Falls Festival Preview

Words by Caitlin Trindall.

After weeks of speculation and just one name on the bill with Childish Gambino announced weeks ago, the highly anticipated Falls Music and Arts Festival line up has finally landed this afternoon and it’s garnering a few mixed responses.

Aside from the usual “huge if true” responses from some keen partiers, there are some things worth pointing out. One of those is just how many of those acts are skipping over the Fremantle leg of the tour. Perth finally got a look in this year, picking themselves up a visit from the New Year’s party and just like that it feels like it was snatched away from them again. With UK favourites Catfish and the Bottlemen (who are making a stop in Perth prior to Falls with other festival commitments) Alison Wonderland, Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Rubens, Bernard Fanning, Tkay Maidza and LDRU amongst those not playing in Fremantle it’d be almost worth an east coast visit to get the full festival experience.

Another is what keen festivalgoers are calling a ‘recycled Splendour’. By that it appears they have defined this term to mean a mash of the favourite Triple J supported festivals on the calendar year including Laneway and regional touring Groovin’ The Moo, and thrown in with and under the banner of the biggest annual Australian music festival.

Finally worth drawing attention to is the apparent lack of headliners, however we can’t forget this is just the first line up with more to come. People have already started speculating online that Radiohead could be filling that missing void, not to mention it would be a good slot for Glass Animals, especially given their new album drops on August 26, featuring on Triple J all this week, and they are missing a giant sized Australia hole on their touring schedule.

It’s not all bad… it really isn’t that bad at all in fact. All of these acts are incredible and there are some massive crowd pleasers on the Falls line up besides headlining internationals Childish Gambino and London Grammar include beat maker Ta-ku, everyone’s favourite Matt Corby and none other than LA’s Grouplove who just delivered sold out shows in Sydney and Melbourne this month.

With more to come, we can hope to see some more headliners of amazing caliber, who will hopefully also make the trek to Fremantle to make up for the undeniable FOMO Western Australians will be feeling over some of those missing acts.

Ticket prices are still to come but go on sale next Tuesday August 30 from the Falls Festival website. Check out the full first round line up announcement below.

Childish Gambino (no sideshows)

London Grammar (no sideshows)

The Avalanches

Violent Soho

Matt Corby

Alison Wonderland*

Catfish And The Bottlemen*

Fat Freddy’s Drop*

Ta-Ku The Rubens*

The Jezabels

Ball Park Music

Grouplove