John Farnham, Daryl Braithwaite among Aussie rockers playing at Melbourne festival

JOHN Farnham, Daryl Braithwaite, James Reyne and other classic Aussie musos are rocking Melbourne for A Weekend in the Gardens.

MELBOURNE’S Royal Botanic Gardens are set to be rocked by Australian music royalty.

A three-day mini festival over the Moomba long weekend in March, A Weekend in the Gardens, will feature John Farnham, Daryl Braithwaite, Icehouse, James Reyne and Ross Wilson among the performers between Friday March 10 and Sunday March 12.

It’s the latest in a string of all-Australian line-ups that local crowds are lapping up.

However, Ross Wilson says the proliferation of homegrown bills may be prompted by other circumstances.

“I think it’s because our dollar’s crap and they can’t afford to bring in as many bands from overseas anymore!” Wilson said. “Plus there’s been visa changes so you have to pay more to bring musicians into the country.”

James Reyne, who recently toured playing purely songs by his iconic band Australian Crawl said local musicians are heavily in demand.

Survivors: Daryl Braithwaite, James Reyne and Ross Wilson will play at Melbourne’s A Weekend in the Gardens. Picture: Norm Oorloff

“You can now put together a bill of all Australian acts and that’s five or six hours where people know all the material,” Reyne said.

“And it’s cheaper for promoters than flying in some international acts who may have had two hits.

“Our generation and the generation who grew up with us, we were around at a time when Australian radio was incredibly supportive of local bands.

Ross, Daryl and I are lucky we have quite big catalogues of songs people know so that we can still go out and play live. And there’s plenty of work out there.

I imagine it’s very difficult for young Australian bands to build a catalogue of material they can play in 10 or 20 years if radio isn’t supporting them now.”

Devised by the team behind national winery event, A Day On the Green, the event will be held near the Jardin Tan restaurant and the conservatory opposite the Shrine of Remembrance.

John Farnham, Daryl Braithwaite and Ross Wilson will perform on Friday March 10, Boy & Bear, San Cisco and Amy Shark on Saturday March 11 and Icehouse, James Reyne and Clare Bowditch on Sunday March 12.

That’s the way it’s gonna be: Daryl and muse Bailey. Picture: Alex Coppel

Tickets go on sale Friday December 9 from Ticketmaster. More information aweekend.com.au

Ross Wilson will perform a set of hits stretching back to Daddy Cool’s Eagle Rock and Mondo Rock favourites including Come Said the Boy and Cool World, as well as his solo material.

“My manager said the past three months is the busiest I’ve ever been, so there’s no complaints,” Wilson said.

Reyne’s set includes Australian Crawl classics including The Boys Light Up and Reckless as well as solo favourites such as Fall Of Rome and Motor’s Too Fast.

Earlier this year, Daryl Braithwaite celebrated 25 years since his cover of The Horses reached No. 1 in Australia, the song continues to bring a younger audience to his shows, who also know his trademark hits from Howzat to One Summer.

Like John Farnham, Braithwaite is enjoying the opportunity to play to festival crowds over theatre shows.

“I love playing outdoors, it’s a very different atmosphere,” Braithwaite said. “There’s that feeling everyone’s going to have a good time.”