One “crazy idea” from Wangaratta-born rock star Dallas Frasca could restart the region’s live music scene – starting with the North East equivalent of a magical mystery tour.
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The Hitch to the Sticks festival was officially launched on Monday night and will bring 50 people on a bus tour from Melbourne to the North East on the weekend of March 16 to 18, taking them to six exclusive secret gigs and four public events for everyone in the region.
“The idea is big - this is the beginning,” Frasca said
“We take them to venues that have never put on live music before, we teach them the value that live music can bring to them.”
The public events will be held at Wangaratta Council’s Down By the River event where more than 2000 people are expected, Thoona Wheelie Bin Championships, plus gigs at Tatong Tavern and Moyhu Pub – working with local promoters.
They will feature artists only from the North East.
Frasca said many bands now just fly straight from Melbourne to Sydney – she hoped the Hitch to the Sticks festival would be the start of recreating the regional path for national music tours.
“Being from Wangaratta, there was a really healthy music scene 20 years ago,” she said,
“There are not platforms to play in (North East) venues because there no education around the value that it brings.”
The festival was being promoted as a world-first “reverse band tour” taking the audience in the bus different locations to the bands.
Organiser Renee Delahunty was tight-lipped about the details of what the small number of ticket-holders would see on the tour, but dropped a hint about a big international act that will be exclusive to the bus.
Frasca will host the festival on the bus, plus there is a good chance her and her band will be one of the acts to play.
“They will have a weekend with Dallas on the bus, we go to all these different locations, they get to experience everything, celebrity hitchhikers get picked up,” Ms Delahunty said.
Yesterday’s Hitch to the Sticks launch came after 10 months of planning by Ms Delahunty and Frasca.
The March event will be the first of three bus tours in the North East as part of the pilot, with plans to also take the idea to Victoria’s south coast and Gippsland areas.
Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday.
