South Gippsland Information Site

Hey There,

For 10 years Lyrebird has been presenting live music in South Gippsland. We have had some interesting comments from touring performers over this time, the most common of which remains: “Meeniyan, where’s that?”. Other comments have included, David Rawlings, “I always dreamed of playing under the Big M one Day”. Yet, over time, we have gone from begging artists to come to Meeniyan to play, to being inundated with requests from musicians to come / back to Meeniyan, even if they still aren’t sure where it is. A huge thank you to the volunteer committee members for their hard work over this time and to you, our wonderful members, who have supported us, even when, sometimes you had not heard of the artists who have come from all corners of the world to play for us. The township of Meeniyan is joining the celebration and many of their organisations such as The Meeniyan Progress Association, Community Shop and Community Bank Steering Committee are helping to financially support the event and bringing some extra events to the program. So it is time to celebrate, IT IS TIME TO PARTY!!!!! Please come and join us for a full weekend of events and some time to mingle and have a few drinks and a few laughs and most surely of all TO BE ENTERTAINED. We are inviting back a number of our most loved and asked for Australian musicians who have performed for us over the last ten years with a very special finale on Sunday night.

Meeniyan Carnivàle

November 20th – 22nd.

The weekend will kick off on Friday night with a Lyrebird event at the Hall: Ash Grunwald (see Ash with his new band). Tickets $25. Followed at 10.30 pm by Liz Stringer at the Meeniyan Hotel, FREE.

There are unpowered camping sites available at the Meeniyan Football Grounds all weekend.

Saturday the day starts at 10 am. The main street in front of the hall will be closed to traffic and there will be things happening everywhere in the town – something for everyone! Live music into the streets from the front of the Hall between 10 am and 4 pm. (Artists including Lisa Miller, Chuck Jenkins, Liz Stringer, Van Walker and a whole lot more). Children’s activities including, a giant slide, mechanical bucking bull, jumping castle, face painting and mask making. All the shops will, of course, be open . Then in the street there will be a farmers market, massage, craft stalls, yoga, wine tastings, vintage cars, special exhibitions and wine tastings at the Meeniyan Art Gallery, and a number of workshops in mask making, oil distillation, woven baskets, Eric Mould will give an Introduction to the history of American recorded Jazz and our artistic director, Susan Purdy will demonstrate, and you can be involved in, arranging the flower displays for the Hall for the concerts on Saturday and Sunday night. All the workshops, the live music and the children’s activities will be FREE on the Saturday between 10 and 4. There will also be a number of other ‘giveaways’ on the day!

Saturday night The Audreys will perform at the Hall. Tickets $40. Followed by Van and Cal Walker at the Meeniyan Hotel, FREE

Sunday from 9 am til 11 am a FREE street breakfast in the undercover area next to the Hall. After which you may like to stroll along the rail trail or drive the short distance along the highway and have a go at the Stony Creek go-carts or take in a few holes of golf at the Meeniyan Golf Club. Back in town at 1 pm there will be a HymnFest in the Park, followed by a Sunday Jam Session at the Hotel.

By which time you should be ‘well ready’ for the grand finale! Exactly 40 yars ago The Rolling Stones performed what is one of the greatest live albums – EVER: Get Your Ya Ya’s Out.

So Tim Rogers (You Am I) has assembled an all-star cast and they are coming down to Meeniyan to perform the album LIVE. We have been told that Tim is not only excited about performing the music, which features such classics as Jumping Jack Flash, but he is going overboard on wardrobe choices. If you have anything left over from the 60’s in your, or your mums and dad’s wardrobe, you may like to wear it on the night.

The night will be called ‘Charlies Good Tonight” Tickets $35

You can buy individual tickets to each show but if you want to come to the 3 evening Lyrebird shows then you can buy a weekend ticket for $90 (weekend tickets limited). Everything else on the weekend is FREE. Tickets now on sale at our usual outlets, via phone of 5664 9239 or email: lyrebirdarts@hotmail.com

Don’t forget our AGM. The November weekend will be our last event for the year.

We are, of course, already planning next year. The Mossvale Park Music Festival will be on the 13th March and we are working on another very special event for the 23rd January. But there will be another newsletter before the end of the year to update you on the Meeniyan Carnivale. Til then …… enjoy the music!

This post was submitted by ian bevington.