Yours and Owls are absolutely determined to put Wollongong on the map having already announced a huge 2017 line-up for their annual Yours and Owls Festival, debuting The Last Frost, an all-ages festival in August, and today following that all up with the Wollongong Fringe Festival as the tasty cherry on top! Returning for its second year with partnership from Destination Wollongong, the fringe festival is a nine-day celebration showcasing everything that makes Wollongong culturally brilliant and diverse, a celebration by the people for the people.

The 2017 fringe festival refines the programming with a greater focus on counterculture; the weird, the wonderful, collective minded and avoiding mainstream events, the aim this year is to stir the pot. We don’t use this term lightly but there really is something for everyone at the 2017 Wollongong Fringe Festival, check out some of our favourites below and let your quirky fringe flag fly!

Yours and Owls – Under 18s
September 30^th Saturday
Waves, Wollongong
Tickets from yoursandowls.com.au and www.moshtix.com.au
Yours and Owls are giving the big ol’ finger to adulthood by chucking one epic party at Waves in September, kicking off at 11am for all the babes out there not quite old enough for an 18+ card…… because why should adults have all the fun?! Stealing some of the best artists from the Yours & Owls 
Festival line-up to party for the day, underager-ragers can expect SAFIA, The Preatures, Trophy Eyes,Alex Lahey, Bec Sandridge, The Pinheads and Ruby Fields to grace the Waves stage.

Meg Mac 
September 21^st Thursday
University of Wollongong UNI Bar
Tickets + info moshtix.com.au and yoursandowls.com.au
In support of her forthcoming debut album, Low Blows, sultry Aussie artist and Triple J favourite Meg Mac has announced a bunch of new tour dates which will see her perform around the country over the coming months. From humble beginnings in 2012 when Meg Mac, aka Megan McInerney, uploaded a few tracks to Triple J Unearthed, the single ‘Every Lie’ was picked up and put into heavy rotation on the station going on to win the Unearthed competition in 2014. With a Wollongong Fringe Festivalperformance as a special highlight on Meg Mac’s headlining tour, tickets for the national show dates have been selling out left, right and center.  

Taste Orange Food and Wine Fair 
September 24^th Sunday
Lang Park, Wollongong
Free event www.brandorange.com.au
An all-day food and wine gastronomy event, the two regions of Orange and Wollongong have worked in collaboration to bring the best products from both towns, united at last, in one delicious taste bud party!Brand Orange and Destination Wollongong have made ‘locally sourced’ their mission, with festival stalls offering a minimum of at least half of their produce coming from local area suppliers in Wollongong. This is a free event with wine tasting, food and wine masterclasses, and as an added bonus, the sounds of Elton John’s concert at the stadium next door wafting ‘Benny and The Jets’ across the fair. 

Sydney Underground Film Festival – Directors Cut
September 24^th Sunday
ITAMS Theatre, UOW Innovation Campus
Tickets + info www.wollongongfringefestival.com.au
Known for digging up some absolute gems each year, the Sydney Underground Film Festival has programmed an eclectic selection of unique, independent films that transgress the status quo and challenge the conservative conventions of filmmaking for cinephiles at  this years Wollongong Fringe Festival. SUFF is devoted to renewing local interest in independent and experimental film as part of an international underground film culture, aiming to revitalise an enthusiasm for cinema. Catch a special selection of shorts and a feature film as chosen by SUFF co-directors Stefan Popescu and Katherine Berger for Wollongong Fringe Festival audiences with tickets on sale for special screenings.

Speak Satellite
September 23^rd, 26^th, 29^th 
Various Locations
Free and Ticketed Event + info www.facebook.com
Over three nights, some of Australia’s most progressive young musicians will congregate in Wollongong to share sounds and ideas; to connect the past and possibility. On Saturday 23^rd September head to North Gong Pub to celebrate the birth of Speak Satellite with a free eve of grooves from afro-beat collectiveLyre Birdland and progressive soul outfit The Baldwins. They’ll bring the tunes, you bring the moves. Check out Moving Mountains Gallery on Tuesday, 26^th September to witness three of Sydney’s most notorious and riotous improvisational bands, Microfiche, Rebel Scum, and the masked polyphonics ofProphets. To close out Speak Satellite mosey on over to UniBar for an assortment of infectious beats and unmapped melodies featuring the charismatic soul of Wallace, the beat force behind Sampha The Great’s breakthrough album, Godriguez, sonic juggernaut Minus Marcus, the ambient deep space ofColourfields, Silver Talon’s morphing loops, and the improvised post-rock of YuTrio. DJ Jake Walkerwill keep the mood buzzing late into the night.

Green Flicks
September 22^nd Friday
iAccelerate, UOW Innovation Campus
Free event www.environment.nsw.gov.au/green-flicks
What do young people think about our changing environment? Come and discover their interpretations and creations communicated through short film! Green Flicks is an environmental short film competition for 12-24 year olds living in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven region. This event will screen the locally produced shortlisted films of 2017, a mix of documentaries, comedies, dramas and animation, all fitting the theme of ‘change’, whilst launching an online voting portal to decide the winner of the Green FlicksPeople’s Choice Award and the $5000 prize.

Hackagong
September 22^nd – 24^th 
University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus
Tickets + info www.hackagong.com
One way to ignite a technology start up is to lock 150 field experts, garage tinkerers, tech novices and tech makers in a room and wait just momentarily for genius to strike. Hackagong is a hackathon, a weekend for people from all backgrounds, interests and skill levels to play and create with technology and mentors. Used by major companies all around the world in an attempt to create new products and services, hackathons are also renowned for allowing leading organisations to source talent.

Working individually or in collaborative teams to experiment and share knowledge, people can make whatever takes their fancy at Hackagong, whether it’s a website, an app, hardware, artworks, games, music, the limit does not exist. This year, Hackagong will feature experts in emerging technology such as Biotechnology and AR/VR to guide makers through their experimenting, as well as people from the local creative community to help develop ideas with various giveaways and prizes up for grabs over the weekend. Get your geek on!

Aboriginal Culture Day – The Paperbark Forum
September 24^th Sunday
Wollongong Botanical Gardens, Bush Tucker Garden
Tickets + info www.wollongongfringefestival.com.au
Yours and Owls is offering up a tasty morsel in the shade of Wollongong Botanical Gardens ‘Bush Tucker Garden’. Imparting knowledge and skills learnt over 30,000 years, there’s a chance to get involved with weaving workshops using locally available materials, cooking classes which utilize techniques carried down for generations, bush tucker tours, and virtual reality escapes to head deep into the heart of the Australian outback. 

Clowns Play Rad Bar
September 24^th Sunday
Rad Bar, Wollongong
Tickets + info www.moshtix.com.au
Freshly back in the motherland from a recent stint on the eminent European summer festival circuit, your favourite insubordinate instigators of punk laden power-pop Clowns are on the road this spring to clobber your cochlea’s! The former half of 2017 has seen Clowns release their most critically acclaimed record to date, Lucid Again, along with a string of packed and sold out dates the country over. Joining Clowns for their Wollongong Fringe Festival performance will be European blooded-blackened-Italian-metal-pop prodigy Pagan, who have been receiving rave reviews for their eccentric especial live shows and tunes.

Moon Beach
September 22^nd Friday
Wollongong Planetarium, Science Centre, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong
Tickets from www.wollongongfringefestival.com.au
You ask and Yours and Owls delivers – returning by popular demand to the Wollongong Planetariumand ready to blow your mind is the art installation Moon Beach. Music may be the universal language but if you’ve ever wondered why, or even if you’ve never questioned that and just want to see some really incredible immersive augmented reality projections and music, Moon Beach is for you. Designed to help you understand the relationship between a spine tingling musical experience and the affect it has on your emotions, the projection uses fulldome projections and music composed specifically by three of Australia’s most promising artists in the electronic music genre. Tickets to this are limited, do not miss out on Moon Beach this time round. Proudly supported by Wollongong City Council Cultural Services.

Get Your Greek On: Dolmade Cooking Class
September 23^rd Saturday 
Five Islands Studios, Port Kembla
Tickets + info www.moshtix.com.au
Master the art of making Greek Cypriot dolmades with Nina Kourea at the vibrant, artist run Five Islands Studios. Wonder woman, artist, photographer and foodie Nina will teach you how to make dolmades from scratch, everything from how to pick your leaves, to the art of rolling and cooking. It’s not just vine leaves, participants will also make some beautiful Greek Cypriot sides to accompany the dolmades and then enjoy the fruits of their labor. This class is for vegetarian and vegans and is gluten free, all are welcome.

What A Life! Rock Photography by Tony Mott
September 22^nd – October 1^st 
Wollongong City Art Gallery 
Free Event www.wollongongartgallery.com
A major retrospective curated by Louise Tegart on Australia’s premier rock photographer Tony Mott, known for capturing everyone from The Rolling Stones, Madonna and Paul McCartney, to Australian artists Midnight Oil, ACDC, INXS and Silverchair.  An untrained photographer, Tony’s break came with a photograph of Chrissy Amphlett from The Divinyls on stage during a residency. The photograph sold for $20 and became the beginning of a career that would go on to make him one of the most in demand photographers. The exhibition collectively tells the story of rock n’ roll life in Australia over the last 30 years, including the enormous changes to the live music scene from the 1990s and the impact of digital on the art of rock photography.