CLEWS name Mudgee has top spot to visit for Next Exit Festival

Having released 'Want You That Way' in late February, the sisters are eager to scratch the live-performing itch that has surfaced as a result of COVID-19 calling an end of live music for much of 2020.

"I think this festival will be the first one Grace and I have played since COVID-19 shutting live music down, it'll be big actually," Lily Richardson of CLEWS said.

"It's funny because usually summer is the big festival season, but before that around August, I feel like we were doing a lot of shows. It was weird, over Christmas and New Year there were none of the usual big festival events.

"I'm excited to get out of the city and play in regional towns. I know what it feels like to have big bands come to town and I think it's going to be really fun."

While it may be assumed the enforced break by the coronavirus pandemic was all bad news, for those in the creative industries it was a chance to reconnect and refocus, and CLEWS is no exception.

"Usually my outlet for creativity is song writing, but I feel like I did less of that this past year because if I was trying to write something it was overshadowed by that feeling of doom and gloom and it was too obvious," Lily said.

"Having a lot of time to focus on production and where new sounds are going to come from was really helpful, it was good to have some space to do our own thing.

"Everyone was and is in the same boat, it's just life."

Of all the stops on the Next Exit Festival tour, the Mollymook sisters are the most thrilled to be performing in Mudgee as they visit annually and had spent time in town as children.

"I'm so excited to come to Mudgee because Grace and I go there every year, we have a bunch of really good family friends who live there. We also grew up spending a lot of time on this property out near the observatory," Lily said.

"I feel very at home in Mudgee, not to insert myself with the town. I'm not just saying this, Mudgee is the place I'm most excited to visit. It's going to be great, it's such a cool place."

The Next Exit Festival will be held at the Mudgee Showground on Saturday, May 29, 2021.

Bands in the lineup include CLEWS, Ocean Alley, Spacey Jane, Dear Seattle and Merci, Mercy.

Tickets can be purchased from https://bit.ly/2NvuBbG.

The event is an 18 and over event only.

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