Yeppoon’s SoCal Music & Arts Festival is set to be a sell-out

The owner-operators of a funky seaside dining venue believe Yeppoon can become the next Byron Bay and their music festival will help achieve that vision.

Guests enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of The Bungalow at Yeppoon.

The rapidly-growing coastal mecca that is Yeppoon can become the next Byron Bay, according to a funky local entertainment venue which has massive plans in the pipeline.

The owner-operators of newly-established dining venue The Bungalow, which is situated just a stone’s throw away from the enticing waters of Keppel Bay, have shared their exciting dream for the future.

“We’re the ones more than anyone in town pushing for Yeppoon to become the next Byron,” a spokesman for The Bungalow said.

“That’s our vision for the whole place.

“Not only have we brought something new with this venue, but we’re also the owners and the creators of SoCal Music & Arts Festival on August 28, which is set to sell out to 4000 people.”

Tickets for the music festival, to be held at Yeppoon Showgrounds this year, went on sale on June 17 and they are hot property.

“We’ve only got 900 tickets left to sell which is incredible,” The Bungalow spokesman said.

“We’ve been involved in events throughout Queensland for the last 10 years, and the trend typically is the last seven days before an event is when you sell all of your tickets.

“So with SoCal we came out of the gates really strong, which just shows that people are craving something like this.”

Kassy Evans performs live at The Bungalow in Yeppoon.

The Bungalow has proved a breath of fresh air for Yeppoon since opening last November.

“Byron Bay and Airlie Beach are not sleepy and that all starts with the individual business operators,” The Bungalow spokesman said.

“For us to come here and take the key position on the beachfront, it was very important for us to bring a few key things, and hopefully some of the other operators start to follow.

“Those things are seven-day trading - when we got here, no-one was trading seven days. “Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are some of our busiest days of the week.

“And our business, from the time it opens at 7am until 10pm, you can always order food and that’s massive.”

Marketing itself with the catch cry “From coffee to hangover and everything in between”, The Bungalow allows guests to walk in bare foot, straight from the beach.

“Come dressed up, with your best gal pals for a night of fancy cocktails or, come straight from the farm with the fellas in stubbies and enjoy a coldy on tap,” its website says.

“We are here to bring the vibe no matter the occasion.”

The whole outside dining area at The Bungalow in Yeppoon is dog friendly.

The breath of fresh air reference also applies to the experienced business partners behind The Bungalow, who prefer to keep their identities out of the limelight.

What is no secret however, is their faith in Yeppoon and their vision for the future.

“Since we opened The Bungalow last November, business has been steady the whole time - it has really been positive,” the spokesman said.

“I think Yeppoon as a whole is definitely trending in a great direction and Covid has been a benefit to the area.

“Regional areas in Australia are definitely booming at the moment and that is part of why we relocated up here.

“If you skip back to March last year, we were located in Brisbane and had two restaurants down there.

“My partner, she was originally born in Yeppoon and we came back to visit family then (March, 2020) in the middle of Covid, when we’d just laid 40 staff off across our two Brisbane restaurants.

“We came up here and the place was booming, if not even busier than Brisbane, so that’s what inspired us to move here. This is the 11th restaurant we’ve had.

“And look, Yeppoon has never been fuller - we’ve got one of the lowest residential vacancy rates in Australia at the moment.

“Yeppoon has probably never had a higher population than what it has now.”

The Parmy & Paddle is popular with guests at The Bungalow in Yeppoon.

The SoCal brains trust also has big plans for the music festival in 2022.

“This isn’t just a single-year event,” the spokesman said.

“This is the first of definitely five years - and we’d like to think beyond that.

“We’ve got big plans to take the event to 10,000 people and bring a lot of people here from outside the region.

“We’re looking to move the festival location from the Showgrounds to Pine Mountain next year, which is just on the left-hand side as you’re coming into Yeppoon, opposite Surf Lakes.

“So that’s a 400-acre site there, where we’ll be able to offer camping.

“Then it will really become a proper economic multiplier for Yeppoon.”

Click HERE for more information on the SoCal Music & Arts Festival.

Originally published as Yeppoon’s SoCal Music & Arts Festival is set to be a sell-out