Thirroul Music Festival is a one-day celebration of the finest Americana, Country, Blues, Surf and Indie music – featuring some of the world’s best artists performing ‘up close and personal’ across a range of intimate and unique venues throughout the beautiful seaside town of Thirroul on the NSW South Coast.
The festival is now in its 5th year and is presented by Cheatin’ Hearts Records and Yours & Owls.
Thirroul is located 1 hour and 20mins south of Sydney CBD. Or 20mins north of Wollongong CBD.
Thirroul is easily accessible by train, as one of the South Coast line’s major hubs. Trains stop at Thirroul once per hour on weekends. Thirroul train station is centrally located with all festival venues easy walking distance from the train station.
Thirroul also has a large number of parking options available.
Whether you travel by car or train from Sydney to Thirroul, you are guaranteed to experience the beautiful ocean and escarpment views that the ‘Leisure Coast’ is famous for.
There are multiple accommodation options in and around Thirroul.
Thirroul Motel and Headlands Hotel in Austinmer (3mins drive from Thirroul) are both premium options, while there are camp-grounds close to Thirroul in both Coledale and Bulli (both 5mins drive from Thirroul) and a large selection of AirBnB options along the coast.
All tickets are purchased via Anita’s Theatre (ie. Ticketmaster). Your ticket will grant you access to Anita’s Theatre along with all other Thirroul Music Festival venues. All ticket-buyers will be granted a wristband on the morning of the festival – available for collection from Anita’s Theatre Box Office – which will need to be shown at all venues to ensure entry.
You’re guaranteed to find your new favourite artist at Thirroul Music Festival, with a carefully curated lineup of artists from all over the world.
Previous years have seen the likes of Fanny Lumsden, Babitha, Steve Kilbey, Henry Wagons, Minor Gold, Caitlin Harnett, William Crighton, M. Ward (US) Courtney Marie Andrews (US) Robert Ellis (US) Mary Lattimore (US) Ester Poly (GER), Daddy Long Legs (US) and many more take to stages all over Thirroul.
A full schedule of venues and artist playing times will be released closer to the festival. We will do our best to avoid playing time clashes between artists. Please note – if your favourite artist is playing in one of our smaller venues, please ensure you arrive early to secure a space.
While we have always encouraged ticket-holders to bring their children, as the festival has grown in recent years and we have moved into licensed venues, it has become increasingly hard to account for children attending the festival. This means that unfortunately children under the age of 12 will no longer be able to attend the festival (We’re sorry! We’ll need to get babysitters as well!). There will be a special discounted ticket price for those aged 12-18.
All of our venues are within 5-10mins walking distance of each other.
We encourage attendee’s to start at the beautiful Anita’s Theatre where you can collect your wristband and then make your way around town, visiting our festival venues and sampling the many food and drink options around Thirroul.
Thirroul has an outstanding range of food and coffee options available across town. Some of our favourites include Black Market, Honest Don’s, Blackbird, Finbox, Buck Hamblin’s, Andie’s, South Sailor, Franco’s Pizza, Ciro’s Pizza, Shahi Aroma Indian, Toro Sushi, Coastal Thai and Boveda Mexican. All of these cafes and restaurants will be operating under their regular Saturday trading hours, so you will be able to sample throughout the day and into the evening. We encourage festival attendees to arrive in town early and start your day with breakfast or coffee at one of these fine local establishments.
All of our participating venues operate licensed bars.
The ‘Open Street Festival’ is a Wollongong Council live music initiative that we have helped curate and which will be an additional feature of our festival in 2025!
King Street Thirroul will be transformed into an outdoor stage with free live music, family activities and more from 10am – 3pm daily on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 November.
Unfortunately we can no longer accommodate kids under the age of 12 in our ticketed venues, so we encourage families to visit the Open Street stage early in the day and enjoy the music as a family, before our festival kicks off for the adults later in the day.
