Airlie Beach Festival of Music fans will be “Walkin’ on the Sun”, with the announcement of Smash Mouth for the 2018 line-up.
Household names by the late 1990’s with their top 10 tracks All Star, Then the Morning Comes, and Can’t Get Enough of You Baby, the real smash hit was in 2001 when I’m a Believer became the beating heart of the soundtrack to ‘Shrek’.
Fast-forward to 2018 and for the first time in nearly a decade, all five members of what is widely considered the ‘classic’ Smash Mouth line-up have reunited and are heading to Airlie Beach.
Airlie Beach Festival of Music founder Gavin ‘Butto’ Butlin said to have an international act of this calibre on the line-up this year was “Huge, these massive bands wouldn’t normally come to small towns like this so we are very lucky to have secured such a world-renowned act, everyone watched Shrek, and Smash Mouth had the number one song from that movie as well as a bunch of other massive hits”
Joining Smash Mouth in Airlie Beach from November 9-11 are rock ‘n’ roll legends Frankie J Holden and Wilbur Wilde, alternative singer/songwriter Diana Anaid and the 25-piece Melbourne Ska Orchestra, lead by Nicky Bomba, formerly of the John Butler Trio.
Melbourne Ska Orchestra
Describing his ARIA award-winning orchestra as “well-orchestrated mayhem”, Bomba said “his aim was for everyone to walk away thinking that was fantastic, from a visual perspective you won’t see a band with that many people on stage and that much energy – we’re not your average staged orchestra and it’s a foregone conclusion that you can’t help dancing,”.
With their Caribbean style of ska, Bomba said MSO and the Airlie Beach Festival of Music were a “magnificent combination waiting to happen, our music is based around water and sunshine so it’s a perfect fit and the exciting thing about this is it’s not just a festival out in a field somewhere, it’s in the middle of the town and the whole town comes alive.”
This second line-up announcement, also featuring Townsville’s King Social, Rockhampton’s Innocent Eve and Matty Rogers from northern New South Wales, adds to the already announced stellar line-up that includes Killing Heidi, Ash Grunwald, Dave Dobbyn and The Church.
The Church
Festival tickets cost $255 for a three-day pass and are available via www.airliebeachfestivalofmusic.com.au or by phoning 0408 062 816.