1996 — Meredith History

Note – we lost all the photos from 1996. Something about moving house and a box or Australia Post or something.

If you’ve got any, email Aunty.

1996, and for a while there it looked as though there would be no Festival this year, and maybe forever.

Tragically, one of the three founding organisers – Chris Nolan – was struck by a catastrophic illness, and a decision was made to abandon the Festival.

Offers of help came pouring in; the idea of an ‘Indoor Meredith’ was floated and then sunk, the local townspeople’s generosity was unbelievable.

After much soul-searching and with the full blessing of Mary and Jack Nolan, it was decided to go ahead with The 6th Annual Meredith Music Festival as a private benefit and partial fund-raiser for its sick co-founder.

The Meredith Music Festival - a brief history, episode 6

1996’s Festival was a beauty.

The quality and diversity of bands stepped up a notch, as did the prizes in the Meredith Gift (an unconventional foot race where prizes double for nude or underpanted place‑getters).

Tex, Don and Charlie (with Jim White on drums) provided a genuine highlight, with their minimalist spooky folky blues, which started slowly but soon won the hearts and minds of the crowd, whose cheering at the end of their set lasted many minutes after the band had left the stage.

Tex, Don and Charlie - live at The Meredith Music Festival 1996

Other highlights were Snout, The Dumb Earth, The Mark Of Cain, Paradise Motel, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, Chris Wilson and Shane O’Mara and the many other first-rate local acts.

The weather was fine, the facilities were better and again the Festival sold out well in advance.

And the roots of what would later become a ban on stage-diving were planted.

Ricaine - stagediver at The Meredith Music Festival 1996

Mulwaverly had taken up residence by this time, setting up camp in the same place every year, and bringing more and more elaborate structures to their camp.

Their defining icon was a giant yellow ‘M’ taken from a McDonald’s.

This was also the year someone brought a two-storey high inflatable dog, which they plugged in to some power at the back of the Amphitheatre.

It was self-inflating, so they must have enjoyed watching it slowly rise to tower over the crowd from their anonymous position in the crowd.

Another tradition was borne this year, one that came to be known as The Arch Of Love.

The Arch was about seven feet tall, made of cane, and wide enough for one person to walk through. It was probably made to be a garden arch, or arbour.

It appeared on the foot-track up the hill, and those sitting nearby enjoyed people either choosing to walk through it, or walk around it.

It turned up the next year, but with new decorations, from memory a mass of plastic vines and pink flowers were threaded through the cane. It has been there every year since, in the same place, in different costume. Quite often it is presented in a tailored leopard skin suit.

This had nothing to do with the organisers; this was brought along by a patron, and it has become an institution at Meredith. A tradition sprung up that if two people walked under it they had to kiss. Over the years, the Arch has been the setting for hundreds if not thousands of weddings and maybe even a divorce or two.

Thankyou very much to whoever The Archkeeper is.

Who Played?

Gaslight Radio The Paradise Motel Magic Dirt Ricaine Crud The Mark of Cain Combo La Revelacion High Pass Filter Tex, Don and Charlie Kim Salmon and the Surrealists Snout Drop City Rebecca's Empire Powder Monkeys Bodyjar Golden Lifestyle Band Something For Kate Chris Wilson and Shane O'Mara Screamfeeder The Dumb Earth Hoss

Poster

Playing Times