It’s the festival that was never meant to return and it’s happening this weekend!

Final tickets are up for grabs!

Just when everyone thought it was laid to rest, Summer Slam is doing the unthinkable and roaring back to life at the Barwon Club this weekend. The “one last time” festival that was never meant to exist again has somehow slipped out of retirement, and it’s bringing a colossal line-up with it.

Run by the legends at Priority Bookings, Summer Slam has always been less of a festival and more of a glorious endurance test — local bands stacked back-to-back, beers flowing from sun-up to sundown, and both the Barwon Club Bandroom and Barn crammed with sweaty, smiling bodies. Think battle of the bands energy, minus the cringe, plus eternal bragging rights.

Summer Slam ’26

When: Saturday 17 January, from 3pm
Where: Barwon Club Hotel, Geelong
Tickets: $50 + b/f online, $60 on the door

Lineup

The Vasco Era
Tee Vee Repairmann
Our Carlson
Alien Nosejob
Dragnet
The Shifters
O.M.R.
Zipper
The Carp Factory
Special Guest
Piggietails
Equestrian Fields
Hard Rubbish
Men’s Health Club
Is This Shit (The Strokes cover set)
plus MC Marky Magic

Playing Times

Keep connected to your live music scene here.

After what was supposed to be its final chapter and a stacked send-off that saw everyone from O.R.B and Vintage Crop to The Floaties, Kosmetika, Straight Arrows and Piss Bucket tear the place apart, Priority Bookings swore they were done. Straight Arrows took the crown, the mic was dropped, and Summer Slam was sent off into the sunset.

Except… not quite.

This Saturday, Summer Slam ’26 crashes back into the Barwon Club Hotel for a full-blown sonic smackdown, taking over the 500-capacity Bandroom and the extended Barn from 3pm.

Leading the charge is Geelong royalty The Vasco Era. Back on stage and firing on all cylinders after time away, their return has been nothing short of electric, and Summer Slam ’26 puts them straight into the main event. Expect unapologetic rock, full throttle energy, and a crowd ready to lose its collective mind. The Vasco Era were responsible for shaping the local music scene in the region in the early 00’s. Their 2007 launch with Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside cemented them in the scene with killer tracks ‘Honey Bee (When It Was Making Weird Love Songs)’ and ‘When It First Showed Up’ introducing locals to an unbridled onslaught of deafening drums, unhinged guitars and a desperate shriek that was pure rock ‘n’ roll. Lucille followed in 2009, and their self-titled effort of 2011 continued the cool with ‘Rock And Roll Is The Only Thing That Makes Me Feel Good’. Their impact in their golden years was hard, heavy and left lots of locals with chiropractic bills. Last year the band rose from the ashes, in full phoenix mode with a stellar resurrecting record, I Don’t Mind. ‘I Don’t Need A Warning’ entered and immediately embedded the band back into their animalistic atmosphere. Expect the two disc, ten track album to be front and centre this weekend along with a smattering of their shredding days – uncaged, fuzzed up, and completely chaotic!

In saying that, they won’t have it easy. Lined up across the day are heavy hitters and cult favourites Alien Nosejob, Tee Vee Repairman, Dragnet, The Carp Factory, Zipper, Hard Rubbish, Piggietails, Men’s Health Club and Equestrian Fields. Then for those indie rock revellers, get a taste of This Is Shit, the band that pay their respects to New York indie rock gods The Strokes with their cover set. It may not be Julian and his dismissive on-stage antics but it’s the tunes you know and love played in a local setting! MC Marky Magic will keep the day rolling from day into night, and you just know he’s up for the task with such an alluring name.

With back-to-back bands, cheap beers courtesy of Coopers Brewery, and that unmistakable “anything could happen” Summer Slam chaos, this is shaping up as one of the most unmissable local shows of the season. Slam is correct – your body and eyes and ears are about to be ripped to shreds in the best possible way, so what the hell are you waiting for!

The festival that wasn’t meant to be is back. Don’t miss it. Collect those last minute ticket here.