Farmer & The Owl festival introduces Record Room

The Farmer & The Owl festival in Wollongong (Saturday, March 2, McCabe Park) is digging further into its beginnings as an independent label.

The 2019 bill was curated by label signings Hockey Dad, Totally Unicorn, The Pinheads, TEES and Tropical Strength.

This morning, the festival announced it was enhancing their 3,500 patrons’ experience with The Record Room where they can rummage and discover new adds to their collections.

It’s invited their favourite labels to set up stalls and play DJ sets throughout the day.

THE LABELS: CRATE EXPECTATIONS

FARMER & THE OWL

It was set up to showcase Wollongong acts as Hockey Dad, Totally Unicorn, TEES, Tropical Strength, Bec Sandridge, Tumbleweed and The Pinheads.

Check out also their Beached Friends compilation series where they dig up more weird scenes in the Wollongong region goldmine.

BEDROOM SUCK

Brisbane hailed label formed with the sole purpose of getting local acts to the world, and worked with, among others,

Blank Realm, Boomgates, Scott & Charlene's Wedding, Terrible Truths and Lower Plenty.

HOTEL MOTEL

Run out of Melbourne with the aim of breaking down genres, the current guest registry includes Cool Sounds, Quivers, Nat Vazer, L.A. Mood, Orlean and S.M. Jenkins.

OUR GOLDEN FRIEND

Part label and part management collective, the Melbourne hub is home to 808s and Greatest Hits, Chitra, Moonlover, POPPONGENE, RVG and Way Dynamic.

PIEATER

The AIR awards’ 2017 best label, the expanding collective covers record label, artist management and merchandise services; and a recently completed music studio BellBird.

It is home to Airling, Christopher Port, #1 Dads, Tom Snowdon, Slow Dancer and No Mono.

RICE IS NICE

Formed in 2008 to pick up the more experimental (read: weird) acts regardless of musical style.

These include Straight Arrows, Donny Benet, The Laurels, Den and Angie.

SPUNK

Now celebrating its 20^th year, it not only brings great records in for Aussie ears from the likes of Mac Demarco, Arcade Fire, Animal Collective and Mogwai, it’s also home to a collection of great Australasian names.

They include Holly Throsby, Aldous Harding, The Ocean Party as well as Farmer & The Owl festival artists Shining Bird and Sunscreen.

MUSIC FARMERS

Set up in 2004, its sole purpose of being Wollongong’s music retail destination, with an emphasis on vinyl.

The Music Farmers stall at Farmer & The Owl will feature vinyl from artists across the lineup and in conjunction with Inertia Music a specially curated section of vinyl from some of the world’s best independent labels including Sub Pop, Matador, Secretly Canadian and Flightless.