The Secret Garden Festival is a 48-hour forest-themed dress-up festival located in Sydney. The festival provides music as well as small parties, plays, comedy, games and art. With over 5,000 patrons attending each year, the festival has and continues to raise money for charities.
Location Secret Garden is located one hour south of Sydney. The location is kept secret until a few days prior to the event, when all newcomers are sent an email with the address. It can be accessed via car, or if not there is a bus package available to ticket holders, which leaves from Central station.
Artist Lineups
2016 Adi Toohey Ariane Bad//Dreems Black Vanilla BUOY CC:DISCO! Cruisin' Deuces Dorsal Fins Elizabeth Rose (DJ) Ella Thompson Gang of Youths GG MAGREE Gordi Green Buzzard Hayden James Hey Geronimo Jess Kent Jody Jonathan Boulet L-Fresh the Lion Levins Love Bombs Luen Mansionair Matt Corby Money For Nothing DJs Montaigne Moonbase Commander Motorik Vibe Council Palms Planète Purple Sneakers & Friends Raury Rock & Roll Karaoke Roland Tings Sampa the Great Saskwatch Sex On Toast Shag Shantan Wantan Ichiban Steregamous The Completely Boys The Lulu Raes The Meeting Tree Tuka World Champion
2015 Ariane Baro Client Liaison Devotional Donny Benét (Solo) Fishing Frames Gang of Youths Gooch Palms Grace Heartbeat DJs Heather Woods Broderick Holiday Sidewinder Hot Dub Time Machine I Oh You DJs Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders Japanese Wallpaper Jeremy Neale Joe Liddy & The Skeleton Horse JÜAN DU SOL Lake Street Dive Le Fruit DJs Levins Little Bastard Little May Love Bombs LUCIANBLOMKAMP Luen Luluc Lunice Mike Who Milwaukee Banks No Zu Oh Mercy Oisima Parquet Courts Pepa Knight Peter Combe Purple Sneakers DJs Remi Rolls Bayce RY4 San Holo Shag Shantan Wantan Ichiban Sharon Van Etten Softwar B2B Slow Blow Spookyland Stereogamous ft. Shaun J. Wright Steve Smyth Stolen Violin Tees The Griswolds The Morrisons Total Giovanni UV Boi Velociraptor Willow Beats Wintercoats Yo Grito! DJs Yon Yonson
2014 Alex Cameron Ariane Blank Realm Bloods Client Liaison Cosmos Midnight D. D. Dumbo Day Ravies Dusty Fingers DZ Deathrays Elizabeth Rose Ernest Ellis Goldroom Joyride Ken Davis King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Lancelot Levins Little May Love Bombs Mighty Mouse Mike Who Nantes Olympia Palms Papa Vs Pretty Richard In Your Mind Roland Tings Ryan Hemsworth Shantan Wantan Ichiban Shining Bird Slowblow & Softwar Steve Smyth Straight Arrows Sures The Beatnix The Donny Benét Show Band The Rubens The Trouble with Templeton True Vibenation Wordlife World's End Press
2013 Alison Wonderland Caitlin Park Cliques Collarbones Cub Scouts DCUP Frames Furnance and the Fundamentals Joyride Lancelot Little Bastard Little May Oliver Tank Pelvis Rainbow Chan Rüfüs DJ Crocs Softwar & Slowball Spit Syndicate The Aston Shuffle The Delta Riggs The Griswolds The Preatures Vance Joy
2012 Alison Wonderland Castlecomer DreamDelay Emma Davis Evan and the Brave Fanny Lumsden Georgia Fair Horse Meat Disco (UK) Jack Carty Joyride (DJ Set) Kira Puru and the Bruise New Navy Owl Eyes R + R SlowBlow Softwar Sticky Fingers The Aston Shuffle DJs The Be Sharps The Essential Stix The Preachers Tin Sparrow Wordlife (Bang Gang 12 inches)
Charities All proceeds made at Secret Garden are donated each year to various charities. Over the past seven years Secret Garden has raised more than $200,000 for charities including Oxfam, The Sarah Hilt Foundation and The Girls & Boys Brigade.
Reception Since its conception in 2009, Secret Garden has grown incredibly. In 2015 Australian radio station Triple J named it "One of Australia's much-loved boutique festivals ... providing two days worth of ace artists at a secret dairy farm". Time Out Sydney also praised the festival, telling punters "This is a good one, though, and worth the mystery. They keep the crowds at a limited capacity, the vibe is loved-up and the site teems with secret pathways and hidden pop-ups housing food, art and entertainment."
Other reviews include:
"A magical, wild and completely creative festival of music and art." - The AU Review
"Pillow forts, giant jellyfish and kissing booths — this independent festival has and always will be built by and for the people." - Concrete Playground
"The most magical of festivals to grace the Australian music scene"- Pedestrian TV
References