Stonefest

Stonefest, once called Stone Day, is a large music festival, held at the University of Canberra annually at the end of October. It is the largest music festival in Canberra and a popular one in Australia. It has several stages, including usually the Uni refectory, the 'Hub' and a superstage, with many bands booked over a several day period.

Stonefest also refers to the week of social activities known as Stone Week amongst campus residents in the days leading up to the music festival.

History

It started as a celebration at the University of Canberra held annually to mark the placing of the foundation stone by Prime Minister John Gorton on the 28th of October, 1968. This founded the Canberra College of Advanced Education, which became the University of Canberra in 1990. Over the years the Stone Day program has gradually become larger and larger, taking up a whole week and now StoneFest is one of Australia's most popular music festivals. The first foundation celebrations were held in 1971. In 1973 Stone Day celebrations were held over two days, which was expanded to take up a whole week in 1976. In the 1980s and 1990s Stoneweek became a popular Canberra entertainment event. In the 1990s it was given themes with such themes as Return to Woodstock, Circus, Back to the Beach, Alien abduction, Octoberfest, Halloween and Stoneage. In 2000 the festival became Stonefest.

*2001 "Super Heroes"
*2002 "A New Frontier"
*2003 "Batteries included"

*2004 "The Proud, The loud, The many." (Featuring an oriental theme) Artists who appeared at StoneFest included:
**Something for Kate
**Von Bondies
**Groove Armada
**Butterfingers
**Rocket Science

*2005, "Your own Wonderland".
**Artists who appeared on Friday 28th October were: Decoder Ring, The Presets (at the superstage); Greg Packer (at the Hub) and Cabin Crew at the Arena.
**On Saturday 29th October the following artists were set to play at the superstage: Butterfingers, Thirsty Merc, The Beautiful Girls, Detroit band Electric Six and The Living End. The Living End was headlining the 2005 festival.

*2006, "Your Own Backyard"
**The Hoodoo Gurus headlined the 2006 festival.
**Changes to the organisation of the festival saw the omission of the 'hub' as a stage.
**Artists who appeared on Friday 27th and Saturday the 28th October included (to name but a few):
***Regurgitator
***The Herd
***Kid Kenobi
***Urge Overkill
***Sarah Blasko
***The Avalanches
***The Hoodoo Gurus

*2007, "Carnivàle"
**2007 saw the return of the hub stage.
**Artists who appeared on Friday 26th and Saturday the 27th October 2007 included (to name but a few):
***Butterfingers
***Cut Copy
***Expatriate
***Scribe
***Paul Kelly
***The Waifs
***The Mess Hall
***Grand Fatal
***Young and Restless

External links

* [http://www.stonefest.com.au/Pages/SF_History_mainpage.htm Stonefest history]
* [http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/news/aust/3214/ Stonefest Hosts The Living End]
* [http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=17506 Top 40 charts]