Wattle Haus celebrated Wattle Day 2026 by transforming Iceworks 3909 in Lakes Entrance into a strange and colourful collision of music, art and performance running late into the night.
VOL 3 marked the collective’s most ambitious showcase yet, bringing together neo-folk, techno, modular electronica, jazz, psychedelic rock, metal, spoken word, performance art and multiple giant video projections.
The evening began during golden hour in the Iceworks courtyard garden, where patrons settled in for bespoke wood-fired pizzas from The Local Metung. Tables were scattered among the newly blossoming spring gardens, while coloured lights strung between the buildings created an enchanting atmosphere as children played within the garden sections after dark.
Inside, motion graphics created by local artists — including eight to 12-year-olds from the Living Futures Krew — were displayed across the walls of the industrial space. Carefully placed lighting and multiple levels transformed the venue into an otherworldly environment where sound and vision became avant-garde creative synaesthesia.
On stage one, artist Mat Selwyn created an intricate artwork inspired by traditional Japanese aesthetics. On stage two, sound equipment formed a cavernous spiderweb of cables, instruments and stands.
Following an introduction to the Wattle Haus ethos by the MC, CONSCRIPT performed an emotive interpretation of the Taxi Driver theme on baritone horn, accompanied by live keyboard. Billie Spokes followed with a stunning acoustic and vocal set before local folk artist Ash Carmody delivered a deeply affecting performance, later joined by Sasha Kruse on bass.
Among the night’s most curious offerings was tFAMi, an unconventional collision of reel-to-reel tape experiments, huge pillars of sound, drum and bass, live-streamed television and spoken word. Exploring systems collapse, dystopia, and the role of commerce in an increasingly hostile reality, the mesmerising performance acted as an audio-visual transmission from slightly beyond the present.
Three-piece act PSYNTHIENT followed with towering racks of equipment, synths, and heavy bass, unleashing fierce, thundering techno beneath giant sunspots lashing across the wall behind as the dance floor erupted. Spoken-word artists led by Brooke Sage delivered work that was dark but ultimately hopeful, accompanied by Jake from the Shadowtones on an emotional exploration of daily existence, love and pain.
RECKREATOR then took over with a self-built modular synthesiser as a group of dancers created wild art around him, followed by Ro Willow with a set of left-of-centre alt-rock songs.
Thirteen-year-old CONSCRIPT returned alongside the Shadowtones to play his experimental spoken-word piece War Shall Consume, which was celebrated loudly by the crowd. The Shadowtones then merged gentle soul classics before morphing into heavy grooves, ending with the heavy, Sabbath-esque sound of See You in Hell.
Headlining the night was thrash metal band KRONK. Lead vocalist Heath commanded the entire stage, while guest vocalist Jake Carmichael joined to take the band into melodic screamo territory alongside a pounding mosh pit.
Organisers describe the Wattle Haus philosophy as “permaculture within the arts” — and VOL 3 certainly grew wild. The collective’s next event, Vol. 4, is scheduled for the summer season.
