Music lovers across WA start locking in tickets for Albany’s first-ever beach music festival, Middies 2026

As festival lovers mourn the loss of South West events like Groovin’ the Moo and The Drop festival, a passionate trio of local organisers are filling the gap with an inaugural music showcase in Albany.

Middies 2026 will see indie rockers Beddy Rays, Dear Sunday, Ruby Hoo, Lazy Haze and Jack Hamilton grace the stage at Middleton Beach for the region’s first-ever beach music festival in February.

Co-organiser Santino Pietropaolo said he and Sanjay Sanapala had been cooking up the idea for several months before approaching Robert Forgione for assistance.

“Being a local musician, I think I always wanted to see something like this happen down here,” he said.

“And you see the events that New Year’s Eve put on down at Anzac Peace Park and the big stage, and all the bands that come down for it, I just see all the younger crowd who wants to get more involved with it.

“So the dream of it was let’s get some big Australian acts — Beddy Rays, our headline is coming from Brisbane — let’s get them down to a little town like this, and hopefully give it a big punch for the first year running.”

Mr Pietropaolo said he had secured the impressive line-up through his WAAPA contacts, but hopes the success of the debut event will encourage bigger names to sign on for future events.

Earmarked for the grassy area at Ellen Cove, the festival will accommodate up to 1000 people, with the site set to be dotted with food trucks, bars, and DJs playing among the live acts.

The event will be the first outdoor music festival since the collapse of the beloved Wignalls Vintage Blues Festival in 2020.

Mr Sanapala, who also owns Eve Late Night Bar, said he hoped the event fills the festival deficit felt by Great Southern young people.

“I moved to Albany a couple of years ago and I love to go to festivals personally, but since I moved to Albany, I realised Perth is really far and it’s not really cheap to travel to for festivals,” he said.

“The hotels, the tickets, the travel, everything has gone really up.

“So why can’t we have something like this in Albany? Albany’s got that potential. Albany’s got the crowd.

“Albany people want this, then why people are not doing it?”

CBD Architects boss Mr Forgione was brought on to help navigate planning the event, including council permissions, acoustics, management and crowd control.

Now a major sponsor, he said the early ticket sale success, with purchases not limited to young people, nor those from the Great Southern, helped give him the confidence to back it.

“We’ve noticed that the people buying up tickets, are not just Albany people, we’ve got people from Busselton, Bunbury, Perth all of that that are going to come, especially for this event,” he said.

“It’s not just for young people either, it’s for everyone who wants to come down and enjoy some music at this location.

“That’s something I like about it, that mum, dad and their adult kids can have a good day together.

“I think if the locals get behind it these guys will keep doing it and it’ll become a regular thing on the calendar.”

Middies 2026 is an 18-plus event that will run from 3pm on February 28, with tickets on sale via Megatix.