Bringing a day of tunes, dance and fun to the University of Canberra (UC), Stonefest returns this spring with international, interstate and local acts ready to take the stage. The community-focused festival promises to be one of the biggest events of Canberra’s music calendar, and you can catch all the fun on the lawns of UC on Saturday 7 October.

Headlining the day and hailing from the United Kingdom is experimentalist indie rocker Bakar on his first Australian tour. Aussie festival favourites Ball Park Music return to Canberra with their indie sounds, along with punk rockers Dune Rats, and up and coming R&B and pop songstress, Becca Hatch. With the community at the heart of the festival, local talents Ike(from)Pluto, smartcasual and Sophie Edwards will also be taking the stage.

“We love getting locals involved. Canberra being a smaller city, there are limited opportunities for local acts to play at that bigger level at bigger festivals and connect with wider industry people,” says Lucy Anh, Live music bookings and marketing coordinator at UC LiveX.

While aimed at the students of the university, the annual community-based not-for-profit festival welcomes members from the broader community to come and join the fun. Along with a killer line-up, there will be entertainment, DJs and offerings of sweet drops and delectable eats.

“We are partnering with local favourite Bentspoke Brewing Co who will be sponsoring the event as well, so all those good brews. Food trucks, we also involve a lot of the university clubs and stores that like to come along … Lots of little surprises and stuff that I can’t quite reveal yet, but we’re very excited about it,” says Ms Anh.

Dating back to the 1970s with the laying of the university’s foundation and the annual celebration that followed, Stone Week, the first Stonefest took over the campus in 2001 and was the biggest event of Stone Week until 2010. In 2019, it returned bigger and better than ever, before the pandemic enforced a hiatus. Last year, the team was back with plans for a rocking future of the festival.

“We’re a festival for the Canberra scene with the community at heart, we’re really excited this- getting to build something from the ground up,” says Ms Anh.

Festival tickets start at $59 for UC students while the broader community will pay less than $100 to attend.

“We’re really proud of running a festival as it has a community at heart with a big focus on keeping things sort of affordable for students and for the community in a time where it can be limited to be able to get to live music,” says Ms Anh.

Celebrate community and live tunes in Stonefest at the University of Canberra on Saturday 7 October; stonefest.com.au

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