[INTERVIEW] Motor City Music Festival: Director Hugo T Armstrong

Geelong finally has its very own music festival. Yes, you heard right. You no longer have to travel up the coast for great music, because it’s coming to us. About to enter its third year, the Motor City Music Festival will be held on the Labour Day weekend, ushering locals to the Geelong Showgrounds for an epic display of music, fun, carnival rides and good times.

“[You’ll] see a music festival a bit different to most other festivals,” Director Hugo T Armstrong says, who previously directed the Queenscliff Music Festival.

“I wanted to do something completely different to what we did at QMF. Like what I did there in my time, and do something where you can just come for a day and enjoy it. You don’t have to come all weekend. Something that changes theme each days… something really different.”

Designed to please the most loyal festival goers and then people who prefer a carnival atmosphere, day one is dedicated to rock and roots music and will feature Canadian three piece Miss Quincy and Sisters Doll. Day two is perfect for lovers of blues and tributes when Divinyls cover band Temperamental and 19-Twenty headline. And day three is a complete family event with a country music show, and children can attend for free.

“We sort of said to people, ‘Look, we know it’s busy on a long weekend. You might want to come for a couple of days, or you might just want to come for one, or you might want to come for three. But you don’t have to feel like you have to go to all of it to get enjoyment or value out of it,’” Armstrong explains.

“I wanted to create in the pavilions [an atmosphere that is] very much a lane way festival feel, and then in the open air it’s like a bit of A Day on the Green feel. So the site’s got two sort of precincts, which gives us four undercover venues and the one open air, so it’s a good mix.”

Whether you want to pop in and out for your favourite genre, or prefer to camp out for the entire festival, it really does have a bit of everything. “We’ve got some amazing facilities on the other side of the show grounds. So you’ll be camping adjacent to the festival site, it’s just a quick walk. I wanted to have a couple of days an over 18’s event, and make sure then that we had a big family day,” Armstrong says.

Craft beers and food trucks will be on site, and BABBA, Dean Ray, the Transformers and Elsa will delight the kids on Sunday, finishing off with an amazing fireworks show.

“It’s there for everyone in Geelong to at some point interact with. But you know, we really want it to sort of be a long term part of Geelong’s event calendar,” Armstrong shares.

The festival will also be partnering with Karingal for the event. “We’ll be working more with disability access on site and working more on making sure the festival’s really open and accessible for all types of people attend,” he says.