What the hell is a ‘Sidefest?’
Music festivals don’t have to be in a big paddock, or at a showground, or only on the east coast. Some music festivals feel more like catching up with mates at your favourite watering hole, they strive to give you that feeling of the great “stumble-upon”, where you catch a band for the first time and immediately go “Yep, this is for me.”
Sidefest is one such festival. Born from the depths of mid-Covid Perth by a yearning for deeper connection within their playground, Sly Withers work with their team to create an in-venue festival that is uniquely theirs: both local and scene-local within Australia, with a huge focus on community-building and an ethos that rising tides lift all boats.
With that, let’s introduce you to Sidefest 2026 at the Rosemount Hotel, across three stages: featuring Adelaide’s finest The Tullamarines headlining Friday 20 November, with US shoegaze-rockers Slow Mass joining an all-star WA cast including smol fish, Noah Dillon, Symmetrical Dogs, Ursula and more. Sly Withers then head up Saturday 21 November with a huge bag of mates in tow: Towns (SA), Bad Neighbour (QLD), Rowena Wise (VIC via Margaret River), and local legends Ratsalad, The Points, Clancy, Ratking and heaps more.
“Sidefest has taken many forms over the years but always delivers something that feels very special. This year ain’t gonna be any different and I can’t wait to spend 2 days in Perth basking in the glory of all this dope live music. Keen to celebrate WA music ft. a great selection of very special guests from elsewhere, like The Tullies (Adelaide) and Slow Mass (Chicago)!” said Sam Blitvich, co-frontman of Sly Withers.
Jono Mata, the other part of the co-front equation, added “Sidefest has quickly become my favourite weekend of the year and I'm stoked we get to return to the Rosie for another year celebrating Australian music at home in WA. The team’s done a bang-up job curating a really cool line up this year spanning many genres. I think everyone who nabs a ticket this year will walk away having discovered a new act they love, and I reckon that's the whole point of the festival we're doing here!”
It’s a scene health check. It’s a big party with your mates. It’s community first. It’s keen to grow, slowly, with you. It’s exactly what you make it, and if the last four festivals are anything to go by, it’s gonna be a helluva weekend.
Tickets are only $59.90 per day, or $99.90 for both and available now, here
Cheaper than a haircut and less likely to keep you indoors for days afterwards. Be there or be square.
A side-note, on the serendipitous booking of Slow Mass. Skinny and his wife were visiting Chicago last year and staying in a suburban Airbnb for a few days. “I heard a band rehearsing across the street, and it sounded vaguely like something I knew. As we left the Airbnb for lunch, I recognised a riff from an Audiotree video I saw years ago, pulled out my phone, found the song I thought it was and matched it to the music I was hearing across the road - it was ‘Suburban Yellow’ by Slow Mass. I DM’d them about how they’re practically the only band I know from Chicago, about how I was visiting from the other side of the world, and they invited me over to hang out. We got chatting, and I invited them to come out to Sidefest.”