Mulalo, Katie Dey, Exek, June Jones & More Playing Huge (And FREE) Shows At The Eighty-Six

The team behind The Eighty-Six have announced two new shows for its flagship event, the Super Saturday festival – a mind-melting bonanza where more than 200 acts will perform over the span of 22 hours – featuring Aussie favourites like Mulalo, Katie Dey, Exek and June Jones.

In case you didn’t already know, the inaugural Super Saturday will take place on October 28, kicking off at 7am on High Street (in Naarm/Melbourne) and running up until 5am the next morning; shows will be curated by more than 40 programmers, with every single one of them free to attend (you’ll need to register for a digital pass, though – do that here).

One of the two newly announced shows will go down at the Thornbury Theatre, with Mulalo and Exek joined on the bill by Cong Josie, Doug Martsch (of Built To Spill fame), VV Pete and Way Dynamic. The other gig will happen at the more intimate Wesley Anne pub, with that bill sporting Hana Stretton, Sarah Mary Chadwick, Sidney Phillips, Sunny Morris and The Native Cats, in addition to Dey and Jones.

The Eighty-Six itself is a new music and arts festival taking over the streets of Melbourne all throughout the latter third of October. As hinted by its name, the festival will be held across venues, theatres, record stores, bars, restaurants and bowls clubs that regularly present live music along the 86 tram route in Westgarth, Northcote, Thornbury and Preston.

In a statement, Woody McDonald (The Eighty-Six’s co-founder and artistic director) said of his and his team’s vision for the festival: “Melbourne is one of the world's great music cities. A hub of discovery and subculture, where art and entrepreneurial spirit are valued. It also produces a wild amount of music and is internationally considered a hotbed of musical greatness.

“I’ve always felt Melbourne needed a festival that stays within and elevates our grassroots environment. The Eighty-Six’s goal is to do this, and there’s currently no better area than High Street to be our festival precinct.”

The first events for The Eighty-Six were announced back in May, when shows confirmed for the itinerary included performances from Otoboke Beaver, Makaya McCraven, Los Bitchos, Connie Constance and Built To Spill, as well as a live taping of the podcast How Long Gone.

A second announcement came in early July, with new additions featuring shows from Unknown T, Ros Bandt and Ariel Kalma, Denis Bovell, and Theo Parrish, plus an in-conversation session with Bez (of Happy Mondays fame) and an event paying tribute to Graeme Thomas – renowned member of The Prestones and founder of both Preston Records and Preston Studios – by The Preston Records Revue.

A third announcement followed at the end of July, when Super Saturday was unveiled alongside two other flagship events, the Independent Music Exchange and the 1800 Street Party.

You can see the full program for The Eighty-Six here.