Strawberry Fields Festival Review + Guide: All You Need to Know

Strawberry Fields Festival is an absolute oasis in the middle of Australia’s bushland, nestled in a serene nook on the Murray River right between Victoria and Tocumwal, New South Wales.

This Strawberry Fields festival review + guide will tell you all you need to know for your trip to the festival through reviewing my experience there; from the location, venue, lineup, and camping to the workshops, art, clothing, and extra activities, to the nitty gritty stuff like security, bathrooms, and tickets… I got you covered!

A small and manageable venue, Strawberry Fields (or ‘Strawbs’ as it is lovingly called by those who attend it) is the perfect mix of open air, river-side beach, and tall tree forests. It is known by many to be one of the best bush doofs in Australia, bringing in crowds of colorful festival-lovers to the banks of the cool Murray River each November (or March-April as of now).

Strawberry Fields Location/Venue/Stages

Strawberry Fields festival is located in the deep bush area on the Murray River which separates Victoria from New South Wales. Strawbs is on the NSW side of the river, just outside a small farming town called Tocumwal. Tocumwal is about 3 hours from Melbourne and 5 hours from Canberra, most easily reached from Melbourne.

Strawberry Fields’ location is aptly named ‘the Wildlands,’ which is a fitting name to describe the open bush areas, forests, and riverside parts that make the venue whole. Throughout the Wildlands you will find 5 main stage areas, each with a vibe of their own, and many different areas of market stalls, gourmet food, art, workshops, creative spaces, galleries, and a beach along the river. There’s even a ferris wheel!

Apparently, they do change the layout of the stages and camping a bit each year – a lot of my campmates said that everything was in a different place this year, but it worked well. Either way you’ll still find the main components and stages. Here are the main areas that you’ll find:

The Beach Stage

This is the absolute place to be during the daytime at Strawberry Fields festival. When the sun comes up and it’s a bit too hot in your tent, it’s time to head straight to the Beach Stage (perhaps stopping for a brekkie sandwich) to have a dip in the cool Murray River.

Right on the banks of the Murray after giving ample space for netting and hammock chill areas and for people to sunbathe, you’ll find the beach stage. Generally going off during the day and playing tunes that you would naturally associate with a beach (think funk, chilled house, etc), this is the place to be.

There’s nothing better than being nestled amongst the trees next to the water on a warm day in the bush. The Murray water is also just perfectly crisp and refreshing!

The Tea Lounge + The Village

The Tea Lounge is an actual tea lounge where you can pick up a selection of totally free and delicious teas during the day. Next to the Tea Lounge is The Village, which is also an activity space during the day – think, workshops on things like nutrition, bongo drumming classes, yoga and dance, etc – and a live music stage at night.

After other stages close you can still count on the Tea Lounge/The Village to provide the vibes, with funky bands, jazz, and all of the live instruments.

Monoss: Art Garden + Workshop/Painting Area

Monoss is the center for art at Strawberry Fields Festival. The Art Garden is an inside space with tons of festival photography, paintings, and every possible type of art inside. It was beautifully designed and a nice quiet space that even has different seminars and workshops going on throughout the day in different kinds of art and even massage.

Monoss has a performance and workshop schedule that hosted some of the most creative and interesting shows. From hula hooping and disco dancing to choreographed dances and minuature plays, this place has everything and will bee a true surprise each time you check it out.

Next to the Art Garden one year was a massive hammock structure where lots of live art took place. Throughout the weekend artists covered the walls and spaces around the Art Garden in colorful and beautiful paintings. It was amazing to see the space come to life more and more each time I passed by it.

Wildlands (Main Stage)

This is where all the ridiculousness goes down! Covered in beautiful pastel tarps, the main stage (Wildlands) has enough space for practically the whole festival and is the center of the action all weekend. All the headlining names play here to a sea of crazy dancers, funny doof sticks, and groups of happy friends.

The production value is fantastic everywhere, but the Funktion One bassline especially moved the crowd into a beautiful unison at The Wildlands stage.

The Grove Stage

This is the place that always has quirky live music and jam bands going on at all hours. I saw some instruments I had never seen before, live trumpet/sax/flute, and some hilariously catchy beats here. If there was an act that featured more live elements, it would surely perform here at The Grove stage.

Deep Jungle Stage

The Deep Jungle Stage was actually located closer to the campgrounds than anything else, which was slightly misleading because judging from it’s name you’d think you’d have to go on a few hour trek through the bush to get there 😛

This stage was a beautiful painted wooded bird-like structure one year with stairs to climb up and party above the crowd. It spread out like a bird’s wings in an almost-semicircle around the crown, with the dj playing inside the bird’s beak. It was really beautiful and complimented the forest perfectly.

There are generally deeper vibes here, with nice house, tech house, and techno beats emanating from within the trees.

The Playground

This is a fun adult playground with a hammock chill area and a big wooded pirate ship with a mirror maze inside.

Markets and Food

The main grass (read: dirt) area of the festival is bordered on all sides with stalls with everything you can imagine. There will be dozens of food stalls (it may be impossible to decide what to get) also dozens of market stalls (any doof clothes you could ever want) and also smaller tents with things like henna and shiatsu massage. See below for more info on food.

Strawberry Fields Crowd

The crowd at Strawberry are of all ages (well, 18+) and generally Aussie. Of course the majority of people are young but you’ll see the veteran doofers here and there still practicing and perfecting their craft 😉

I met some Brits and Irish, but most of the people at Strawberry Fields festival were Australian, and at that I would say most were even based in Melbourne. I have heard it said that Strawberry tends to have a bit of a younger crowd and I would say that this is true – Strawberry Fields festival is often people’s ‘first doof’ and you could tell that many faces may have been younger and newer to the scene.

However, I did find that the people here were all completely into it and knew how to do a proper doof. Everyone was dressed up to the nines, getting weird in the best possible way, meeting strangers, sharing moments, and generally just being awesome. I didn’t come across one person here who was a bad vibe or didn’t know how to carry/handle themselves in a festival situation.

Picking Up Rubbish

The only thing I found unimpressive about the Strawberry crowd was a bit of lack of respect for rubbish… a fairly big one. It seemed to me that the crowd mentality took over everyone’s animal brains upon seeing one or two people throw trash on the ground… eventually everyone was doing it. It was a big shame to see some of the younger doofers carelessly tossing their cans and bottles onto the ground expecting someone to clean up after them at a festival that sound be ‘leave no trace.’

There were rubbish bins all over the grounds and always easily reachable, but like I said once people saw it happening it seemed to get worse and worse. Veteran doofers picked up some slack by collecting rubbish here and there and reprimanding those who littered, as did helpful volunteers. If you’re going next year, don’t forget to respect the incredible venue so Strawberry Fields Festival can take place for years to come.

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Vibe

The vibe here is light and airy, with a feeling of fun, happiness, and weirdness going through the air! You can tell that everyone here has been waiting for this weekend for a long time and is enjoying it to the fullest by dressing up, dancing, and having fun with their friends.

Strawberry Fields is very high energy and very open, with most strangers eager to have a chat, hug, or high-five with any random person who may walk by. In my eyes, this is the absolute best way for a festival to be! No one seemed to be ‘too cool’ here, everyone was a big family.

There was definitely a big party vibe at this festival, with lots of people out to party hard. That being said, I again didn’t witness any people who couldn’t handle themselves in the situation they’d chosen or went too hard. It was a caring environment with people looking out for their friends while having a good time.

Strawberry Fields Atmosphere/Decorations

As a music and arts festival, Strawbs did have a good amount of art scattered around the venue. From a few larger and more central wooden installations like a climbable ball, a tall pyramid, a massive wooded hammock structure, a coloful mist-spraying tree, and some more abstract structures, to a specified art area with live painting, it would be hard not to appreciate at least some art.

The “Monoss” art gallery and hammock structure was the center for art at Strawberry Fields Festival. It was here that artists did live painting in all sorts of psychedelic and colorful patterns, and where there was lots of art and photography from previous installations of the festival on display.

Inside the Art Garden you could also purchase merchandise, or simply gaze at the work of some diverse yet equally incredible different artists. It was a wonderful space of a bit more peace and quiet, where you could get away from the vibrating basslines and take in some creativity.

Other than these areas, there was more art scattered here and there, lanterns and colorful things hanging from trees, loads of fairy lights that would come alive at dusk, wooded doorways crafted from branches, and much more.

All of this came together with the sunlight shining through the kicked-up dust amidst the tall wildlands trees to create a vibe of total magic. Sunset in the Wildlands was a spectacle, and you’d be missing out if you didn’t spend at least a bit of quiet time sitting in the trees and appreciating the surroundings.

Strawberry Fields Lineup/Music/Artists

Strawberry hosts a diverse lineup mostly within the house, techno, disco, and funk genres. For more live music, jam bands, funk, and soul, you could head to The Tea Lounge and to The Grove stages. Each time I passed by any of these there was always a really interesting vibe going on with the more creative types of live music on display. Expect headliners here along the lines of Max Graef, Dirtwire, Hiatus Kaiyote, and Danika Smith.

The Wildlands Stage hosts most of the bigger names of the weekend and headliners. Bringing in the classic house music were the likes of Sasha, Honey Dijon, Oona Dahl, Carl Craig, Blond:ish, and Andhim, with some techno legends like Peter Van Hoesen and DJ Nobu raising the energy later into the night. Nicola Cruz slayed the trippy tribal beats during his legendary unique afternoon set.

The Deep Jungle stage hosts more of the deeper vibes such as DJ Seinfeld, Hoj, and Township Rebellion. You could always head to The Beach stage in the day for the more chilled out and ‘beachy’ vibes to hear while you swim and lay out in the sun.

One thing that is for sure is that the headliners were supplemented by all kinds of awesomeness that I didn’t know by name but thoroughly enjoyed the beats of. This is the type of festival where you often get more drawn in by DJ’s you don’t know.

Strawberry Fields Camping

Getting In

After waiting in line to have wristbands checked and put on, you’ll be let out into the large camping areas. Apparently the camping areas have changed in the past editions of Strawberry Fields, but in my last year they were mostly in large open grass/dirt fields.

The line to get in a few hours after the gate opening couldn’t have taken much more than about 30-45 minutes, which is not too bad considering the amount of people. Cars split into multiple lines to check tickets and were then let in.

Camping Areas

A few different massive camping areas were wrapped like a glove around the festival site. These were divided into two main areas, Redgum and Woperana, and if you looked at the map you could place your camping area on a grid that corresponded to a letter and a number.

This was extremely convenient to find people, given that they had a map and knew which spot they were at! I definitely heard a lot of people exchanging their letter-and-number camping areas with others for an easier meetup later on.

The camping areas had main roads etc going through them, making most areas quite easily accessible by car. The camping extended all along one side of the venue and on either side of the main entrance road. Most camping was such a close walking distance to the venue that it was quite easy just to walk back to the tents to grab some beers or rest for a bit if you wanted to. This was a great benefit of having a fairly compact venue – nothing eas ever too far away.

The Strawberry Fields camping had toilets scattered here and there (usually within 5 minutes of any campsite) with water refill stations and some medic tents along the different streets. There was one shower area.

Best Strawberry Fields Camping Spots

Most of the camping areas are quite open to the sun, and it was hard to find the stray tree here and there in the middle of the campgrounds to set up under to grab some shade.

I would recommend either getting in very early and taking one of the maybe 4-5 trees in the main Redgum area, bringing plenty of shade structures and EZ-ups for your tent and your group chill space, or possibly setting up at the very back of the camping area near the road to get in, which is fully covered in trees but a bit hilly and farther away. You’ll see it when you drive in! Setting up near the glamping tents would also be a good idea and very close, but no shade.

Glamping at Strawberry Fields Festival

Strawbs did have glamping options available, called “WOW” tents. There were a few different sizes of these and essentially they were either massive teepee shade structures or pre-erected bell tents for 2-10 people.

There were four different WOW options available, from the ‘Wildlands Wonder’ tent for two with a memory foam bed, power, lighing, mirrors, and a fan, to the ‘Doofers Dream’ and the ‘doofers den’ with similar amenities for up to 5 people but one with BYO linens, to the ‘Basic Bell Tent’  which is pre-erected but BYO everything else. There were options for everyone!

Camping Amenities, Showers, Etc

Since camping was so incredibly close to the festival, and because there was no border/entrance/barrier between the camping and the actual venue, the festival amenities and the camping amenities were one and the same.

Again, there were drop toilets scattered through the campgrounds, most of which were kept fairly clean. There were water refilling stations next to most bathrooms.

The Strawberry Fields camping did have some showers, located near the main entrance next to the glamping areas, if anyone was actually so inclined as to take a shower. You could walk to the showers or pull the classic baby wipe wipe-down, which a lot of people did. 😛

Festival Amenities – Other Stuff to Do

As I have already mentioned, there were tons more things to do at Strawberry Fields festival than just doof your little heart away (although that’s fine too!). Strawberry boasted a fantastic lineup of roaming performers, workshops and classes, live art and painting, activities, and LOTS of gourmet food and drinks.

Many may not have specifically known it, but Strawbs has just as an extensive of a lineup in performance, art, and workshops as it did in music and food. Surely you had to put in a bit of effort to make some of the shows at Monoss, see the roving performers, and make it to yoga classes on time, but to me it is also an important part of a transformational festival to make it to some, well… transformational experiences.

I went into most of this above but will include another summary of extra Strawberry Fields festival activitied below.

Workshops – Tea Lounge

The Tea Lounge and Village had massage, bongo drumming, yoga, meditation, hula hooping, tarot card reading, all different types of tea, jam and funk bands, and interesting discussions.

Monoss Art Classes + Roaming Performers

Monoss was the center for live art and workshops. Art workshops included things like pottery and macrame. Each day there was an aerial hour near the hammock structure with amazing aerial artists doing their thing. There were fire spinners, belly dancers, twirlers, and more who would road around the festival grounds creating even more magic.

Market Stalls

There were nearly as many epic market stalls at Strawbs as there were amazing food stands. The markets had a lot of epic and eclectic doof clothes, but had other things like sunglasses, hear dreading, henna tattoos, and more.

Amazing Food

See below for details!

Strawberry Fields Transportation/Hotels/Parking

Strawberry Fields Accommodation

I do think you could stay in Tocumwal if you really want to, but as I always say, you’re doing it wrong if you don’t camp at festivals. The camping here is freaking awesome and so much fun, and it’s cool enough/ends early enough to sleep at night too.

If you’re totally adamant not to camp, there are hotels in Tocumwal and Airbnb’s as well.  But, driving would definitely be a hectic experience each day with a massive police presence, and getting in and out would likely be more trouble than it’s worth.

There’s a shuttle bus from/to Tocumwal from the venue but it’s only on Friday and Sunday for those who take the train. Creating an awesome camping haven for you and your friends is the best option.

Strawberry Fields Transportation

I would say most people at Strawberry Fields Festival either drove themselves, rented a bus among friends, or took one of the Strawberry official busses from the city in Melbourne. The official shuttle bus was definitely the easiest and cheapest option at only $25, but it sold out very quickly. It was really convenient to share a big 24-person bus among friends and split costs, and not have to worry about all the crazy drug testing upon exit of the venue – see ‘security’ section below!

Lastly, it was possible to take public transport from Melbourne to Tocumwal via Shepparton. For anyone waiting at the Tocumwal train station they had a bus to the festival venue.

Parking is simply amongst the camping area wherever you would like, or wherever they shuffle you into as you arrive. I didn’t see much shuffling as it was essentially a free-for-all camping-wise, as long as you park within the designated lines. If there was any assigned camping, I didn’t see it as we simply drove into the site and drove around until we saw a spot we liked.

Strawberry Fields Food/Drink

Strawberry Fields Food

Strawberry Fields is almost just as much a food festival as it was a music festival! They take a great deal of pride in their extensive food options, which line a good few hundred meters of the main festival area. There are dozens of food stands and you’ll be really spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding just which stalls to allot your daily food intake to.

Some of the most popular food stalls were gourmet grilled cheese, Mexican food/tacos/nachos, Greek gyros, breakfast sandwiches, smoothies, Indian wraps, and loaded fries. Some other stands around included Acai Bowls/Superfoods, gourmet burgers, noodles, Japanese street food, pizza, and more. There was even a classic Aussie tent that sold $3 sausages in bread among other classics like brekkie rolls. Here is a detailed list of all the food… yummmm!

Strawberry Field Drinks

Strawbs is a FULL BYO festival – no bars or drinks available onsite! This might sound funny but in reality it’s totally awesome. People drag their coolers around with them from stage to stage, cracking open another cold one literally from right at their feet whenever they feel like it.

That being said, there is no glass allowed. I must say that they didn’t really search for glass upon entry, but if someone saw you walking around with glass onsite they would ask you to throw it away once you finished it.

Strawberry Fields Tickets Costs + Prices

Tickets include camping and entry Friday to Monday, and cost about $250 early bird to about $300 final release.

Car Passes cost $30 (and don’t sell out) and early entry for Thursday night is about another $100 per car. Not everything is open on Thursday, but it’s great for getting a good spot and checking out the grounds before they become too crowded.

If you wanted a WOW tent you could add another few hundred bucks depending on how many people and which tent you got. Factor in your food each day, BYO alcohol and other drinks, ice, and camping stuff, and make your budget for the weekend.

Strawberry Fields Security

There was a heightened police presence going to/from Strawberry Fields festival, as can apparently be expected at pretty much all Australian festivals. You can expect:

Getting to the Venue

There were random police/dog checks on the way into the venue on the main road to/from Tocumwal. It didn’t seem that too many cars were pulled over into the security/dog tests (my bus did not get stopped) but they were definitely apparent. I only saw one police/dog checking area on our way in and there were maybe 4-5 cars in it and the same amount of police cars.

Getting into the Venue

There was no specific security check upon entry – it seemed that the festival left that responsibility to the local police who did a plenty good job with it! After waiting in line outside the entrance they scanned everyone’s tickets and gave out wristbands. Some may have done a quick car check or looked for glass, but with my vehicle there was nothing.

At the Venue

Once inside the Strawberry Fields festival venue, there was not too much security. There was a higher presence of volunteers who roamed around checking that everything/everyone was all good. There were definitely some police roaming around here and there, generally in teams of two and just walking through the grounds checking on things. They seemed fairly chilled however.

Leaving the Venue

Upon exit from Strawberry fields festival, there were TONS of cops doing testing for all types of alcohol and drugs. There were multiple breath tests within the first few miles of the venue, and I would say most cars got pulled in to be tested (while busses were safe). Australia is extremely serious about their driving laws, and if would be risky for anyone to drive if they shouldn’t.

However, within the venue, you could pay for a preliminary alcohol/drug test to make sure you’re all good. The lines for these tests were understandably long as everyone wanted to make sure to stay safe and ensure they were ok to get their friends home.

Bathrooms

The bathrooms are long blocks of drop toilets set around the venue, painted across their fronts. At that, they were actually really good for drop toilets!

They were the kind of sanitary bin drop toilets with sawdust to put in after you do your business, which helps them not to smell! That being said, many doofers can’t really be trusted to remember to pour sawdust in. All in all the bathrooms were really not too bad and I would say they nearly always had toilet paper in them, which is also impressive.

Weather

The Strawberry Fields weather is quite perfect in November in the Wildlands. It ranges from very warm to hot in the day, and definitely gcan get chilly at night. The temperatures on either side of the spectrum were generally very manageable, with a small fur or light jacket enough to keep you warm at night.

During the day it sometimes gets a bit too hot in the sun, but many people set up in the shade, have water spray bottles (which is a great idea), or most importantly take a dip in the Murray River to cool off. The weather in March/April might be a bit cooler but similar.

The Murray River is truly one of the best selling points of Strawberry Fields festival, with its crisp and chilly water doing a perfect job to cool down your body temperature to the perfect level before you head back out into the sun. Lots of people took the opportunity to lay out and work on their tan. Just remember sunscreen is extra important here!

Strawberry Fields Clothing + Fashion

Strawberry Fields clothing is the classic doof/party attire, with everything weird and wonderful encouraged the most. It does seem that doofs/burns/festivals are taking on a life of their own when it comes to fashion, with leotards and fishnets paired with chunky boots, sparkles, wigs, and body paint paramount for girls and party shirts (crazy patterned button-ups) and silly tights for the guys,

I would say if you were packing to dress up at Strawberry, bring sparkles, colors, chaps, everything colorful spandex, necklaces, glitter, wigs, party shirts, anything robotic or shiny, leotards, silly jewelry or accessories, fishnets, bathing suits, crazy tights, body chains, gloves, high-waisted swimmer bottoms, silly hats or headdresses, big sunglasses, fur coats, silly patterns, and anything bright and silly.

I even saw a guy who brought a vacuum cleaner to the main stage and was hilariously pretending to vacuum up the dirt while wearing octopus tentacles as hands, and it made my day! These kinds of events really enable you to act like a kid again, and anything goes. I ended up making friends with this guy because I was wearing a tiny mini-hand on one of my fingers and high-fived his tentacles with it. 😛

Strawberry Fields Timings

Early entry begins from 2pm Thursday, with regular entry at 12pm Friday,

Music runs until about 2:30/3am Friday and Saturday. On Sunday the main stages stopped at 7pm and the Tea Lounge stopped at 930pm.

I found this early ending time extremely strange and unfavorable, but as this was my first real Aussie doof I did not realize that most festivals in Australia run like this? I understand the intention of getting people out early, but as most people take Mondays off of work after festivals anyway I saw it as an unnecessary limit to the fun.

Rather than get people to leave early, this early ending time just made everyone go back and throw campsite parties and run amuck around the festival grounds trying to find other things to do.I most definitely didn’t go to bed early that night, most people just hopped from campsite to campsite looking for renegade parties and trying to squeeze the last drops out of an epic weekend.

For me this was one of the most strange and disappointing parts of the festival – it was like the last half of day three (kind of like, 1/6 of the festival if you think about it) was randomly removed, which I’ve never seen at festivals on the other 5 continents. But again, everywhere is different and there is logic behind it somewhere, I suppose.

Strawberry Fields Volunteering

Strawberry Fields had a great volunteer program where you would exchange three 4-hour shifts for your festival ticket. Volunteers came in three different types:

General: Worked at the gate giving/checking tickets, directing traffic, or helping with trash and recycling.

Harm Reduction: did things like carrying water around to people who needed it (cups and all), checking that things were generally going well and radio’ing in anything that was not (any people needing help, missing water stations, working bathrooms, etc)

Wilderness Restoration: Helped clean up after the festival and restore the Wildlands to their ‘leave no trace’ policy standard.

Money

Money worked normally at Strawbs – pay for things with card or cash. Some food stalls only took cash. There was an ATM on site.

Just one more dose of weirdness for your day 😛

Strawberry Fields Cell Phone Service

Phone service was spotty at the festival. There were certain places you could get a call or text through, or an email read, but generally you wouldn’t be able to load things like videos, social media, or many internet pages. I only used my phone to take photos and videos which I posted to my story after the fact.

Other than that it’s a good idea to unplug and enjoy the moment! You can see my Strawberry Fields story on the highlights on my instagram.

Final Strawberry Fields Festival Tips

• Make sure to take time out of dancing to check out all the other things on offer! Pencil in at least one yoga class, art workshop, or fun session. It’s so much more fulfilling to know you made the most out of all that was available.
• Do know the music before you go! Research a bit on artists you prefer and familiarize yourself with parts of the lineup.
• THROW AWAY YOUR GOD DAMN TRASH. If each person just takes care of their own sh*t, ther festival would be spotless. It’s not that hard. It’s actually sad how hard people make it seem. Don’t be careless for the incredible venue that Strawberry Fields festival is lucky to have. If you want to keep coming back, pull your weight!
• Swim in the Murray each morning before you get all ready. It’s honestly THE BEST THING. Nothing is more refreshing!
• Don’t forget to eat! There is so much amazing food there it would be silly to miss out on trying some. I thought I would try and save money and bring my own food but it’s honestly worth splurging on some of these food stalls.
• Spend at least some time checking out the live painting and art gallery.
• Try the ferris wheel! Why not?

 

Thanks for hosting me, Strawbs! As always, all words are my own… I had the time of my life!

Going doofing? Check my other guides

• Rainbow Serpent Festival Review + Guide
• Esoteric Festival Review + Guide
• Pitch Festival Review + Guide
• Babylon Festival Review + Guide