QMF 2023 Review – Queenscliff Music Festival 2023 … choose your own music adventure!

Score

Summary: The Queenscliff Music Festival is a true choose your own music adventure at one of the best regional festivals in Australia

5

Music adventure!

One of Australia’s best regional music festivals returns for another year (2023) with the Queenscliff Music Festival!

Like previous years, the Queenscliff Music Festival (QMF) adds this amazing energy of music to the Victorian coastal town of Queenscliff and while most of the artists are found within the festival grounds itself, by exploring the city, you will stumble upon other venues and street performers that adds to the overall atmosphere. Compared to the previous years, QMF 2023 has shrunk a little with a few less A-listers but the nonetheless, this festival still packs a very powerful collective of artists from all walks of life that adds to their story telling through music.

Further, QMF is a true family music festival that successfully collects a variety of artists from all different genres such as Rock and Roll, Country, Hip Hop and Folk to name a few of the music that graces this festival. Additionally, kids will not just enjoy the music but also the interactivity from face painting (the Connected Circus) to a meet and greet with the legendary Bananas in Pyjamas or learn how the play the African marimba in one of their workshops help at festival. So yes, plenty to hear and do for younger festival goers.

Besides the larger artists like The Bad Loves, Something for Kate (who were totally awesome), Alice Ivy, Boy & Bear or Dan Sultan who are the main draw cards at the largest venue at QMF, the Lighthouse Stage, what many like myself enjoy about QMF is the exploration of music and discovering artists that were not on your radar but thanks to the festival they now are. Impressively, there are over 60 artists and over 150 performances over this 4-day festival.

However for some (myself included), this can create a difficult dilemma such as the conflict at 8pm on the Saturday night… I want to see G Love & Special Sauce at the Lighthouse who start at 8pm but I also want to see Calle Luna on the Hippos Stage who plays for an hour from 7:30pm. The solution, see one or share the time and see both! And yes, mother nature can be unexpected but for most, it didn’t hamper anyone’s enjoyment of QMF 2023 but let’s hope she is kinder for 2024.

Additionally there’s a wide gamut of different food vendors within the festival, including “bars” and parent’s facilities. While this is a very family friendly festival there are plenty of security and police to add an extra layer for peace of mind for patrons. However by leaving the festival grounds, you are also overindulged with more food venues from restaurants to cafes plus the famous Trident Fish Bar just across from the road the QMF. Also supporting your choose your own music adventure is the QMF website and their app with the later a must have.

The highlights? Like previous years, there are way too many amazing artists to pick. While the smaller artists channel that raw unplugged feel, the A-Listers brought the crowd which created this amazing energy and unlike the family focus of daylight hours, when the sun goes down, it is definitely becomes more catered towards the adults. Given that, we loved Something for Kate, Aloe Blac, Lucinda Goodwin, Burger Joint and Foy Vance but the list was basically every artist that we had the pleasure for seeing. For the kids however, it was everything that was located in their part of the festival that included Bananas in Pyjamas, the interactive shows and Justine Clarke.

Final Thoughts?

Once again the Queenscliff Music Festival delivers a true smorgasbord of artists from all different genres and walks of lives that makes the experience quite a powerful one to those who enjoy an eclectic range of music styles. Further, it is well presented and organised that while laid back in its approach, it features a stellar line-up of amazing artists that can only be found at QMF! So if you have never experienced the QMF before, it should definitely be on your 2024 bucket list.

Brilliant!