Tens of thousands of hard core festival fans turned Kiama Showground into Festival City with the sold out Changing Tides Music Festival on the weekend of 16 and 17 December 2023 bringing a lineup of great acts worthy of any music festival in the world and big numbers of visitors rocking up to enjoying the baking heat of one of the year’s hottest days in true festival tradition of extreme weather.

The rules to get in were strict with one local observing someone getting turned away at the gate by security to get their passport. Others commented on the strong police presence including sniffer drug dogs. 

Simon Felice is the organiser of the inaugural Changing Tides festival and has a lot of experience in the organization of festivals. His family owned Crooked River Winery for 25 years until two years ago and Simon describes the line up as his dream ticket straight from his own Spotify playlist!

The Temper Trap - Changing Tides

Simon first started six years ago with his brother Joseph running a whole series of festivals, some based at the Crooked Winery in Gerringong.

The vibe of the 18 or older only boutique music and food festival combined the old school feel of classic big festivals like Big Day Out which finished in 2014, with more chill intimate festivals that bring a 2023 vibe to the stage.

‘Changing Tides’ kicked off on Saturday 16 December, with local Wollongong indie- rock band ‘Finding Darcy’, who played a great set, and then the welcome to the country, until the first big headliner G flip came on, whose set was amazing!

Soldout ChangingTides festival Kiama Showground

G flip (they/them) was so engaged with the crowd and fans, as they were the only act to approach the sea of fans to get in close for their fans to take pictures and say hello. G flip, previously known for their profound drumming, blossomed their talent further and became a singer and musician via social media, streaming daily drumming content on instagram and Tik Tok until they gained over 100,000 fans!

By constantly streaming their work, and then changing their profile to be more accommodating to talent scouts, then came the record producers to bring their music to their now massive following, G flip got taken more seriously, and now we have amazing artists on their music journey like G flip arriving in the Kiama LGA in 2023!

G Flip up close and personal

The headliners on the big stage in the middle of the Kiama Showground were Wollongong band Dune Rats, Drummer G flip, then Peking Duk.

Peking Duk are a crowd mood setting duo of DJs called Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles who started in Canberra and are known for how much fun they have on stage with their high energy dance mixes. They are often described as cheeky and ‘party ready’. Their music can include fun remixes of Aussie classics like ‘I Want You’ by Darren Hayes of Savage Garden fame.

After the Duks, came the Jungle Giants, an indie rock band from Brisbane with what they like to call their genre-agnostic sound. The members are Sam Hales, Cesira Aitken, Andrew Dooris, and Kelsan Bijker. Their fans describe them as ‘indie rock royalty’ and they get a lot of airplay on radio stations like Triple J.

The Jungle Giants, played the longest set, with their worldwide hit “Feel the Way I do” bringing in crowds from as far as Townsville, with one festival goer saying she traveled from Townsville to see her two favourite artists G Flip, and the Jungle Giants.

This hard-core Jungle Giants fan told The Bugle she took two flights, and spent $1,000 “I had a great time and it was worth every cent.”

The sets for performers were about 45 minutes apart, giving festival goers time to approach the local vendors, and check out the chill out zones, or VIP areas inside the Kiama Pavilion. Inside were food and drinks stalls, local vendors selling merchandise and even a paint your own surfboard kiosk which was very popular.

On the Saturday night the party continued into the warm night with an energy filled dance party with some great vibes from some great female dance music acts like SYCCO, Kita Alexander, and also Dulcie and The Moving Stills.

With other headliners coming in and dropping in unexpectedly throughout the night, some outstanding performances were on show the whole night.

On Sunday the party continued with acts like PNAU, Royal Blood (from the UK) The Temper Trap and Ziggy Alberts. Sydney’s PNAU shares a band member with Empire of the Sun, and specialise in ‘grab your friends and weep with joy’ dance anthems to uplift the spirit and make some awesome memories for when you are older and the knees don’t work so well!

Shade was in hot demand!

Other acts on the Sunday in the heat included Leisure, Merci, Mercy,

Jacotene, Jack Botts and Felip Baldomir. Leisure are regarded in New Zealand as an electronic supergroup due to each members individual success with previous musical projects.

Like all dance festivals they can have a darker side, and measures were taken to make sure all partygoers had a safe as well as a fun time. Hydration stations were set up everywhere for example.

Alcohol was strictly on site only for sale, with no wine!!!! and only party style premixers.

A mobile breath testing festival unit was set up, who told The Bugle they had covered 6 local festivals this year, including Yours and Owls in Wollongong. Festival goers were encouraged to use the station prior to exiting.

For a reading of 0.018, the mobile RBT unit staff gave the advice they would be safe to drive however to keep in mind that number would continue to rise even hours after you finished drinking.

The Sniff off campaign which focuses on the use of police drug sniffer dogs at festivals published pics of the dogs at the Kiama Changing Tides festival on their social media.

Security tight!

Outside the grounds of the Pavilion, you could see many locals enjoying the music, with some locals finding themselves with a view of the performers on the screen from the top of Surf Beach from the southern headland, essentially getting themselves a great night with free music and a view.

However, not all the locals were happy with some garden damage at the nearby Kiama Uniting Church attributed to illegal parking with cars driving over the garden to avoid the chain fence stopping people parking.

Overall the music and the atmosphere at Changing Tides was an energised and fan fun success, with a great mix of big time festival styles of old and the chill intimate boutique festival by the sea, and Kiama is already excited for the next one.

Harlow Events, who organised the Changing Tide event, said on their site they have been developing a boutique music festival style on the South Coast. They said they wanted to create the most boutique music and food festival on the South Coast with the Changing Tides festival in Kiama. The event was clearly a great success, and it looks like the plan to make Kiama a sought-after destination for many more festivals for the future was also a success.

The Bugle spoke to a number of Sydney festival goers many who are self confessed festival junkies:

" It was a good experience overall. It was my first time seeing all these artists and it was nice to see all Australian artists on the stage." (Camille)

"Great small town intimate vibe" (Steph)

"Very wholesome festival, some great Australian artists" (Summar)

"Truly a lovely festival! The music and the crowd had such a great vibe. Definitely celebrated Australia’s music artists". (Tiana)

"Great festival! Loved the location and the small venue so all the facilities were close by. Great food and drink options. Would love it if it's a bit bigger next time though!" (Emily)

Overall a superb weekend without any major incidents. Well done to all involved.

With the sucess of the many events held here one ask to ask the question - is the future of Kiama to be a Festival Town??