Northern Beaches Music Festival 2014
Fri 2nd, Sat 3rd & Sun 4th May 2014

By Paul Robertson
Posted Sunday, February 23, 2014

Welcome to the fourth Northern beaches Music Festival to be staged on the beautiful Narrabeen lakes from the 2nd to the 4th of May, featuring music genres such as blues, folk, country, jazz, rock and world music. There will be 100 acts on five stages over three days.

Our line up this year features artists from all over Australia including: The Wheeze and Suck Band, The Green Mohair Suits, Jenny Biddle, Luke Escombe, April Maze, Chango, Pat Drummond, Grimick, Daddy Longlegs, Mutual Acquaintances, Lou Bradley and many more.

Our festival is the product of the Northern Beaches Music Alliance, a group of four “not for profit” music clubs from the Northern Beaches, namely The Shack, Narrabeen, Fairlight Folk, Humph Hall, Allambie and The Fig, Manly, who all got together in 2010 to develop mutual cooperation based on shared aims and objectives, which are:

• to promote, produce and present musicians and performing artists, especially those from the Northern Beaches;
• to provide venues for such performances and to promote and develop new venues on the Northern Beaches and
• to support, nurture and present new up and coming musicians and performing artists especially those from the Northern Beaches.

Our festival really began in early March with the running of our third Young Bloods Competition. This is a competition for new, up and coming singer songwriters and bands under the age of 25. This is run at five venues from Manly to Palm Beach over five weeks five days a week. It culminates with a grand final held at the Dee Why RSL at the end of April where the best band and the most popular band as well as the best and the most popular singer songwriter will be chosen. These winners will be awarded significant prizes including cash, recording time, multi –camera video recording of their performances and a featured spot at the festival itself in May.

Another feature of this year’s festival is the continuation and expansion of last year’s “One to Seven Dance Heaven” concept. This is where we feature various styles of dance supported by both live bands and recorded music covering a range of dance genres including country swing, rockabilly, reggae, tango, salsa and flamenco, Scottish reels, bootscooting and Macedonian traditional dance. So, if you like to dance here’s your chance.

Of course our festival has a licensed bar and is complimented by a lakeside market village of international food stalls, arts and crafts stalls, community stalls, the Tantric Turtle Chai tent, workshops and much more.
Also our aim this year is to feature recycling eco-energy, art and light, (REEL). This will include practical demonstrations of applied, best practice recycling, alternative energy and art through lighting displays with a musical theme.

So, as you can see the Northern Beaches Music Festival has a lot to offer. Therefore come along and join our celebration of music and the arts on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

For more information send us an email or visit the Northern Beaches Music Festival web site.