Celebrating its 10th year, south-west Sydney festival Secret Garden returned to Brownlow Hill.  To mark the special occasion, the festival’s notorious dress-up theme of day 1 was “Year !0 Formal.”  The theme had people in 80’s frilled satin dresses and ugly tuxedos. The main stage was dubbed ‘The Gymnasium” for the weekend. With small stages surrounding including stand-out “Bec’s house party” – a mid 00’s teenage girl’s bedroom the stage for the after-party. Stand-out performers from the Friday were Holy Holy, Estee Louder, Waax and Big White.  There was plenty of energy as punters sweated it out through the hot weather.

On Day 2, it was hot and sticky with a thunderstorm in the middle of the day. With people allowed to dress as they pleased. It didn’t deter the crowd as people powered through this free for all of a festival. The highlight acts were Triple J un-earthed talent Eilish Gilligan, The Harpoons, Stella Donnelly, Totally Unicorn and DZ Deathrays with Paces closing out the show.

As always, Secret Garden put together an amazing show unlike any other festival in the city. Check out Backyard Opera’s full gallery to see what makes Secret Garden such a colourful and inclusive festival. Photography by our legend Dylan Bow.