Entertainment

Reservoir gets its own music festival as Melbourne creatives move further north

There's Joey round the corner with his hot Torana, Samoan and Middle Eastern kids kicking footies in the park, and an old Italian couple across the road.

Emma Peel and Danny Walsh share their driveway with the Chinese family next door, but not a language.

Grindhouse's Mick Simpson, dancer Anna Go-Go, DJ Emma Peel and Saint Jude's Brooke Penrose at the Preston-Reservoir ...
Grindhouse's Mick Simpson, dancer Anna Go-Go, DJ Emma Peel and Saint Jude's Brooke Penrose at the Preston-Reservoir Bowls Club. Photo: Pat Scala

Reservoir – or "Rezza", as some locals call it – is the most culturally diverse suburb in the City of Darebin, with 172 ancestries and 83 religions, according to recent census data. And now the musicians are moving in too.

Next month more than a dozen acts all based in Reservoir will ask fans to cross "Bell Street divide" for a one-day music festival, the Reservoir Stomp. Bands like Rocket Science, the ReChords, the Putbacks and Shrimpwitch will take over the local bowls club, along with an "all-star" band featuring members of the RocKwiz Orchestra, Saint Jude and Walsh himself.

Rocket Science are one of 13 acts at the Reservoir Stomp .
Rocket Science are one of 13 acts at the Reservoir Stomp . Photo: Supplied

There will be food trucks, and punters can have a '60s go-go dancing lesson with Anna Go-Go or learn how to play barefoot bowls. 

"I've never had this level of buy-in from performers," says Peel, who hosts the weekly radio show Switched On on PBS FM and has organised large-scale events before.

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Just a few years ago, it may not have been possible. Walsh moved to Reservoir back in 2008, after rising house prices pushed him from Northcote, to Thornbury, to Preston. Peel moved in four years ago.

"To begin with ... it felt like it was the last frontier," she says. Then gradually the couple kept bumping into other musicians at the local IGA.

"It occurred to us that a lot of other performers are now residing in Reservoir but still trucking into Fitzroy or Brunswick and all those places to do our gigs," she says. "So we thought, why don't we get everyone together?"

APRA AMCOS hasn't done its survey of Melbourne's most musical suburbs since 2014, when Northcote dropped from prime position to second. Those demographics may well be shifting, but Reservoir's newest residents don't necessarily want another Northcote: Peel and Walsh like that it's "a little bit daggy".

"It'd be great to be able to have some nice little cafes popping up around the place, but for the most part we're pretty happy with how it is," Peel says. "While we've still got two functioning denture clinics in the main street, I think we're OK!"

The inaugural Reservoir Stomp is the first major event in Reservoir as part of the annual Darebin Music Feast, now in its 20th year. The Feast will showcase the talent of more than 600 artists across 40 venues in the City of Darebin.

The Reservoir Stomp is at the Preston-Reservoir Bowls Club on Sunday October 30. The Darebin Music Feast is at various venues from October 27 to November 6.

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