Jessie Ware To Headline Summer Camp Festival In December

British disco pop singer Jessie Ware will headline this year’s editions of Summer Camp Festival in Melbourne and Sydney in early December. Her headline shows mark the first time Ware has performed in Australia in ten years.

Since Ware last visited Australia as part of Laneway Festival in February 2013, she’s released four albums, gotten married, participated as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2021, collaborated with the one and only Kylie Minogue; she was revealed to be a judge on the reality singing series, Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream, and, as recently as this past Friday, received her second Album Of The Year Mercury Prize nomination for That! Feels Good, released in April 2023.

Over the weekend, she dropped the “ultra-camp” new rendition of the album track Freak Me Now, reworked with electronic pop singer Róisín Murphy. You can check out that music video below.

While her most recent albums, That! Feels Good and 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure haven’t charted on the ARIA Albums Charts; Ware has amassed a devoted online following thanks to her silky voice, much-needed disco-pop vibes and a personality that radiates inclusivity, making her the perfect headliner for Australia’s “favourite camp for the queers, curious & cuties” – remember, this is a festival that’s hosted the likes of Years & Years, Sophie Ellis Bextor and The Veronicas.

Summer Camp Festival will announce its “inner city safe space venues” soon, as well as ticketing details and the full line-up. The event will touch down in Melbourne on Saturday, 2 December, followed by Sydney on Sunday, 3 December.

“This has all felt like a complete gift,” Ware told The Music’s Cyclone Wehner in a 2013 interview, still comprehending her whirlwind success.

“I was just happy to be having an album out... It just felt all too good to be true. Now I'm at the BRITs next week or whatever, and I'm up for 'Best Female' – and I've been around for a second. So I feel like people have been very generous and really supportive of me – and I really appreciate that. I didn't expect any of this.”

SUMMER CAMP FESTIVAL 2023

HEADLINED BY JESSIE WARE

Saturday, 2 December – Summer Camp Naarm/Melbourne

Sunday, 3 December – Summer Camp Eora/Sydney