Earlier today (September 14), it was announced that Pavement will return to Australia next year for their first tour of the country in 12 years. As part of that run, the reunited indie-rockers will headline a new festival in Wadawurrung/Geelong dubbed Tent Pole: A Musical Jamboree.
The inaugural event is scheduled to take place on Saturday March 4 at the Mt. Duneed Estate, where A Day on the Green – which is co-presenting the festival with Love Police and I OH YOU – often hold their own bespoke events.
Joining Pavement on the bill will be their fellow Americans in The Schizophonics, with local acts including Spiderbait, Magic Dirt, Floodlights, Black Rock Band and CLAMM. See the first line-up announcement below:
Described by its promotors as “a cross-generational, neo-nostalgic celebration and gathering for like-minded music, art and culture lovers”, Tent Pole will be held across two stages on Mt. Duneed’s newly developed Top Paddock site, with more performers due to announced in the coming months.
In a press release, festival director Michael Newton said: “After 21 years and nearly 500 shows, it’s exciting to launch a new event to complement the A Day On The Green experience. It’s been fantastic to curate a smaller boutique event with BT [of Love Police] and Johann [Ponniah, of I OH YOU]. The Zoom calls have been fun so far.
“Mt Duneed Estate is a great site, and with more bands to come we look forward to firmly stamping Tent Pole as a mainstay on the Victorian festival calendar for many years to come.”
BT and Ponniah both echoed the sentiment, with the former adding: “Let’s go back to those gold soundz with Pavement on the Surf Coast and a bunch of other sweet acts we wanna see. That sounds pretty good. Let’s call it Tent Pole and deliver a sweet event with a lovin’ team who all bring good shit to the scene. See ya in March.”
Tickets for Tent Pole 2023 go on sale here at 1pm next Wednesday (September 21), with pre-sales for members of AAMI, Love Police, A Day On The Green and the Mt. Duneed winery starting at 12pm on Monday (September 19). Additionally, a pre-sale for My Ticketmaster members will run from 12pm on Tuesday (September 20).