Channel 9 To Premiere Savannah In The Round-Focused Episode Of 'My Way'

On Sunday, Channel 9 aired a special on the Savannah In The Round festival exclusively for Queensland viewers as the event celebrates its fifth anniversary.

If you missed it, don’t worry, as this Saturday (16 March), the festival will have a national spotlight shone on it. Savannah In The Round and its founder, James Dein, will star on Channel 9’s lifestyle program, My Way, at 12:30 pm AEST this Saturday.

Savannah In The Round is a music festival “meticulously crafted” by Dein, with Channel 9 making special mention of his “unwavering commitment to authenticity. He firmly believes that the heart of any music festival lies in the live experience.”

Sharing the story behind the event, you can watch a teaser for Savannah In The Round – with Dein quipping “The side of stage is completely overrated, I'll be in the mosh pit” – on My Way below.

Savannah In The Round will return to Mareeba in the Cairns Hinterland this October for three great days packed with live music and family entertainment. For its fifth edition, The Living End, Hoodoo Gurus and Jon Stevens will headline the event (11-13 October).

Elsewhere on the line-up, Dein and co. have locked in John Williamson, Vika & Linda, Troy Cassar-Daley, Glenn Shorrock & Brian Cadd, The Wolfe Brothers, and more, with a celebration of 50 years of Graeme Connors also noted on the festival poster. You can buy tickets here.

Last year, Jimmy Barnes headlined Savannah In The Round alongside Kasey Chambers and Daryl Braithwaite. Elsewhere, Australian country music royalty Brad Cox, and The Music cover artist James Johnston, Fanny Lumsden and Casey Barnes also represented the best of the genre in Australia.

The Black Sorrows, Beccy Cole, Adam Harvey, GANGgajang, Russell Morris, Kate Ceberano, Chocolate Starfish, American artist Alexandra Kay and more were also on the line-up.

The Far North Queensland town of Mareeba has hosted Savannah In The Round since it launched in 2021. A one-hour drive west of Cairns, Mareeba’s livelihood depends, in some ways, on live music events such as this. And, as Dein revealed in an interview with The Music, many of its punters had never been to a music festival before.

“We get so many people [coming] from right across the top end of the territory in the northern parts of Australia attend,” Dein said, “and this a really interesting stat - 58% who came in 2021 had never been to a music festival before. [Savannah In The Round] is really growing the pie for music lovers and for the festival industry.”