Meredith Music Festival 2007

Never heard of Meredith Music Festival? Then give yourself a wedgie. MMF is a music festival that has been running for about 17 years in farmland a couple of hours south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The festival literally started off as a small group of friends getting together for a weekend and has grown to a 10,000 strong event that attracts bands from all over world. Why is it such a great event? A few reasons; 1) Great selection of eclectic music ranging from hip hop, metal, folk, punk, grunge to stuff that is so weird that I couldn't even begin to categorise it. 2) Incredible friendly atmosphere - I have been for the last 9 years and have never seen or heard of a single piece of aggro. Security is barely visible at all and people feel very safe and comfortable. I've spent many a Meredith night wandering from campsite to campsite meeting new people who always welcome you in. 3) You can take your own booze. That's right. Where else does that happen? This stems from the fact that the organisers go to great lengths to maintain the great atmosphere and don't just chase the buck. The numbers are actually capped at 10,000 maximum. One year it went to 12,000 but they decided to restrict it to 10,000 as they felt 12,000 was getting a little busy. 4) Anything goes. Anything. The crowd of people is incredibly diverse ranging from people looking for a relaxing weekend listening to music to people looking to go hard for the entire weekend. It's quite common to find people who stay up for the entire weekend - Fri afternoon to Sunday evening. Not easy. 5) Great location with one stage so you don't have to spend the entire weekend hiking around the place. We are usually able to camp in a nice shaded spot about 5 min walk from the main stage.

Meredith has become a highlight of the year for many people with the 2007 festival selling out in 4 minutes. You become fanatical about it. The guy in the photo is a friend of mine who moved to Dubai last year. He still made it this year. Many people fly interstate from around Australia to attend.

I could keep talking the festival up for pages. If you ever find yourself in Melbourne in early December getting to Meredith is a must. Check out the website http://www.mmf.com.au/.