Wanderer Festival décor a local affair, with South Coast creatives stepping up to the challenge

The local team has been put in charge of creating décor and signage to be used around the festival site

Artistic director Ian Pidd said the look of the place was really important to the festival committee who wanted to create an incredible mood for all attending the event.

Mr Pidd got in touch with the Bega Sound Collective who were able to put together a talented local posse to create the décor.

The team has been busy sewing, painting, cutting, and making all sorts of exciting decorations like bunting and mobiles in both Bega and Pambula over the last week.

The theme for the decorations has come from the poster artwork, created by Gold Coast-based artist Go Suga - with its deconstructed colours and shapes to be used around the festival site at Pambula Beach.

"It's going to have the vibe of a kind of psychedelic beach party," said Mr Pidd.

Merimbula artist Meg Brewster has been volunteering at the Pambula site over the last few days and said it had been a fantastic experience. Although she didn't know who else was volunteering when she signed up, she ended up knowing half the crowd of creatives.

She said she had been hand painting signs and so there was "lots of big roller work happening and then lots of fine hand painting happening".

Ms Brewster said the friendly team had been hanging out, listening to music, chatting, and painting.

She said, "I have spent so much time at that venue, I've gone to dance classes in that hall, played touch football at that oval, my son skates in that skatepark.

"So to actually see the transformation of something I thought I knew into something so wildly amazing and different is an experience that people who aren't locals won't get.

"It's doing my head in to turn-up and see it there," said Ms Brewster.

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The site has been transformed into a festival venue, with luscious green grass, a big outdoor space for headline acts, two big top tents for music and circus performances, and several smaller areas with workshops and other surprises to come.

Mr Pidd said it was important to use local talent and artists because the team wanted the festival to feel as though it belonged and had "deep roots here".

"You can put a stage up and bands anywhere you like really, the things that's really crucial is that this festival has a genuine identity, and that identity is shot through the feel and creative brilliance of the Sapphire Coast," he said.

"My aim is for visitors to leave going, 'there's something going on on the Sapphire Coast, it's just fantastic and the food is great! And I think the food is almost completely local."

He said the festival had managed to really harness the feel of the Far South Coast as majority of the people working on it were local - including festival creator Simon Daly who moved here with his family in 2019 after holidaying in the region.

If you would like to head along to Wanderer Festival you can purchase tickets here.