Six Degrees of Exultation!
(ex-ul-ta-tion (noun) the act or condition of rejoicing greatly)

It is time for exultation indeed as team Soul Highway is well beyond excited to officially announce our 6^th annual Wave Rock Weekender of music, camping, nature and films under our ancient powerful friend, Wave Rock, in Hyden Western Australia.

Due to our Premier shifting the long weekend back one month to accommodate the expensive CHOGM politician party the 2011 event will run from midday Friday October 28 until 10am Sunday 30 October (Friday is the public holiday) so make sure you don’t turn up on Saturday!  This means that although it is super annoying that we have had to wait a month longer than usual for the 2011 event that we will only have to wait eleven months next year.

For the uninitiated – Wave Rock Weekender is an intimate boutique festival experience with a soul bigger than all of us where you can leave the digital you behind and revel and rebel in real things like music, film, nature and people.

The Weekender has the uncanny ability to remind us in the most incredibly low fuss way what a good time is actually all about.  Daily distraction is replaced with human interaction and artistic action of the sweetest possible kinds.

The event features amazing artists from all around the world programmed for the independence of their spirit and their suitability for the location and time of day and because they understand what the event is about.

The acts are sourced for actual quality and not “most-clicked” or “top favourited” or “highest selling” bullshit. This is why you will always make excellent discoveries, drop preconceptions or get magical reminders from our main stage about everything that is great about music.

2011 is no exception with one of the most diverse and excellent line ups we have ever had – featuring some old regulars, old favorites, new favorites and plenty of amazing new discoveries to knock your thongs off by day and thermal socks off by night. 

Of course we have rock and roll but this mind warping smorgasbord also includes indie folk, swing, Bollywood, Mexican desert-surf, blues, reggae, electronic, lo-fi, indie rock, alt-country, experimental, psychedelic music and more.

And here are the 2011 massive: 

The Tallest Man on Earth (Sweden)
Ash Grunwald (Vic)
Electric Wire Hustle (NZ)
Abbe May (WA)
Joe Pug (USA)
Clairy Browne & Bangin’ Rackettes (Vic)
Puta Madre Brothers (Vic)
The Bombay Royale (Vic)
Sugar Army (WA)
Sunshine Brothers (WA)
Ruby Boots (WA)
Fall Electric (WA)
Brothers Grim (Vic)
Lucky Oceans Trio (WA)
Cosmo Gets (WA)
The Ghost Hotel (WA)
Timothy Nelson & Amanda Merdzan (WA)
Old Man River (NSW)
Big Old Bears (WA)

Don’t forget about all our usual features too….

* 24 hour cinema program (see our website for what’s in store this year)  
 * Our incredible remote location and tiny capacity
* Food and beverage vendors who respect their ingredients, their customers and the event
* Meaningful and progressive festival environmental initiatives  
 * Super high quality caravan park camping with full park facilities
* A huge 50m salt pool for floating and swimming
* Random acts of entertainment, creativity and activity
and of course that sweet damn rock and incredible night sky.

We normally urge you to let loose and hit the road to get out of dodge – well this year you escape dodge and all the frighteningly daggy political sheen of CHOGM too so it’s a double escape.  We will also enjoy slightly warmer conditions, a warmer salt pond  and more wildflowers due to the later weekend which can’t hurt one bit.
We love this thing and we hope you love it too.
See you there.

Extremely limited tickets, full event and artist information at www.soulhighway.com.au

Denis and Sheenagh have been our Hyden contacts since the beginning, running the local pub, roadhouse, cafe, museum, and the Wave Rock Resort and Caravan Park, and fulfilling many other roles in their community.  Dennis conducted guided tours of Wave Rock and surrounds and was involved in local environmental restoration as well as about a million other projects.  They welcomed us into their town and have made the show possible.  Denis was a heroically hard worker who helped us directly by building facilities, cutting and lugging wood and anything else we needed, making fires, providing equipment, solving problems, and keeping the peace.  The Wave Rock Weekender will never be the same without him.  Denis was a great man.  We will miss him so much.   

We feel too sad to announce the lineup as expected this week; we need to take some time to mourn this tragic loss.  More soon.

Tickets are on sale for people who’ve been to the show before – it that’s you and you don’t have the password email info@soulhighway.com.au .  Very soon we’ll publicly announce the line-up and open up ticket sales to everyone.   

If you haven’t worked it out yet, the WA Queen’s Birthday public holiday has changed for this year only to Friday 28 October, so we’ve moved the show to a weekend where most people will have three days off.

More soon.