6 Festivals

Three kids get into a music festival without paying, chased by security, bullied by big brother, and finding old acquaintances. But when they get caught, James (Rory Potter) confesses to having cancer.

They make a pact to go to as many music festivals as possible before his treatment starts.

Not knowing how long he has, with his cancer diagnosis, James lets off some steam.

Maxie's brother, Kane (Kyuss King), wants to use him to smuggle drugs into City Fest, the third festival, while delaying their drive to the 2nd one in NSW. As an orphan, Maxie (Rasmus King) was put under Kane's care. Nice touch to have real brothers play the tough roles of sibling rivalry...enhanced.

Summer (Yasmin Honeychurch) reunites with her sister, Marley (Guyala Bayles), while enjoying a songwriters' course. But they have a fight.

The more one learns about this bizarre friendship of a nerdy-looking skinny boy, a long, blonde-haired surfer boy, and a gorgeous light-eyed, tanned girl, the more it makes sense. Birds of a feather, but also in their own lived traumas, flock together. They prop each other up.

The build up to the sixth tattoo, including James' recap, Summer and Marley's reunion and the location of the Festival in the Bra, well executed enough to bring tears to my eyes. Beautiful!

With its title and young cast, I thought it was going to be a drug-fueled party film, but I'm both shocked and surprised by its depths. Yes, in plural: depths. More layers than an onion, certainly, with all that is eluded and not said aloud. Marley's loss, one example of a whole story intersecting the journey of the three friends. Summer's shyness clashing with her singing ambition. And Maxie's own tormented life is pushed to its extreme through his brother's selfishness. All the while at each other's beck and call when needed most.

It starts off ok, teens going to festivals, characters are not unique or very interesting. The actors are people you have never seen before and quite honestly, they don't have the talent to be great actors. Rasmus is unique but barely passes as a convincing actor. Rory is better but still on the pass level, enough to get by with the minimal acting needed. The film has way too much music that you lose the story, is this a narrative or doco? Most of the Aussie music is terrible, new age crap apart from BlissnEsso & Timmy Trumpet. Honestly, I was so bored. Shot well, great locations, nice editing, bad directing and writing and dialogue is so basic and not articulate or sub texted. How all these government departments funded this is beyond me? What should have been a compelling story with the main character - was a missed opportunity to pull at heart strings, but I felt nothing, it was like you spent too much time on trying to entertain with the music, you forgot about your story and characters Mr. Director, and you dropped the ball in executing the emotional (sad) part of the main character. Don't waste your time, you will never watch a second time and there is nothing memorable here. Completely forgettable.

A fun idea with three young teenage kids aiming to attend 6 music festivals within 6 months on the eastern coast of Australia. To add depth, one has a terminal illness, the other a broken home, and another with mother issues plus creative insecurities with her own music (sensitive portrayal by Yasmin). It is these emotional levels that elevates 6 FESTIVALS through its clunky structured moments.

Each music festival contains a problem for the protagonists, where the live music becomes the backdrop to the personal dilemmas presented. It propels the journey for the teenagers as they hurdle over and through obstacles that life's challenges throws at them. This element is what holds the film on a balanced level, instead of it becoming just an excuse for debauchery at music festivals.

Sometimes it is better to say less and show more. There are moments of unnecessary and unconvincing dialogue, but then there are heartfelt situations of strong imagery and performances that allows us to get into the teenagers mind-frame.

The pure delight is witnessing the future of Australian music with Dune Rats, G Flip and Ruby Fields leading the charge. There is so much to admire about this production. So let the little things that bug you not get in the way of a story that is worth telling about strong friendship through the hardest part of life - the teenage years, and the love of music.