When Wombat Hotel publican Tim McLeod and local DJ Anthony Brown put their heads together to come up with a new family event for cherry season, the idea for Day On the Grass was born.
This Saturday, the inaugural all ages event will take place from midday to 10.30pm with a wide variety of musical acts entertaining the crowd throughout the day and into the night.
Anthony said the music will start off very mellow and acoustic so that people can bring the family down earlier.
The final acts of the night will be DJs for those who are ready to hit the dance floor.
He said judging by the interest so far, he was confident locals and visitors would support the event.
“If it goes well, we want to make it an annual event and hopefully go bigger and better each year,” Anthony said.
“The hotel will be enclosing the empty allotment which will all be fenced off so it’s safe for kids. There are no age limits,” he said.
Day on the Grass will feature many local musicians and a few from slightly further afield, with something to appeal to all musical tastes.
There will also be a watermelon eating competition and a Mr Whippy van for the kids.
“We’ve targetted the cherry season, and the pub is centralised around a heap of the orchards, so it can be a fun day for the seasonal pickers as well as the locals.
“I believe Young needs more events like this, and we’d love to see this become something we run every Summer.”
Anthony, who runs Flux Entertainment and DJs under the name Decibelled, is a dyed in the wool music lover and has been playing the drums since he was five.
He said the DJ scene was active and vibrant in Young, and it was definitely a fun job.
“It’s a great job with lots of diversity,” he said. “It’s all about crowd interaction. There’s no use playing the songs you love, you have to play what the audience wants to keep them up dancing.”
Among the artists will be The Nightshades, Ben and Kate, Pepperjack, Chalkie White, Luke Harveyson, The Millards, then DJs, G-Man, Decibelled and Illusion.
The watermelon eating competition will start at 3.30 pm.
Shuttle buses will run between Wombat and the towns of Young and Harden at specified times throughout the afternoon and evening.
