Lisa Mitchell, Art Vs Science And More Share Camping Essentials Ahead Of Wanderer Festival

This year’s Wanderer Festival is fast approaching, with more than 70 incredible acts from Australia and abroad taking over Pambula Beach (some 250 kilometres south of Canberra) over the weekend of Friday September 29 through to Sunday October 1.

As we start investing stocks in SPF-50+ and gearing up for some wild times ahead, we reached out to five of the acts performing at the festival – Lisa Mitchell, DICE, Art Vs Science, Annie Hamilton and Urthboy – to see how they plan to make the most of this one-of-a-kind celebration of music and mates.

LISA MITCHELL

What are your packing essentials for a camping festival?
My trusty sheepskin rug that I sleep on, a big hat and an open heart.

What’s your ultimate road-trip track?
My partner knows this about me: I can’t handle leaving in the afternoon! I love to leave first thing in the morning with a cup of something in my hand so I have lots of energy to navigate the mysteries of the unknown that come with any good road-trip!

Who are you most excited to see at Wanderer Festival?
I’m looking forward to putting my son’s earmuffs on (he’ll be nearly one at the festival) and watching The Jungle Giants! I’ve been such a fan since their first EP. There looks like there’s some fun kids acts too! Polite Mammals look hilarious.

DICE

What are your packing essentials for a camping festival?
Warm clothes and more warm clothes. Despite the heat during the day, camping always gets cold at night and you can never have too many layers!

What’s your ultimate road-trip track?
Don’t Stop Moving by S Club 7. No matter what mood you’re in, that song is bound to get you up and boogieing.

Who are you most excited to see at Wanderer Festival?
There’s a huge range of acts from all different genres, which is so exciting to see! Our good mates Rum Jungle are also on the lineup and we’ve only had the chance to catch their set a couple times, so we’re very excited to have the chance again!

ART VS SCIENCE

What are your packing essentials for a camping festival?
Camping is fun! Pack as if you’re going into the bush and are prepared for the elements. Make sure you have a good tent – don’t buy a crappy one, they leak and they are really hard to recycle when they break. Bring a good rain jacket and sturdy boots or gumboots. Hopefully you won’t need them but they’re an absolute game-changer if the rain comes down. Lastly, go to a camping shop and get a 20-litre water carrier. They cost the same as those bulk spring waters from the supermarket, except you can use it again and again and again. Saves you money and saves the Earth plastic!

Bonus tips: bring Panadol and a basic first aid kit. Go easy on the drinking and remember to take in the surrounds and your friends. And, as a bonus bonus tip from an ageing party boy: bring some salt! Sometimes hangovers are caused by losing all your electrolytes. So a little pinch of salt with your water before bed can make a difference. 

Ultimate tip: bring a hat and sun cream. You’ll thank yourself when you’re older.

What’s your ultimate road-trip track?
L.A. Woman by The Doors – Mr. Mojo Risin’ guiding you towards the promised land and all the fun that awaits. Turn it up loud and open the car windows.

Who are you most excited to see at Wanderer Festival?
C.W. Stoneking because I haven’t seen him for years and years, and he doesn’t seem to age at all. He’s like some sort of inter-dimensional character who appears onstage at festivals then disappears back off into the swampy marshes of 1930s Florida, or something like that. It’s always a good time to watch him play. And Thelma Plum because she rocks. Our drummer Dan W will be playing onstage with her.

ANNIE HAMILTON

What are your packing essentials for a camping festival?
Okay so this is not exactly a packing essential but it is an essential piece of festival knowledge that I will not gatekeep: my sister and I developed a fail-proof technique for finding each other in the crowd when your phone is dead or has no reception. It's called Duck Hands, and is quite self-explanatory really, but basically when you're weaving through the crowd trying to find your friends (ie. after a quick wee break) you put your hands up and make a little duck quacking, and your friends do the same. 

Eventually the kind strangers around you will also start doing duck hands – because why wouldn't you? – and then one by one, you create a sea of duck hands above the crowd. Then, in a glorious “eureka” moment of discovery, the two duck seas will find each other and lead you back to your crew. I guess it's the precursor to the doof stick, but requires zero craft and is impossible to lose. Works every time. Thank me later.

What’s your ultimate road-trip track?
Boys In The Better Land by Fontaines D.C. makes me wanna floor it – windows down, warm breeze, snacks acquired, car full of friends, air guitar-ing, screaming along in our best Irish accents, on repeat.

Who are you most excited to see at Wanderer Festival?
Definitely keen for Kevin Morby. I rinsed that song I Have Been To The Mountain when it came out in 2016... Reminds me of long drives to the Snowy Mountains, stopping for homemade pumpkin soup and black coffee at my friend's roadside food truck. Take me back!

URTHBOY

What’s your ultimate road-trip track?
I love rediscovering songs that have disappeared from my life. Or deep cuts that make you say, “Did they do this song too?” Some examples are Tina Turner, Roxette or even Aviici. Bonus points for playing inappropriate rap music when your daughter is in the back seat.

Who are you most excited to see at Wanderer Festival?
Son Little, Alice Skye and Prodikal-1. Pumped.

WANDERER FESTIVAL 2023

Friday September 29 – Sunday October 1
Pambula Beach, NSW

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 29
The Jungle Giants
Thelma Plum
Son Little (USA)
Art Vs Science
C.W. Stoneking
Flavuh
Jacoténe
Lisa Mitchell
Robyn Martin
Rum Jungle
Stonewave Taiko
The Thin White Ukes
Adam Page

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 30
Django Django (UK)
Spiderbait
Alice Skye
Annie Hamilton
Bega Sound Collective
Ben Ottewell & Ian Ball (Gomez/UK)
Goldie
Haiku Hands
Kim Churchill
Montaigne
Prodikal-1
Steph Strings
Stonewave Taiko
The Thin White Ukes
Adam Page

SUNDAY OCTOBER 1
Ocean Alley
Kevin Morby (USA)
Babe Rainbow
Bega Sound Collective
DICE
Djinama Yilaga
Freya Josephine Hollick
Jack Biilmann & The Black Tide
Melbourne Ska Orchestra
The Big Lost Band
Urthboy
Whiskey Dream
Adam Page

+ more to be announced

Tickets: wanderer.com.au