Tracks Music Festival coming to Warrnambool this summer

Earmarked for January 8, Tracks Music Festival will be an open air day event welcoming live bands and DJs hailing both locally and internationally.

Organiser Patrick O'Brien said the event was three years in the making.

"We saw an opportunity in the Warrnambool landscape of there really being a hole in the entertainment market," O'Brien said.

"There's a lot of DJs and and dance music at the moment and we're looking to really leverage off the support that market has, but also bring in some live acts as well.

"The live music landscape has really fallen over a little bit in Warrnambool with the closure of The Loft and other little venues that have closed down.

"We're really trying to marry, those two together - DJs and live music - and really just bring quality national and international acts to Warrnambool. I really feel like there's going to be a lot of support for that."

O'Brien is behind the popular Warrnambool Laneway Bar, a pop-up venue in the heart of the city that draws young crowds for a sundown drink and a boogie through summer.

Tracks Festival will be held in the same location as his other successful venture near the train station, Warrnambool Food Truck Festival, which draws crowds for a day of live entertainment and food earlier this year.

There will be four headliners and four local support acts.

He admits it's a risk planning for international acts in the current climate but has high hopes for a successful event come summer.

"It's quite exciting. It's definitely a risk running an event with an international act but we're pretty confident we can get it going."

The lineup is expected to be announced next month.

The pandemic has battered the largely casualised live entertainment industry, which over the last 18 months bore the brunt of the on-again, off-again climate.

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"Everyone's doing it really tough in all jobs I suppose but arts is probably the one that has been hit the hardest," O'Brien said.

"I suppose the main thing is there's really no clarity around how things are going to fine up.

"The roadmap is pretty clear for everybody else and you can really invest with the support of that roadmap, but for the creative arts, especially the party industry - standing up and having a beer - it's really not clear.

"It's a bit frustrating but it's just the nature of the beast I suppose."

Over the years live music venues have disappeared across Warrnambool; The Loft, Your Break, Lucy, The Gallery, to name a few.

It's resulted in a concentration of a few venues who can now host live music.

The trend has seen a shift in popularity to one-off events, like festivals.

"You can see those sort of events in Melbourne and Geelong selling out every weekend and I think the same is happening in Warrnambool."

The best way to shore up the live music industry in the regions is to support local events, O'Brien said.

"Buy tickets, get your friends to come down, that's really all there is to it."

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