https://2009.mmf.com.au

Click here for a printable PDF of the Site Map

The Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre is situated on the edge of a farm, about 90 kms due West of Melbourne, halfway between Geelong and Ballarat, and about twelve kms from the nearest town (Meredith).

The venue is a spectacular, permanent site, set up specifically for both the Meredith Music Festival and her sister festival Golden Plains. It has been purpose-built and continually-refined using 19 years of collective know-how to provide a premium experience for performer and patron alike.

It is a 2 ¼ hour (135 minute) drive from Melbourne CBD or Melbourne Airport, and a 1 ¼ (75 minute) drive from Avalon Airport.

The stage is nestled in a grove of giant ghost gum trees, with a natural amphitheatre bowling up around it, crowned by an arc of gigantic cypress trees. There a feeling of spaciousness - it's a huge site - you can easily find some peace and quiet if you choose. You can also easily see and hear the artists on stage from anywhere in the Supernatural Amphitheatre. It's a magic set-up.

Top Camp is the camping ground closest to the action; closest to the amphitheatre and stage, closest to the food area, toilets, Pink Flamingo and The Meredith Eye. Top Camp is also the largest camping ground on the site; it is a massive green field with gentle dips and hills; a few rock piles, trees, ring roads, native planting areas, and is governed by a Blue Gum crop to the East and Cypress rows to the South. Top Camp is so big you should be able to camp well away from your neighbours (if you choose to). It is divided into suburbs - Ringwood, Eltham, Hong Kong etc - so you can find your tent easily enough. The native plantings - gums, acacias, she-oaks - have thrived since they were put in a year ago and as such there's more greenery and windbreaks up there.

Over time Top Camp will be ‘planted out' to become like a vast Bush Camp - with groves of SheOaks, stands of gums, maybe the odd circle of blackwoods and a corridor or two of Acacia.

The Pines (North Pines, South Pines) are on the South boundary of Top Camp. They are two perpendicular rows of Pine Trees which intersect to form a giant "T", thus creating two pockets of sheltered camping. The North pocket (North Pines) has been open for many years, whereas the South pocket (South Pines) is only a few years old. These campsites are the furthest away from the action and will be pretty quiet and peaceful. Both are protected on two sides by thick rows of Cypress Pines, so they provide excellent shelter, depending on the direction of the wind. The coldest wind is the southwester, North Pines and South Pines provide good shelter from it.

The other aspect of Pine Tree Corner that many will find appealing is the panoramic vista. Man! From the other side of the trees, you sit high on a ridge, looking West to wide open plains that extend for miles and miles, a huge pine plantation, a disused gold mine, and stunning sunsets. It's a great spot, and those Meredith-goers who liked sitting in a quiet field watching the sunset are in for a total treat.

The campgrounds are populated similarly to any city; the inner city is the most densely populated, with most campsites being smaller. The further away you go, the more land you have, and the closer to the wide open spaces of the countryside you get. South Pines, for instance, seems like its furthest from the action, but like so many outer suburbs, its got a direct arterial road and footpath to the inner city, and as such its easy to get to. And the blocks are bigger. And the views are amazing. And as we all know, the suburbs ain't any straighter than the inner city.

Bush Camp is located North of the stage area, and is a secluded and unbelievably pretty camping ground. Gum trees, she-oaks, ferns and other indigenous flora have existed untouched for as long as anyone can remember, and we have carefully laid down a track through this land, with minimum disruption to the eco-structure. This will be quiet, sheltered camping. You are basically in the bush. It will be hard for large groups to stake out large sites in this area due to the vegetation and the single ring-road. The two roads that go through Bush Camp are called The Ring Road, and The Ring-a-Ding-Ding Road. This area is also a fair distance from the Amphitheatre, although it is fairly close to both the Food area, Pink Flamingo and of course toilets, First Aid and other services. Around 30% of Meredith-goers will be able to camp in The Bush before it is full, so it is likely to be popular with the early arrivals.

YURTS ARE BACK!

We have an excellent supplier of quality Mongolian Yurts. Yurts, or “gers”, are large round sturdy tent-like structures. These wonderful homes have stood for centuries in Mongolia and the like, are hand-made from canvas, timber and felt and keep cool on hot days and warm on cool days. They sleep 6-15, are lockable, comfortable and are available for hire at Meredith Music Festival. They will be already set up so just arrive and move in for the weekend. To make an enquiry or book a Yurt please email Saatia or call her on 0434 539715. They were very popular last season and sold out quick.

Click here for info on Reception.

Think of the Info Centre as the Concierge Desk of the festival. Our well-trained staff are there to answer any question, and ask a few of their own. This font of all knowledge is of course open 24 hours. It's located to the far right of the stage in the Amphitheatre.

The Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre prides itself on having world's-best-practice toilet facilities.

If you were to ask festival-goers about Meredith's toilets you'll find their answers are a very pleasant surprise. The festival is renowned for having plentiful, permanent, private, well-designed-and-built waterless composting toilets.

There are several blocks of these around the site. Two main blocks of about fifty loos each are located either side of the Amphitheatre, then four more sets are located in convenient spots in the campgrounds.

The toilets use no water at all, and the waste is treated on a remote part of the site (rather than being carted away) according to strict Australian Standard guidelines until eventually it becomes safe and useable compost. Brilliant.

Uncle Doug and Stu the Groundskeeper have built a permanent, excellent shower facility. In fact they have built two. One is next to the Pink Flamingo (on the Bush Camp side) and the other is on the other side of the Amphi, right up the back. They are completely private, sheltered, eco-friendly installations, and provide steaming hot water (or cold if its hot) from lo-flo yet good pressure shower heads. The shower facility is brand new and clean as a whistle and has many terrific and user-friendly features. It is open during daylight hours, and costs $3 for each 3 minutes of use. Our attendants will be on hand to provide coin change for you and biodegradable soaps and shampoos which help the waste water re-enter the Earth with a minimum of fuss. Good on you Uncle Doug, you wily old faux-plumber.

Sunset Strip is located at the western tip of Top Camp. It’s (derr) a strip from which you can view the Sunset. However it was not directly named after the famed LA landmark, it was named for the 80s/early90s Melbourne wild country rock band, whose singer completed a whole song at Meredith in 1991, thought to himself "gee that went well", looked at the set list and discovered he'd just played the song that was next on the list, whilst his band had been playing the previous song at the same time. They were all too 'lost in the moment' to realize.

For those who don’t live in the country or have regular access to immense, panoramic views of the sun setting without a building in view right through to the horizon, well, Sunset Strip is worth a looksee. Apart from the vast sky and fading pastoral views, there’s a couple of haysheds and a deserted gold mine in the distance, and that’s all. Someone once told me that looking at a setting sun somehow releases lithium into your system. Lithium is (or was) sometimes used as a medication to calm down people who were manic. Dunno if that’s true or not. If you are some kind of medical expert, feel free to set me straight.

Becoming Meredith’s best-kept secret, if a secret is something you can become. Inspiration Point is a rock garden just beyond the fringe of Southbank. It’s nice. Secluded. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the odd slippery handjob took place there.

Will be in operation this year. Daylight hours. It’s free, get bats and balls from Vanessa The Breathtester. SportsField is comprised of dozens of totem tennis sets and a few badminton courts. Sometimes groups of people dress up in olden days sports costumes for this. There is no white water rafting on the SportsField.

This Supernatural tradition was borne circa 1997, and came to be known as The Arch Of Love. The Arch is about seven feet tall, made of cane, and wide enough for only one person to walk through at a time. It was probably made to be a garden arch, or arbour. It appeared in the middle of a footpath through the Amphitheatre during the '96 or '97 Meredith festival, nobody really knows why. To the quiet amusement of patrons nearby, people had to choose to either to walk through it, or walk around it, as it was slap bang in the middle of a busy footpath. It turned up the next year, but with new decorations - 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. One year it was present in a tailored leopard skin suit. The Arch has nothing to do with the organisers; it is brought along by a private citizen, and it has become an institution at Meredith. A tradition sprung up that if two people walked under it they had to kiss. The Raccoon spent one afternoon doing some social studies; most women-folk would go out of their way to walk through it, most men would deviate from their path if they were on target to walk through it. Says a lot doesn’t it. Thankyou very much to whoever The Archkeeper is, we did spy him one year taking The Arch out of the boot of his nondescript 80's white Japanese hatchback.

There are roads, these are for vehicles, don't park any part of your vehicle on them. Don't "trick" yourself into believing that having only two wheels off the road means you aren't parked on the road - you are. Get the whole thing off, otherwise the camping marshalls will deem you a fire hazard (which you are) and have you towed away and impounded.

The internal roads have been made and built up and strengthened each year to withstand the bi-annual onslaught of weather and traffic. Are you still reading? This is one boring topic. What's next, fences? zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Paths - there are footpaths through the campgrounds. They will help you find your campsite. How about that! Amazing innovation. What design WIZARDS we are. Surely this can't survive as a topic. Enjoy this info now cos it won't last.

The festivals have a deep and abiding commitment to doing the right thing by the land. As it is essentially a temporary city that sets up for the weekend, the opportunity is there to create a microcosm of how a society might become more sustainable.

Green practices at the Supernatural Amphitheatre aren't shouted from the rooftops, they are just DONE, so that the festival-goer actually lives in the green system for the weekend and experiences everything first-hand.

Perhaps the most obvious example of the festivals green policies are the composting toilets. Uncle Doug designed and built over 100 permanent, waterless, composting toilets, to exacting Australian Standards. We trialed a few of them in 2006, and by early 2008 had over 100 in operation in two permanent banks. What a hit! Never have we had such incredible reaction to a facillity on the site. Basically, everyone loves them. They don't smell, they don't use water, and the end result can (after a year or so) be used to feed the land. They are user-friend-ly and enviro-lover-ly - they are private, clean, and waterless; plus no pumping or transport is required. And, in twelve months time with some sophisticated but simple treatment they create perfectly safe compost to use on the site. WINNER!! Our thanks also to Natural Event. Over the next two years all remaining portaloos on site will be replaced by the composting toilets, or eco-loos.

EVERYTHING that comes out of a food stall can be recycled or composted. And EVERYTHING that gets put into bags or bins before, during and after the festival gets sorted in the on-site sorting station, then subsequently divided into the appropriate stream.

Much more too, we'll post that all up soon enough.

Click here for info about the Police Station at the festival.

The festival has an excellent Medical Centre onsite, located to the far right of the stage. It is open at all times that the festival is on. Do not hesitate to go there if you or your friends (or strangers) are unwell. The medical centre staff are not there to judge to report you, they are there to help get you well as soon as possible. If you have a medical condition you think we should know about be sure to talk to the medical centre staff when you arrive.

Meredith the town is about 12kms from the festival site. It has two pubs, a cafe, a servo and a General Store amongst other things, like a nursery and a small real estate office. To get to the festival from town turn off the Midland Highway (Staughton Street) at the Royal Hotel and go past Hearn's Hotel till you get to the corner of Nolan Road. That's about it there.

The Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre is in the Golden Plains Shire.

The Community Tucker Tent is a food stall selling all sorts of hot foods and has been an institution at the festival since the mid 90's. The Tucker Tent is organised, managed and staffed entirely by volunteers from many local community groups. Profits go to those community groups, as well as a portion going to ongoing health care and welfare of festival co-founder Chris Nolan, for which he and his family are very grateful.

The Tucker Tent is located in the International Food Court, and is famous for it's hot breakfasts. By now they must have made over a million bacon and egg rolls I'd reckon. Maybe a trillion, who knows. Great stuff.

They also do Breakfast in Bed - watch out for utes in the campgrounds ferrying hot food and coffee to those lazy blobs who can't be bothered going to the Food Court.

Mobile phone coverage has improved dramatically in recent years at the festival. A certain monolithic national telecommunications company instals a temporary tower just for the festival which enables users of that particular network to get reception as though they were in the CBD. So that's nice.

However, don't rely on mobile phone coverage, particularly if you aren't using the Telstra network. Also remember you don't have access to power out there so bring spare and charged batteries and maybe a car charger kit. And maybe a car too.

Salt of the earth. Best people you could possibly meet.

The Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre is located mostly on the Nolan farm. Chris Nolan founded the Meredith Music Festival with Marcus Downie and Greg Peele back in 1991. Actually they founded it in 1990 but didn't get it together to put the thing on until '91.

Jack and Mary are Chris' parents and remarkably they agreed to have the festival - which in the first year was just an end-of-year party for Chris and his friends - at their property, near the family home, on the farm. What good parents!! And here we are, a couple of decades later and it's still going and they are still happy to host the now world-renowned festival. Cripes.

Jack's grandfather planted the giant Cypress pine trees that crown the Amphitheatre. He planted them about 60 years ago as " a place for the birds to be when I'm gone". Not sure what ol' grandfather Nolan would make of the sights and sounds below them trees these days but quite possibly he'd approve.

Bush Camp, a particularly popular campground at the site is brought to you by the Meredith Dairy. The land is Land for Wildlife, and the Cameron Family of Meredith Dairy fame (it's just up the road from the festival) are pleased to allow festival-goers to enjoy it each year. We are extremely grateful to them. Unbelievably great cheeses they make too, world-renowned. Enjoyed by cheeselovers from Ballarat to Manhattan.