What we saw at AFTER HOURS — Words and picture by Hreefer for Mustard Flats — 17.OCT.2026
Saturday night the ANU Students Association threw ‘AFTER HOURS’ - a massive local music festival with thousands of students, fans and supporters in attendance. The last few years have been turbulent for artists, both locally and nationally. Against the backdrop of canceled tours, university politics, closing venues and a struggling music scene it was a breath of fresh air to go to an event created by students that love what they do. Seeing the crowd with attendees from all walks of life, coming together to enjoy art serves a reminder of why music matters for young people.
The event was nothing short of a success, with homegrown acts such as headliners Genesis Owusu and Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, supported by Lamb Legz, Chloe Parche (Sydney) and Rum Jungle (Newcastle) on the bill. The lineup was jam packed with fresh and familiar sounds, with good vibes permeating through Chifley Meadows.
I caught up with Charley and Dylan from the ANU Students Association, who were responsible for organising this event and brought it to life;
Mustard Flats: Guys this is a massive event and the turnout was insane. How much blood, sweat, tears and sleepless nights went into this?
Charley: A lot of sleepless nights, I went to bed at about 2 o’clock last night and Dylan was still awake.
Dylan: Yeah, I went to bed at about 4 or 5 AM, doing designs for all the screens. It all turned out amazing, Charlie and I spent half a year on this. At the beginning of the year we were like, “yes, we’re gonna do this - we’re gonna do a music festival”.
Then Charlie came to me one day and said “I think we’ve got the green light to go ahead with it”, and it’s just crazy to think, from then until now, just how much work has gone into it.
We’re really stoked at how it turned out.
MF: So what was the rough timeline?
C & D: February, this year. That’s when the idea kind of came to us, as this was always something we wanted to do, but around Feb is when the conversation started happening, and we started planning in April - so pretty quick turnaround.
MF: Have you guys ever done anything at this scale?
C: The ANU had a concert with Midnight Oil a few years back, but with the range of artists we’ve got and how current and modern they are, and at their level of demand, I don’t think an event of this scale as ever happened at the ANU - or at least not for a very long time.
MF: Insofar as the importance of an event like this, it’s a pretty big deal, considering the recent events that have transpired. What’s the overall philosophy/message that underpinned this event?
C & D: We know that live music is an important part of student and campus life, and it should be a fundamental part of our experience here. We’re also aware that the broader sector has been struggling, with so many festivals and gigs getting cancelled.
For example, Teen Jesus just had to cancel their European/US tour, which is incredibly sad. We were getting the finishing touches of getting our event sorted, and we’d just heard that Shadows was closing down, and that put into perspective how hard it really is.
Honestly, regarding what it takes to save the live music sector - it can’t be on the backs of small artists, musicians and small venues. There need to be real institutions that back it. You think about universities and governments, those are really big machines that can back live music. That's exactly what we've done here; as a union, we can't afford this, we can't do this by ourselves - we don't have the funding. But we know the university does and the university, thankfully, believed in our vision and supported us, and this is the result.
MF: Amazing thanks for talking with us tonight, enjoy the show.
Despite the controversies surrounding ANU’s music program budget cuts earlier this year, this night proved the importance of youth initiative in music, serving a much needed revival for live music at the campus. Here’s hoping for many more successful, student-led local gigs.
