One of The Australian Festival's primary missions is to promote and showcase some of Australia’s finest up-and-coming talent, while recognizing the incredible contributions that have put Australia’s music on the international map. From humble beginnings in 1999 when two local Nashville bands played on a small stage - The Australian Festival has grown into the largest Australian music event held annually in the United States.

The festival now starts a new chapter in Greater Fort Lauderdale - Broward County. We look forward to showcasing the sounds and artists from the land down in our new location in South Florida. Fort Lauderdale is one of America's most festive cities. The city is known for its beaches, many bars, nightclubs, and overall party atmosphere. Broward County has approximately 1,750,000 residence and is made up of 31 city municipalities governed by nine Broward County Commissioners. Fort Lauderdale is the county seat of Broward County, and forms a part of the South Florida metropolitan area.

This year's Festival will be held at C.B. Smith Park. The park is one of Broward Counties premier event parks and hosts several 30,000 patron plus events throughout the year. C.B. Smith provides a great location to grow the festival including an amphitheater island that will be great venue for dedicated concerts (a mini Myer Music Bowl). Broward County also has a world class Performing Arts Center whom we have commenced talking with to establish Australian musical opportunities in South Florida year round. 

We have approximately 50 hours of music, entertainment & presentations scheduled for this years event (2007 Australian Festival Schedule - Format). We are estimating around 7,500 patrons in our first year but we believe this to be a conservative estimate due to the dense population in Broward County. There are an estimated 5,000 Australian ex-pats in the South Florida area per the Australian Consulate (Atlanta) so if all our mates show up it should be pretty busy (and loud). 

This year's festival will have 3 music locations - The Australian Pavilion (seating capacity around 500), The Tuckerbox Stage (standing & seating capacity around 500) and Jackaroos Pub (200 seating capacity). Jackaroos is our official green room where artists can kick back or warm the crowds up with 30 minute sessions. We have established special formats for Jackaroos including Australiana, Bush-Folk, Aboriginal Rock, and Pub Rock. Applications are open to all Australian & New Zealand Artists as well as other nationalities that have a strong Australian music background and format. Also for the second year we will be hosting an Australian Music Forum aimed at sharing key information and developments within the US Music Industry. The forum will be open to all selected applicants at no cost. 

Our budgets for this year provides all selected artists with standard compensation for their appearances with reserved camp site facilities for the weekend as well as drink & food tickets on performance days. We also will promote each artist through our artist profiles page (Festival Website and Press Promotions Campaign) and artist CD's can be sold thru our Online Shop. Artists can also sell their CD's and merchandise thru The Festival Shop over the course of the weekend. We also will have some additional playing opportunities with our associated events (Gum Trees Gala & G'Day Mates Schools Program, media opportunities and welcome receptions.). We are also working on several new relationships with promoters and venues in the South Florida area to establish a connecting network for additional performance opportunities.

Due to budget restraints and the wide variation of travel requests the Australian Festival does not provide transportation reimbursement for artists (although it is a consideration for our headliners) but we will work with sponsors and government agencies to assist you in getting to the festival. All artists are responsible for their visas. We will attempt to provide transportation for artists arriving in town when volunteers are available.

• Appearance fees for artists based on act size (solo or band) and playing times.

• Press promotions throughout South Florida, East Cost (US) and Australia.

• Highly visible Artists profile promotion on Festival Website (and associated sites).

• Selling Artists CD's on our Online Shop (Sales commencing August 7, 2007)

• Merchandise and CD's sales at The Festival Shop during the Festival.

• Variety of festival accommodations with a range of hotels & camping facilities.

• Drink and food package on performance days.

• Support assistance with your Sponsors & Government Agencies.

• Connecting artists to South Florida promoters and venues.

• Invitation to the 2007 Australian Music Forum.