The Jungle Love story so far

From a house party in Highgate Hill in 2013, to a summer weekend camping festival since 2014 and battling all of the odds to keep it going. It’s been one hell of a ride and yet it’s only the beginning.

Long gone are the days of the completely DIY house-party called Jungle Love that inspired the festival 12 months later in 2014, when Raymond Williams crossed paths with co-founder Lincoln Savage and shared his vision of a new kind of festival that celebrates the plethora of incredible music bubbling up in south-east Queensland and bring together a community of open-minded, fun-loving, outrageous bonkers people to connect and create meaningful memories. Lincoln, who at the time was throwing art based warehouse parties a-la Andy Warhol’s Factory, was eager to help bring the dream to life and create this wonderland. And so, without really knowing much about how to run a festival, but backed by high-hopes and aspirations, the two set out to create the best festival ever.

Luminescence String quartet playing in the jungle
Photo by Lauren Crabbe (@jalebi_dreams)

After staging five festivals, and facing the highest of highs and the lowest of lows together, as what happens sometimes in life, the relationship had run its course and the two realised the best way forward for both was to go separate ways and lead their own projects. It was agreed that Lincoln would start a new festival on the same weekend as Jungle Love used to be held (go check out Yonder Festival, it’s awesome) and Raymond would carry the Jungle Love torch and move it to Autumn.

The plan was to hold the very first Autumn Jungle Love over the long weekend in May in 2020. We all know what happened that year. It was heart-breaking for the whole team that had been working on bringing together a new vision of Jungle Love for more than 12 months, and honestly, it was damn near the end of the festival. But once the dust settled, and everyone mourned the loss of our 2020 festival which we had such high hopes for, we all got to rest a bit, reflect on what we value. We had come to realise that as gruelling as the work is, nothing is more valuable to us than seeing the smiles and hearing the life-affirming stories of this special bunch of people that make the pilgrimage each year. 
So we got back to work and we put on an event in 2021. Not sure how it happened, we dodged two lockdowns either side of the festival and seemed to have this sweet little window. The whole year actually went eerily too well. The event just flowed so smoothly and the vibes were at an all time high. It was our best year ever by far! Sure, it was a little freakishly nippy at night those three nights, but otherwise it was just beautiful.

Then 2022 rolled around, and here we are postponed once already due some pesky flooding that made it impossible to hold the festival where we had planned (classic Australia). Not to mention for a good chunk of time there were mandates in place for events and the idea of having to exclude anyone made us squirm. It’s been tougher than 2021 that’s for sure, but we soldier on as we’ve got a party to deliver. Maybe the flooding was serendipitous as it caused us to look for a new site, and the most perfect site has fallen into our lap where we can still have swimming but not be at risk of flooding, and thankfully no more mandates are in place and everyone can attend!