and ‘Loved You Before’. A standout moment was her very iconic pole dance to ‘Trndsttr’.

Right before Peach’s set ended, I headed over to the Ocean stage for the start of The Dreggs, a folk pop duo from the Sunshine Coast. They always provide a super enjoyable set and they even threw in a cover of Lola Young’s ‘Messy’. They drew in a big crowd both in front of the stage and all the way up on the hill further back. Their set wrapped up with ‘Take A Little Time’.

As the night progressed, JPEGMAFIA, The Jungle Giants, Goo Goo Dolls and Denzel Curry all took to the stage and delivered incredible performances to close out the first day of the festival.

DAY 2

Sunday brought a more diverse lineup filled with both local and international artists, including a few that I was super keen to catch live for the first time.

Up first on the Ocean stage was local Sydney band, Lemonise. Their stage presence and energy kept the crowd engaged and continued to fill up as their set progressed. Bringing psychedelic pop rock vibes to the stage, these guys were one of my favourites overall.

Next up on the Ocean stage was Grentperez, another local artist from Sydney. He delivered a beautiful set filled with playful jokes and alt indie pop songs.

With San Cisco’s drummer Scarlett heavily pregnant, she still delivered an impressive performance with the rest of the band. They played ‘Awkward’, ‘Fred Astaire’ and closed their set with ‘Too Much Time Together’.

I headed over to the Mountain stage next, for MAY-A’s set. She jumped straight into ‘Time I Love To Waste’ and had the crowd dancing from the get go. She treated us to an unreleased song and then ended with ‘Say Nothing’.

Coterie and The Veronicas both provided the crowds with super high energy sets. The iconic Australian sisters The Veronicas, played their top hits and finished up with a crowd favourite, ‘Untouched’. Coterie, from WA, made up of 4 brothers with their dad on the drums, had the crowd super engaged and dancing along to their tracks. They ended their set with ‘Cool It Down’.

Heading further into the night, we had 2 of the most anticipated international acts of the festival, The Kooks and Fontaines D.C. The Kooks played a few of their well-known tracks, including ‘Seaside’ which was fitting, as their stage was on the seaside. They had funky visuals that changed throughout their performance, before ending with their top track ‘Naive’ which had the entire crowd singing and dancing.

Next up was Fontaines D.C. who had 90% of the festival crowded around the main stage. The post-punk 5-piece brought the energy and delivered an incredibly captivating performance. They played a few of their bigger songs, ‘Favorite’, ‘Bug’ and finished up with ‘Starburster’, their biggest hit.

Finishing up the second day and entire festival, Hockey Dad took to the Mountain stage. Even with sound restrictions cutting their set short, the crowd delivered, singing Hockey Dad’s biggest hit ‘Seaweed’ super loudly back to them.

Overall, Yours & Owls Festival once again delivered a super diverse and exciting experience over the weekend. With a fantastic new location on the foreshore, accessibility implementation and a lineup that provided both local and international artists, this festival is one to catch next year!