From BENEE to the return of Faker: Meet your 2022 Yours & Owls Festival line-up

Flight Facilities, Violent Soho, Hiatus Kaiyote and more also lead Wollongong's biggest music event, as it eyes a long-awaited return.

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Header image by Ian Laidlaw.

Anyone in New South Wales' Illawarra area would be quick to tell you that Yours & Owls is somewhat of an institution within the region's well-loved cultural output. Over the years, the festival has blossomed into the event of the musical calendar, drawing a legion of artists - often focusing on Australian and New Zealand-based artists, with a few internationals littered throughout - that would likely otherwise skip over Wollongong in favour of capital cities, while also uplifting and emphasising local acts at the same time; their line-ups being a wonderment of acts from Wollongong and beyond.

As you could expect, 2020 was absent of Yours & Owls Festival, and while the festival did return in a one-off COVID-friendly format last year, there's still been a mammoth hole missing from the Wollongong music scene without the usual Yours & Owls affair, as shown through the number of acts to perform live in the area over the last two years, right down to the number of Wollongong-based musicians to find breakthroughs within the same time; Yours & Owls often being a heralding moment for a local musician's career.

Now, however, we can announce Yours & Owls is officially back - and the Wollongong music space is about to get kickstarted into gear once again. Today marks the arrival of the Yours & Owls 2022 line-up, which will bring its signature versatility to Wollongong's Stuart Park on April 2nd and April 3rd next year, as the festival officially moves into a new timeslot.

As you can expect, the line-up is stacked, heavily emphasising Australian and New Zealand musicians with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. At the top-end of the poster, there are the big drawcards, with a spotlight on hip-hop being shown through the top billing of Hilltop Hoods and Bliss N Eso, alongside long-time festival favourites such as Flight Facilities, The Jungle Giants, Peking Duk, Violent Soho and New Zealand alt-pop gem BENEE.

Go beyond these big drawcard names, however, and you'll find that Yours & Owls is littered with gems. There's the return of Faker - who we can only assume are back with answers, after going away to be alone - alongside names such as Harvey Sutherland and Hiatus Kaiyote, as well as a string of gold amongst the smaller billing: Arno Faraji, BARKAA, Budjerah, The Buoys, Hope D, King Stingray, Miiesha, Ninajirachi, Sycco, 1300, Alter Boy, Caitlin Harnett & The Pony Boys, Death By Denim, Rest For The Wicked, The Rions and Shady Nasty being a couple to appear on Pilerats over the last few months.

Then, there's the standard Illawarra/regional New South Wales affair in there as well: Sesame Girl, Satin Cali, Radicals, Nothing Rhymes With David, Bored Shorts, Charbel, Club Camel and more amongst the ranks.

Pre-sale begins on November 16th from 9AM AEDT - more information and a cheeky little competition here. Following that, general release tickets go on-sale November 18th - more information on that sale here. In the meantime, take a dive into the full line-up below, as festival announcements begin once again and the world finally starts to return to a sense of normality.

Yours & Owls 2022 Line-Up: