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St Jerome’s Laneway Festival is a music event that had extremely humble beginnings. It began in Melbourne in 2004 in a small bar in a back street, which wasn’t the nicest of locations. Rumour has it the lane was rat infested and filled with garbage because local restaurants’ back doors opened onto the lane which is where they stored their rubbish.
These days the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival is currently held in cities across Australia, Auckland in New Zealand and even in Singapore, although Detroit also held a festival one year.
2018 Laneway Festival
Dates of Shows and Locations
- Saturday 27 January – Singapore – The Meadow, Gardens by the Bay
- Monday 29 January – Auckland – Albert Park Precinct
- Friday 2 February – Adelaide – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide
- Saturday 3 February – Melbourne – Footscray Community Arts Centre
- Sunday 4 February – Sydney – Sydney College of the Arts
- Saturday 10 February – Brisbane – Brisbane Showgrounds – Bowen Hills
- Sunday 11 February – Fremantle (Perth) – Esplanade Reserve and West End
For full details of the line-up, to buy tickets and for any other information visit the Laneway Festival website here.
History of St Jerome’s Laneway Festival
Jerome Borazio opened the bar mainly just as a place for him and his mates to have cheap drinks but also so they didn’t have to worry about a dress code. Not long afterwards his friend, a band booker, came to work there and Sundays at their bar soon became known as a place to watch some great bands. These Sunday shows became known as the ‘Summer Series’.
Out of nowhere it seems a festival just began, lots of acts played there and even Lily Allen played a secret show there. By 2005 the local restaurants were convinced to sell food out of their back entrances and to stop leaving their bins!
Timeline of the growth of the Laneway Festival
- 2004 – the bar opens in Caledonian Lane in Melbourne
- 2005 – the Summer Series becomes known, local restaurants see the potential so start selling food and tickets start selling out
- 2006 – saw the first Sydney Festival, located in Circular Quay, also using Macquarie Square, Reiby Place and The Basement
- 2007 – Brisbane joined the location line up holding their festival at the Zoo
- 2008 – the Melbourne Festival expanded into Drewery Lane and Lonsdale Street and Adelaide hosted their first festival at Fowlers Live North Terrace
- 2009 – established laneway festivals started outgrowing their original locations and Perth hosted their first at the Perth Cultural Centre
First festival outside of Australia…
- 2010 – saw the first festival outside of Australia. Britomart Centre was the location for the first Auckland Laneway Festival
- 2011 – Yet another location added to the increasingly popular music event, this time Singapore hosted their first Laneway Festival and it quickly became the biggest event
- 2012 – no additional locations added this year, but the Auckland festival moved to the Wynyard Quarter and Silo Park
- 2013 – Detroit in the USA held it’s first Laneway festival at Oakland University
- 2014 – Detroit dropped off the map, but the other shows all did extremely well. Lorde reached the Number One spot in the US charts this year and shortly afterwards she played the Laneway Festival
- 2015 – A huge line up including Flight Facilities, Caribou and Andy Bull
- 2016 – More tickets sold than ever before, the main artists described the festival as either awesome or brutal!
- 2017 – The Laneway Festival launched a new podcast and threw a Hottest 100 Backyard Party in Brisbane. They also introduced the 1800LANEWAY hotline in every Australian city for reporting ‘disrespectful and unsafe behaviour’.
If you love a good music festival then you really can’t miss out on this one. You’ll have a heap of fun! We have accommodation near to almost all the Laneway Festival locations so book your festival accommodation now!
- Adelaide – Adelaide Travellers Inn
- Sydney – Nomads Sydney
- Brisbane – Nomads Brisbane
- Perth – Billabong Backpackers
