Yours and Owls 2025 will be held on Flagstaff Hill in Wollongong. Photo: Yours and Owls.
Wollongong’s biggest music festival, Yours and Owls, kicks off this weekend at Flagstaff Hill.
It’s a big test for the decade-old, homegrown event, and the road to its 2025 iteration was a bumpy one.
Post-pandemic, organisers announced a three-year partnership with the University of Wollongong would provide a secure location for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Mid-2024 they announced the event would not go ahead as usual in October and would instead run in early 2025.
In December organisers announced Flagstaff Hill would be home to the 2025 festival – before gaining approval from Wollongong City Council.
The council issued the event licence this week, days before the festival is scheduled to kick off on Saturday (1 March).
The council announced a number of road closures would be in place while the event takes place.
Endeavour Drive will be fully closed with no vehicle access. Marine Drive will be closed from Crown Street to Endeavour Drive and Cliff Road will be closed between Harbour Street and Endeavour Drive from 10 pm Saturday and from 9 pm on Sunday.
Alternate vehicle access to the harbour via Cliff Road (not Endeavour Drive) will be available under traffic control from 7 am – 10 pm Saturday, and from 7 am – 9 pm on Sunday.
While organisers were working through the planning and approvals process, the NSW Government announced the event would be the first event in the state to take part in a pill-testing trial.
The free and anonymous service allows festivalgoers to bring a small sample of substances they intend to consume to be analysed by qualified health staff to test for purity, potency and adulterants.
The pill testing service will be staffed by peer workers, health workers and analysts who will clearly communicate the limitations of drug checking to festivalgoers.
Organisers have also partnered with Clean Vibes to manage an on-site waste management and sorting system, meet landfill reduction goals and minimise the event’s environmental impact through initiatives such as a reusable cup system for on-site beverages.
Flagstaff Hill is directly above Wollongong Harbour and City Beach and the event falls on Clean Up Australia Day.
Yours and Owls has partnered with Sea Sheppard and Dune Care to run a beach clean-up on the Sunday morning, open to all from 8:30 am to 10 am.
Headliner acts include Denzel Curry, The Kooks and The Goo Goo Dolls.
Tickets for single days, both days and tickets inclusive of an unpowered tent-only campsite at Wollongong Surf Leisure resort Fairy Meadow are still available here.
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