Return To Rio might be one of Australia’s best kept secrets as far as festivals go. Located at Wiseman’s Ferry on the picturesque Hawkesbury River around 90 minutes north of Sydney and held at the Del Rio Riverside Resort there, it’s a three day electronic extravaganza in November for which an absolutely gigantic lineup has just been announced.
This year’s Return To Rio will be headlined by a gargantuan 10-hour DJ set from a mobile disco by co-conspirators Carl Cox (making his Return To Rio debut) and Eric Powell. They’ll be joined by an eclectic assortment of names scouted from all corners of the globe this year.
Grammy winning hip-hop royalty in De La Soul will join Carl and Eric for a once-in-a-lifetime live performance. De La Soul have a new album on the way really soon (details here) so there may be a few new bangers thrown in amongst old favourites.
Joining the party also are garage’s patron saint DJ EZ and drum n’ bass lord LTJ Bukem out of London, Super Flu and YokoO (part of the All Day I Dream collective) out of Germany and Atish, who regularly DJs at Burning Man’s famous Robot Heart, and the living legend Mr. C out of California round out a huge bill of international talent that’s sure to keep Return To Rio at maximum energy for a full 10 hours.
This amazing group of artists might be the focus, but that’s certainly not all Return To Rio has to offer. Running with an all new layout this go around, they’ll have your ears in heaven with the Funktion1 sound system and your eyes popping with light installations and impromptu performances along the Hawkesbury. If you somehow find yourself in need of physical activity, the site has tennis, crazy golf, volleyball and water skiing to try your hand at.
There’ll also be a ‘queue-free bar’, a concept that surely has to be seen to be believed in a festival environment, as well as the choice of riverside cabins or BYO camping areas to crawl back to after each night of (responsible) hedonism.
If you can’t possibly wait until November 11th for all this to kick off, there’s a launch party a little closer on your calendar on August 20th at Manning Bar. There are still more names to be announced for Return To Rio so stay tuned.
General tickets go on sale August 1st via ticketbooth.com.
Image: Supplied