Rupanyup's Dirt Music Festival will return for a ninth year on Sunday, though the venues involved will be different due to circumstances beyond organisers' control.
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The town's Commercial Hotel has been closed and for sale since August. Festival committee member Unmani said it meant the bowling club would be used instead.
"We have an ethos of being flexible," she said. "That's where people can go after the festival if they'd like to kick on and have a drink too."
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Unmani said Tesso's, the Memorial Hall, Stonehaven Nursing Home and St. Phillip's Anglican Church would be some of the other locations that would be used as performance spaces on the day.
"Our philosophy comes from the title of a Tim Winton novel, who gave us permission to use it for our name," she said.
Dirt music, Fox tells Georgie, is "anything you can play on a verandah or porch, without electricity.
- Tim Winton - 'Dirt Music'
"The festival isn't on a big stage with headline acts, it's free, no one gets paid and anyone who wants to perform can.
"It's extremely laid back and welcoming, and we have performers coming from all over the state because they want to. It means you don't get them pandering to the crowd as much because they don't feel like they have to deliver, so they're more quirky and there are more originals performed."
Some old favorites will return for the 2019 festival: Portland singer-guitarist Ish Gurung is back for a second consecutive years, while Ballarat bluegrass artist Mick Trembath will return having played most of the eight festivals held so far.
Unmani said Ararat Folk and Blues outfit Lajos would make their festival debut.
"People can expect some new items this year, for example we've got two ukelele groups and young Horsham singer Sarah Membrey, who will be performing her own material written about her own life," she said.