Esoteric Festival | Review + Guide + All You Need to Know!

Esoteric Festival is a newer standout music festival in the Victoria doof scene. It’s grown massively in popularity in the last 5 years and is now one of the favorite festivals to attend on the long Labor Day weekend every mid-March in Australia.

With many doofs in Victoria struggling to come back after lockdowns and fires, “Eso” as it is lovingly called by attendees, has come back bigger and better than ever. It has a loyal fanbase of longtime doofers who bring great vibes to this gathering in the bush about 3-4 hours from Melbourne.

Located outside the small town of Donald, Esoteric Festival has stages with an impressive range of electronic music genres within an easily walkable venue and moderate size, and enough art and workshops to keep attendees busy at all hours of the day.

Planning a Trip to Esoteric Festival

Here’s all you need to know before planning your trip to Eso. This Esoteric festival Review will serve as a review of my experience at Eso and as a guide to your trip to Esoteric.

I break down the festival into 17 categories, telling you everything you need to know about this doof before you go, from the toilet and security situations to the stages, food options, vibe, and fashion choices.

I’m Kimmie, and I’m usually a festival blogger and photographer, but I was just enjoying myself at Eso rather than taking professional photos. For some of my photography work (this post is all just iPhone photos) check my media website or follow me on instagram. For more in-depth festival review-guides see my festivals page or see more below:

• Pitch Music Festival Review + Guide (same weekend as Eso)
• Top Transformational Festivals in Australia (Bush Doofs)
• Best Festival Backpacks and Hydration Packs
• Strawberry Fields Festival Review + Guide

Esoteric Festival Location/Venue in Victoria

Esoteric is held on some beautiful land outside the town of Donald, Victoria – about 3-4 hours drive northwest from Melbourne. The land is largely flat and open, but with a beautiful wooded tree area in the center of the festival grounds.

The camping area is a massive flat field, and you can see spotted treelines in every direction in the distance. It’s the perfect spot for a doof!

Esoteric has a different theme each year that the art, decor, and stages will reflect. The photos in this post are from the Wild Wastelands theme. Here are the different areas and stages you can expect at Esoteric:

Main Stage Sun Temple

As Esoteric has a focus on psytrance, the main stage plays psytrance. This stage has had incredibly impressive designs over the years, always reflecting that year’s theme. There’s always a creative installation that makes up the front of the stage, extending to the stage itself.

In 2023 there were waterfalls falling down into a lake with plants surrounding it, with the DJ in a massive crystal booth with amazing lights mapping the stage. The dance floor was laid with sand to be easy on your feet!

Bush Techno

The Bush Techno stage is where all the techno lovers of Esoteric come to play. This stage has an awesome vibe where people from a lot of Melbourne’s different techno venues and crews spend most of their time. The artists are mostly locally loved Melbourne DJs and there are platforms surrounding the stage with trees dispersed around it.

Ascension Stage

The Ascension stage is another psytrance stage with a massive open area looking toward the sunset. I heard people describe this as a mini Boom festival stage – someone even said it was designed by the same people (see my boom festival review guide here)!

This was a heavier form of psytrance (I think) than the sun temple stage also with amazing light mapping on the stage design.

Snakepit Stage

The Snake Pit stage has all kinds of bass, glitch, and drum&bass music with a bit of a hill around it (hence the name) with beautiful stage art and light mapping. This is the first Aussie doof I have been to with this kind of music, and although it’s not my favorite, I love that they have it at Eso.

Moby Dick’s + The Wastelands

Moby Dick’s is a more relaxed stage that is actually located within one of the first sections of the campgrounds. The stage is designed like an old pirate ship (hence the name) and has actual GRASS that is perfect for laying on in the morning. Music here is more chill, with melodic house and slower techno and even some live bands in the mornings.

The Wastelands is the area where Moby Dick’s is located, with some food trucks, showers, bathrooms, ice, and more.

The Esoteric Lagoon

The Lagoon at Esoteric Festival is easily one of the highlights of the festival. It’s a fairly large pool/pond that doesn’t get more than about waist deep and is deliciously cold and refreshing on a hot day. People bring floaties of all kinds to relax on the lagoon or on the beachy area surrounding it.

The lagoon has its own stage that’s open from about 10am-6pm each day with more funky, tech house, or remixed beats.

Chill Island

Chill Island really is a little island of activities a bit removed from the rest of the festival grounds. The area has its own stage that plays a variety of music – I heard it play a lot of slower tribal techno music whenever I went past.

Chill Island is also home to the Light Temple, which is a little tent that holds workshops and meditations, the Zephyr massage tent (fabulous after a long day of dancing), and lots of swinging chairs hanging from the trees.

The Lifestyle Village

The Lifestyle Village at Esoteric has SO much to do all day every day and you MUST visit a few of the workshops here. Here’s what you can expect:

Amphitheatre + Moonlight Bush Cinema

The amphitheater actually has some movie-seat-style seating around a central stage and screen. It has all kinds of talks, comedy, and panels during the day and screens movies or DJ sets from around the world at night.

Cirque Fantsia

This is the area for all flow and movement workshops – from ecstatic dances to poi spinning to bellydance.

Fractal Tree

This is the zen space for yoga, meditation, and breath work. They have all kinds of different styles of yoga during the daylight each day.

Hammock Temple

This was the place for everything music, sound healing, and chanting.

Creation Station

The creation station is for workshops and learning how to create things, from body art to dreamcatchers to clay.

The Shallows Kids Area

Eso is a kid-friendly doof that even has a big space for the little ones to play.

Other Amazing Features of the Esoteric Festival Venue

Couch Gardens

The couch garden was the perfect space to take a rest from a day of doofing with shade and comfy couches right in the middle of the venue.

Arcane Arts Arcade

You CANNOT miss the art gallery area at Eso, which has art on display and for sale from dozens of impressive local artists. Stop by, have a wander, and support some local artists by buying something big or small.

Art Spaces

There are so many areas of art and different decorations and installations throughout Eso that you have to explore! There’s even a specific lineup or art that you can wander around and find.

Fire Circle

There are lots of different fire shows in this fire circle space behind the Ascension stage.

Shop, Markets, and Stalls

There are loads of markets in and around the food courts selling art, clothing, jewelry, trinkets, and more.

First Aid, Info tent, Merch, Dance Wize, and More

You can also find all the necessary hubs on-site such as dancewize, a merch tent, first aid, and even a wifi hub where you can purchase wifi is you have a pressing need to connect to the outside worth during a doof 😉

Water Taps at Eso

There are water taps throughout the Esoteric venue that are easily accessible. They have taps with drinking water for filling up bottles and non-drinking water for washing things (or yourself) off.

Transportation + Parking: How to Get to Esoteric Festival

Here are the options for getting to Esoteric Festival:

Driving Yourself to Esoteric Festival

Most people drive to Esoteric from Melbourne. If you don’t have a car, try and hitch a ride with some friends or reach out into the community via the facebook or Instagram pages to see if anyone has room in their car. This is the easiest and most popular way to get here. Many people rent caravans or campers to get here also for a bit more comfort than a tent.

The Esoteric Bus

The Esoteric bus transports people to and from Carlton Gardens in Melbourne. There are a few times to get to Eso Thursday and Friday and get back Monday and Tuesday, but nothing in between.

It does have a luggage allowance, so if you have lots of stuff, make sure to give it to a friend. Or, it comes with optional reserved Eso bus camping spots if you happen to be traveling solo to the festival and looking for new friends.

Esoteric Festival Crowd

The crowd at Eso tends to be experienced doofers who know how to party well and safely. The crowd here is truly all ages, from children up to older festival-goers who have been in the game for decades. I really didn’t see too many people who were being dickheads or too drunk or high that they couldn’t handle themselves, which is always good at a festival 🙂

I think Esoteric is a doof that people get to when they know more about doofing, if that makes sense. On labor day weekend, a lot of the younger and more inexperienced partiers end up at Pitch Festival (which has a huge techno lineup) rather than Eso, which has a more curated smaller lineup of local and international artists, so the crowd all ‘gets it’ and truly loves it rather than just going for the party.

Esoteric Festival Vibe + Ethos

The vibe at Eso was actually immaculate. I couldn’t really fault a thing – everyone I passed by had great spirits and was open, inclusive, and happy to be silly and have random chats with strangers, which to me is exactly what you want at a festival and actually sometimes hard to achieve. So Esoteric Festival has done great with this!

This festival is big on leaving no trace and disposing of rubbish in the proper containers, and people really took part in this. There truly wasn’t much trash at any of the stages, and I saw people cleaning up after the sets ended which is also the perfect vibe.

Esoteric Festival Atmosphere/Decorations/Production

Esoteric Festival is big on art and creating a magical atmosphere for punters. From the colorful shade sails around each stage and area to cool stick sculptures around the venue to interactive installations to walk through and experience, the vibe was great and it was clear a lot of care was put into the atmosphere.

The production level is also top-notch at each stage. Speakers are all of the highest (loudest) quality and the stage designs are done carefully to match the year’s theme with plenty of artful creativity going into each one. The stage mapping with lights (done by talented TAS Visuals) is one of the most impressive parts of the production for me, as it seems like whatever each stage is is twisting and twirling in neon lights to the beat.

Esoteric Festival Lineup/Music/Artists

Esoteric brings in a carefully curated lineup of artists each year. While there are definitely some big names on the lineup, Eso really isn’t about the lineup for most people. It’s more about the vibe, the atmosphere, and the trust that each stage will have quality music no matter who is playing it. And it really does!

Most of the artists at Eso are local Victoria/Melbourne artists that are known and loved by the crowd that attends. There are also some impressive international artists that play, but it’s more local and I think they like it that way as it keeps the vibe close to home and brings in a crowd that enjoys names they are familiar with from venues they often go to.

Camping at Esoteric Festival

The camping at Esoteric is laid out in a grid style according to letter and number. People who arrive early can take a grid for their group, leaving plenty of space for camping. I didn’t notice any tiny or squeezed camping areas, and everyone had tons of space.

Eso would be a great festival to check out my Ultimate Music Festival Camping Checklist if you want to set up the most epic, comfortable, and cozy camping area with the large space you can take here.

Lots of people bring RV’s or campervans to eso, and all the cars can just drive in and park at their camping spot, so there’s no need to park away from your tent (but you do need a car pass). Some camps bring in their own little renegade stage setups and massive marquees to create big camping havens that function like theme camps. There’s no shade in the camping area, however, so you need to bring your own.

Esoteric Camping Shuttle

There’s a fun little open shuttle train thing that comes by every 45 minutes for those who are camping a bit farther away and don’t want to walk back and forth too much. Most of the camping is quite close to the venue, but some of the farther spots can be over a 20-minute walk, so the shuttle is great, and there are stops by a lot of the main areas and the Wastelands.

Esoteric Festival Amenities – Other Features + Stuff to Do

As I mentioned in the ‘venue’ section, the Lifestyle Village is chock full of fun things to do ALL day, from yoga, breathwork, and meditation classes to flow arts workshops to learn different dances or flow toys to creating your own trinkets and things to bring home from the festival.

The Lifestyle Village and different workshops at Eso start each morning and run until before sunset. These areas are the perfect place to spend a chill day before ramping up the party vibes for the evening.

Money at Esoteric Festival

Money works normally at Esoteric festival. There’s no loading wristbands or anything like that. Most of the vendors take cash or card, and most have card machines.

Food/Drink and Prices at Esoteric Festival

Eso has lots of food and drinks available! Here are the options.

FOOD at Esoteric

Eso has loads of food vendors on two different sides of the venue – near the main stage and near the snake pit. The options are extensive; you can get nearly anything you want!

Expect things like: pizza, burgers, veggie/vegan food, paella, dumplings, Mexican, smoothies, breakfast sandwiches, juices, health food, and so much more! Food dishes are about $15-$25 ish.

DRINKS at Esoteric

You can bring drinks into Esoteric, so there aren’t any alcoholic drinks available that I could see myself – I doubt there are any licensed bars.

However, from nearly all the food vendors, you can grab delicious drinks like iced tea, kombucha, smoothies, juice, and soda options.

Esoteric Festival Tickets/Price

Esoteric ticket prices start at around $300 for early bird tickets, and go up to about $450 AUD in the last tier. You can also add on car camping passes, early arrival passes, and more. Check the website for this year’s details.

Esoteric Festival Security

At Eso, you will have your car checked on the way in (mostly to check for glass). We had one man check for glass before waving us through.

Police have been spotted going through people’s campsites and searching them also, so make sure to be aware that cops can go through your stuff when you are not there and put things away.

Bathrooms at Esoteric Festival

Eso has composting drop toilets all around the venue. There are blocks of 10 or so eco-friendly drop toilets, all covered in amazing psychedelic art. The lines sometimes got a bit long and I think they could have done with a few more toilet blocks.

Weather at Esoteric Festival

You truly never know what the weather will be like in Victoria, the state of 4 seasons in one day, but in mid-March, it’s usually quite good. Prepare for the possibility of rain, warm days, and cold nights. There will usually be a good amount of sun and maybe one hot day with the others just warm.

Fashion at Esoteric Festival

Esoteric sees all kinds of fun, colorful, and creative doof clothing! Esotericans love a good dress up and many people are decked out in fun outfits and wigs with accessories, flowy coverings, and body paint. Anything really goes here!

Timings at Esoteric

At Esoteric, the lifestyle village runs from the morning to just past sunset. If you are around in the morning, you can check out a variety of workshops, yoga and flow classes, and talks on the west side of the venue.

The stages begin around the early afternoon, some starting as early as 12 noon or 1pm, and go into the night. The closing times for the stages are different each night. Music runs until past 6am on Friday and Saturday night, only about 2-3am on Sunday night, and stops by 7pm on Monday evening before the closing ceremony. Make sure to check the schedules because timings REALLY vary.

Volunteering at Esoteric

There are many volunteering opportunities at Esoteric, from checking peoples’ tickets and giving out wristbands at the gate to helping run parts of the lifestyle village to picking up trash. Check the volunteer opportunities on the website and make sure to apply early as Eso’s applications close a few months ahead of time.

Final Tips for Esoteric Festival

• Make time to check out the lifestyle village and attend some workshops, yoga sessions, dances, and comedy shows.
• CHECK TIMINGS of stage closings because they differ a lot each night
• Don’t forget about Chill Island – it’s a cool area.
• Spend a few hours each afternoon at the Lagoon – it’s an absolute vibe
• If you can far away, take the Esoteric shuttle if you can time it right
• Spend some time appreciating the art around the venue and the gallery
• Experience some of the amazing food options at the festival
• Have fun!