High Voltage: Thousands of music lovers at Fremantle Oval for WA’s newest festival

Thousands of music lovers braved cold conditions at Fremantle Oval for the official opening of WA’s newest rock and roll festival — High Voltage.

Donning AC/DC-themed shirts, Premier Mark McGowan and Tourism Minister Roger Cook launched the festival on Sunday afternoon in front of thousands of attendees.

The dedicated event hopes to build on the success of WA’s Highway to Hell concert in 2020 and will again pay homage to the former AC/DC frontman Bon Scott.

One of West Australia’s best-loved musical performers, multiple Aria winner Diesel, will be among those to lead the convoy.

Dan Sultan, Katy Steele, The Desert Stars, and The Southern River Band are among the list of entertainers appearing at the free festival.

The Premier rang “Hell’s Bell” at 2pm to send off the first of seven trucks in a convoy expected to travel while entertaining along a five-kilometre loop along the Esplanade to South Beach.

Cloudy and cooler conditions seemed to reduce the crowd at the opening, with roughly 2000 on the oval for the ceremony.

“For those people who say it’s a bit too cloudy, I say to them; ‘what would Bon Scott do?,’” Mr McGowan said.

“He wouldn’t let a few clouds worry him. He’d be down there having a good time.

“This is a great event. We did it three years ago on the highway and we thought we do it again because it was so successful.

“There are two great events going on in the world this weekend. The coronation and High Voltage — I know which one is more exciting.”

The Bureau of Meteorology predicted cloud, light showers, and winds of up to 50kph for the metro area on Sunday.

Mr Cook had said he expected a crowd of 100,000 to capitalise on the multiple sites and bands across the day, which would be about 45,000 less visitors than the 2020 concert.

The State Government has invested $5 million into the event, with the aim to make it an annual fixture on WA’s tourism and music events calendar.

Highway to Hell was estimated to have injected about $6.1 million into local businesses.

During their procession, the trucks will stop at the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour near the statue that commemorates Bon Scott, the rock singer from AC/DC.

Bon Scott was born in Scotland, and moved to Australia with his family in the 1950s, eventually settling in Fremantle where he grew up.

He performed with several bands, before joining AC/DC in 1974 — a union which would see the band become one of the biggest in the world. He died in 1980 and is buried in Fremantle Cemetery.

Several street closures were in place to make it a pedestrian-friendly festival.

Attendees were urged to take public transport to the festival with eight additional trains per hour running to Fremantle from Perth, as well as 100 extra bus services.

It comes as thousands flocked to Bunbury on Saturday for Groovin the Moo 2023, headlined by Alt-J, Amy Shark, and The Chats.

Australian indie band Ball Park Music was also at the southern festival and was set to play a second show in WA on Sunday, at Freo Social in a sold-out gig supported by indie-punk rockers The Buoys and Perth’s own soft-rock trio Ghost Care.