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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
Josh Leeson

Vacations packed for dream Laneway appearance

The festivals and the shows keep getting bigger for Newcastle's Vacations. Picture supplied

VACATIONS drummer Joey van Lier has described the Newcastle indie band's inclusion on the Laneway Festival line-up as a dream come true.

On Tuesday Laneway released the initial line-up for the travelling festival's 2024 edition in February.

UK rapper Stormzy, US singer-songwriter and actor Dominic Fike and fellow American alternative RnB artist Steve Lacy will headline the festival tour, which also features Australian acts Angie McMahon, Dope Lemon, Teenage Dads and Confidence Man.

Vacations will play at the Brisbane (February 3), Sydney (February 4) and Melbourne (February 10) legs of the Laneway tour.

"It's always been a dream one for us, because it's such a taste-maker festival," van Lier said.

"They've always done a good job of having a different line-up to the majority of Australian festivals.

"It's always been a goal for us and getting a bunch of triple j plays has really helped make that a reality."

Vacations have released three singles this year - Next Exit, Midwest and Terms & Conditions from their forthcoming third album - which has finally seen the band convert their viral online success into solid radio support from the national youth broadcaster.

Vacations boast a monthly Spotify audience of 8.7 million listeners and their singles Young and Telephones have been streamed 455 million and 265 million times.

Vacations - Midwest

"Midwest got to the most-played song on triple j for a while, which was good," van Lier said.

"Coming from a position where historically we didn't get a lot of triple j play, that's a big change."

Vacations only returned home from Germany last Friday, following a globe-trotting run of shows in Jakarta, Singapore, London, Berlin and Cologne.

The run of dates included an appearance at All Points East Festival in London's Victoria Park, where the Newcastle four-piece shared the stage with global stars The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jungle, Haim and Tove Lo.

"It was especially good from an industry point of view because it's a good opportunity to show the who's who over there that people wanted to come and see us at our set," van Lier said.

"They essentially needed to put us on a bigger stage as they couldn't fit the amount of people who came to see us."

In three weeks Vacations will again pack their bags for their third North American tour. Van Lier said the 32-date tour with Brisbane's Last Dinosaurs will see Vacations perform to their biggest audiences.

"It's been doubling ever time," he said. "It's been exponential."

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