Violet Town burst into vibrant life as a music festival set the town rocking all weekend.
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On Saturday and Sunday, a line-up of musical talent and performances graced the stage at the Violet Town Gallery Museum, while Jackson’s Produce Store and Café kept festival-goers fuelled with delicious food and drinks available for purchase.
Strathbogie Shire Council youth development officer Annette Walton and her husband, Andy Walton, organised the Violet Town Musical Festival.
“My husband, Andy, and I, we’ve been doing music programs in Violet Town since the ’90s, and we used to have a music festival that stopped for a few years because Shepp Festival and all the big ones came in,” Mrs Walton said.
“So, we started this version back up last year, so this is our second year, but we’ve done many of them (other festivals) now.
“Our intention here is that it’s a boutique music festival, so everyone who plays is connected with the north-east and also comes to play at other gigs around here.
“It’s about giving them that chance to shine and not just getting them to do free gigs because we need someone to play.”
And to aspiring artists or bands who might be interested in getting up on stage one day, Mrs Walton encouraged them to simply “give her a call”.
The Viceroys, an alternative rock grunge band, were among the acts performing over the weekend.
The Viceroys are an up-and-coming band that are already making waves and racking up major achievements, including winning the Senior Band category at Rockfest 2023, the Special Judges Award through the Kool Skools recording program the same year, and Best Rock Track for their single City Lights in 2024, among many others.
“We’re original-focused, and we’ve written all of our music, just the three of us, as a band,” bassist Grace Whitney said.
“We’ve been a band for three years now, and we love gigging locally; we’ve gigged in Melbourne, headlined at the Workers Club in Fitzroy.
“We’ve got bass, and then a lead guitarist/vocalist and then drums, so just a three-piece, which is really good because we’re all close friends, so it makes it easy to play on stage and do things together.”
Grace recounted a time before the spotlight, when the Viceroys were simply a school band at Euroa Secondary College.
“We played (at the Violet Town Music Festival) last year and the year before ... and we actually had another person in our band, and we were quite different; we were more of a kids’ band because we were all very young.
“We didn’t have any originals at that point ... we were a cover band.
“We started as a school band, and then we heard of this program called FReeZA, which was run by the council, Annette Walton runs it, and it’s amazing.
“It’s aimed at kids from 12 to 25, and through that we started doing gigs, and then we really just kicked off as a band because once you take it outside of school, it’s serious, and you put the time into it.
“Our main intention is just to have fun, like, it’s our favourite thing to do, and we just love being on stage.
“Keep doing what you’re doing if you love it, it doesn’t matter if no-one’s watching, like we’ve had so many gigs where there hasn’t been people — we’ve literally played to no-one, and sometimes that’s the best because you can just have fun.
“Just keep at it, because why are you doing it if you don’t love it?”
For more information on Violet Town Arts Music and Performance Collective, visit the Facebook page at facebook.com/vampvt
For more on The Viceroys, visit their Instagram at instagram.com/viceroys.band.aus/