EAT

Buy cheap food or bring your own (but no cooking permitted due to total fire ban).

The International Food Court will be operating 24 hours a day at Meredith this year. There are all kinds of inexpensive healthy and unhealthy food available here, ranging from pizza to Asian delights to Hare Krishna vegetarian delights to baked potatoes to hot chips to bacon and egg breakfast rolls to simple and delicious corn on the cob. Food at Meredith is inexpensive Ð we only allow vendors who sell good food at good prices to grace the Food Court.

Southbank is another cluster of foodstuff issuers positioned to the South of the stage, on the bank of the Amphitheatre, hence the name. hahahahaha. More exotic tastes can be catered for down there. Southbank is also home to the cityÕs Chinese community, which settled there during the Gold Rush time. You can rent a Cyclo (rickshaw) for as little as ten pesos and see all the major sights, including the Resurrection Shuffle. Women are advised to observe local cultural practices by only walking backwards and hopping every third step. Anyone with a beard may be imprisoned.

The City Square is the vacant square of land framed by The Pink Flamingo, The Meredith Eye, the back of the amphitheatre and a new installation named Heaven (more about Heaven below). There will be some food stalls situated there. Mostly macrobiotic stuff, seaweed etc. Also fairy floss and crayfish. For reservations call 555-5464729.

HEAVEN
Ooh baby do you know whats it worth? Heaven is a place on earth. This year you will be able to go-go to a giant circus tent up the very back of the amphitheatre. ItÕs 30 metres by 30 metres, and is cirhicular in circumference. ItÕs there to provide the following things:

Shade, shelter, warmth, a place to get away from it all. (if anyone describes is as a Ôchill outÕ I shall apply a cheese grater to their buttocks)

Massages from Em For Massage

Haircuts, maybe shaves, not sure yet.

HEAVEN ELEVEN
A 24 hour general store will be located inside Heaven, called Heaven Eleven, selling chocolate, lollies, drinks, chips, donuts, personal hygiene items, cough lollies, dingers, tootbrushes, toothpaste, torches, snake oil and second-hand cars. It will have bright flouro lights and like its namesake will operate incongruously on a bad intersection in a hip part of town.

MEREDITH COMMUNITY TUCKER TENT
Since the inception of the Meredith Music Festival in 1991, the Meredith Community Tucker Tent has provided revellers at the festival with a variety of hot food and cold beverages, all served with a huge dose of country hospitality. Over the 13 years of involvement at the festival, many local and community groups have benefited from the funds that have been raised. All the helpers on the Tucker Tent are volunteers who commit their time to help feed the hungry hoards, and at the same time raising vital funds for the local not for profit community groups. Every year over 150 locals put their names on the rosters to help out in what is a huge operation. A large slice of the profit generated by the Tucker Tent also goes towards the ongoing treatment and care of festival co-founder Chris Nolan who was at one time a member of many of these groups.

Some of the Organisations that have benefited of the years are:
- Meredith Cricket Club
- Meredith Tennis Club
- Meredith Junior Football Club
- Moorabool Valley Masters Football Club
- Meredith Golf Club
- Meredith Kindergarten
- Meredith Primary School
- Meredith Motorcycle Club
- Meredith Recreation Reserve
- Merdith Scout Group

The money raised by these groups over the years has been injected back into the Meredith Community with infrastructure improvements such as, new tennis court lighting and resurfacing, new cricket practice nets and centre wicket area, the Tractor Shed and Skate Park at the Reserve, and the new change room facility. Money is also needed for the operations of the clubs for things such as equipment and insurance. All of these things are dependent largely on your generous support and the success every year of out Community Tucker Tent.

So if you attend this yearÕs festival and youÕve got the munchies, come and support the only food vendor whose entire profits are returned to the Community.

You are most welcome to bring your own food and drink; however you cannot bring glass of any kind, including wine and sauce bottles - and cannot use gas cookers or BBQs to cook your own food, due to fire risk.

There will be plenty of food stalls all day and night, queues will be short, the food fresh and cheap, and the surrounds rather beautiful.

DRINK

The fabulous Pink Flamingo Bar will Glow Pink All nite and serve cocktails within certain hours to certain people over 18 with certain photo ID and certain manners and clean and tidy presentation. This year we are banning the use of sarcasm in conversation and saying ÔthanksÕ more than once to the bar staff, whilst we are encouraging impressions (especially those involving costume or props), haranguing and short skits. The Flamingo has enjoyed a makeover this year

We advocate the responsible consumption of alcohol at all times at Meredith. If you are under 18, you wont be able to drink alcohol, or enter any licensed areas. Simple as that.

PINK FLAMINGO

The Pink Flamingo Bar is Meredith's cocktail bar. It sells two cocktails - the Pink Flamingo (vodka, pink grapefruit, some other stuff) and the Bloody Meredith (popular on Sunday - vodka, tomato juice, celery, two eggs, roast chicken and lemon meringue pie). The Pink Flamingo is for over 18's only. You will need to have photo ID which will get you a wristband which will get you in.

The Pink Flamingo Bar has changed hands yet again. ItÕs a bit of a white elephant really! Theres always some new wood-duck ready to blow their severance pay from Telstra on a ÔcoolÕ bar. This year however theres a new twist. After last yearÕs financial disaster, where the directors of the Flamingo Holding Company locked the gates, stripped the company and did a runner to Horsham, the staff formed a co-operative and bought the leasehold, and the freehold. There have been incredible stories of the whole team banding together and working nights and weekends to bring The Old Dame back to her former glory. TheyÕve been stripping away years of bad renovations, and discovered and restored superb architectural features like the parquetry dance floor, wrought iron circular staircase, and the marble portico. This idyllic, socialist working environment continued for weeks until a few minor squabbles about Brenda FergusonÕs ÔsoreÓ leg escalated into yelling and slammed doors and dinners going cold and now its all turned to shit. So who knows what the fuck sort of service youÕll get there this year.

The Pink Flamingo's location is at the back of the amphitheatre, just next to the International Food Court, on the fringe of the Top Paddock. You can see the stage easily from the front garden of the Pink Flamingo.

Here's the history of The Pink Flamingo:
1998 first opened as The Pink Flamingo Yacht Club Bar, with hosts Commodore Bahamas Lite and Commodore Pink Jazz.

1999 The Pink Flamingo Ski Lodge, with hosts Heidi and Klaus, included their famous Alpine Friendliness ™.

2000 The Pink Flamingo RSL, with bingo and bowls, and a Meredith Gift Honour Board. Run by committee.

2001 The Pink Flamingo Speakeasy and Cinema. Some of the films really messed with some of the patrons minds.

2002 The Pink Flamingo Bar. Shady, quiet and comfortable. And pink.

2003 The Pink Flamingo Bar. Provincial quail nursery and Swedish tennis fan face painting station.

2004 The Pink Flamingo Bar and Health-giving Mud Baths. Got a bit muddy.

2005 Flamingo Workers Collective installed as new owners. Planning a Saturday Night fever party for the Saturday Night and hoping thereÕs a one-dayer on the telly Friday Night to bring in some punters. The PubTab is open again.

BE MERRY

DEEP SEA DIVING There is no deep sea diving at Meredith.

THE MEREDITH EYE

Gee, is The Meredith Eye a big hit or what?

The Meredith Eye is a 60foot high Ferris Wheel, positioned right at the top of the amphitheatre, at the start of the Top Paddock, near the Pink Flamingo. The views are quite, quite spectacular; from the top carriage you are able to see back in time, and find your wallet that you lost in Year 9. Yes, you can see the artists performing on the stage, and everything else for about forty miles.

Rides will be about 10 minutes long and we think we will be $3* a ride.

*Big game fishing is not included in the price.

SPORTSFIELD

Will be in operation this year. It's free, get bats and balls from the Info Centre. SportsField is comprised of dozens of totem tennis sets and a few badminton courts from our friends at Dunlop Sport. There is no white water rafting on the SportsField.

GIFT SHOPPE

The Meredith Gift Shoppe will sell the following items of apparel and merchandise this year:

TSHIRTS 100% cotton Meredith Music Festival 2005 Commemorative TShirt
STUBBY HOLDERS 100% neoprene Meredith Music Festival 2005 Commemorative Stubby Holders
BEANIES 100% wool Meredith Music Festival 2005 Commemorative Beanies
SUNHATS just some shit ones that were laying around
HOODED TOPS for those dorks who only brought summer wear. Watch these sell at about 11pm when it starts getting a bit chilly.
TORCHES maybe
SUNGLASSES probably not
WATERPROOF PONCHOS we bought a box three years ago and it didn’t rain for until last year. Better get some more then.
TENT PEGS maybe
WET ONES / WIPES keep yer face clean
BOATS see our huge range of runabouts and cabin cruisers, outboard motors and custom trailer

OUTLANDS ECOPLEX CINEMA

There will be a Giant Outdoor Cinema at the Fifteenth Meredith, in a magical grove of manna gums, with the natural canopy high overhead just sparse enough for the twinkling stars to shine through. Whats showing? That would be stuff that turned left at the lights, planted the foot and ripped the rear view mirror off, and then ate it. Go to CINEMA page for more details.

Photos by David Quick & Mia McDonald