One Victorian act will win the opportunity to perform alongside Bodyjar, Frenzal Rhomb, Killing Heidi, Magic Dirt and Regurgitator at Push Over’s 40th anniversary celebration in Melbourne.
by Paul Cashmere
The Push and triple j Unearthed have opened a competition to find one Victorian artist to perform at Push Over – 40 Years Of The Push at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens on Saturday 21 November 2026. The competition is open to Victorian artists with music uploaded to triple j Unearthed, with entries closing at 11.59pm AEST on Sunday 20 September.
The winning act will join a bill featuring Bodyjar, Frenzal Rhomb, Killing Heidi, Magic Dirt and Regurgitator, with each of those artists also performing with a special guest connected to The Push. Alex Lahey, Alice Ivy, Baker Boy, members of Public Figures, Ruby Fields and Thalia and Cahli from Teenage Joans are among the artists announced for those collaborations.
The Unearthed opportunity carries particular significance because Push Over was established as an all-ages platform for young Australian musicians and audiences. The festival ran from 1992 to 2013 and became one of Victoria’s defining youth music events, providing emerging artists with opportunities to perform in front of audiences of their own generation.
Conditions for unearthed are here
For The Push, the competition extends that original purpose into its 40th anniversary year. Rather than simply revisiting the festival’s history, the organisation is using the anniversary event to create another performance opportunity for an emerging Victorian artist.
The Push was established in 1986 as a youth music organisation and has spent four decades developing opportunities for young people across performance, music participation and career pathways. The organisation was inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame in 2024 and has expanded its work nationally.
In 2026, The Push also launched its National Plan for Young Australians and Music, a 10-year strategy focused on developing more consistent contemporary music infrastructure and opportunities for young people across Australia.
The return of Push Over forms part of that broader history. The original festival became a significant entry point for young audiences who were excluded from much of the conventional live music circuit because of age restrictions, while also giving emerging Australian acts access to substantial all-ages audiences.
Bodyjar, one of the bands appearing at the anniversary event, has described The Push as an important source of all-ages opportunities during its early years. Killing Heidi played Push Over in 1996, when Ella and Jesse Hooper were still teenagers. Magic Dirt also performed at the festival during the 1990s, including a 1994 bill at Luna Park with Spiderbait, The Meanies and Silverchair.
For Frenzal Rhomb, The Push provided another route for young audiences to encounter Australian punk. Regurgitator has similarly linked its involvement with the organisation to the experience of performing for younger audiences during the formative years of the band’s career.
The five headline acts collectively represent several strands of the Australian alternative music landscape that developed alongside The Push. Bodyjar emerged from Melbourne’s punk scene, Frenzal Rhomb became a major force in Australian punk during the 1990s, Killing Heidi broke through from regional Victoria, Magic Dirt established a significant alternative rock following from Geelong, and Regurgitator became one of the defining Brisbane bands of the 1990s.
The anniversary concert will therefore bring together artists whose careers intersect with different stages of The Push’s history. The addition of one competition winner gives an emerging Victorian act a place within that historical continuum.
The Push CEO Kate Duncan has also connected the festival’s return with her own experience of the organisation, recalling attending the 1998 Push Over featuring Rancid, The Living End and Jebediah. The festival’s return follows requests from artists, young music fans and parents for the event to be revived.
For the Unearthed entrant who wins, the practical opportunity is straightforward: a place on the Push Over stage in front of an all-ages audience at the Royal Botanic Gardens. More broadly, it restores one of the original functions of Push Over by giving a developing artist an opportunity to perform alongside established Australian acts.
Entries close at 11.59pm AEST on Sunday 20 September. Full competition details and terms and conditions are available through triple j Unearthed.
Tour Dates
Saturday 21 November 2026, Melbourne, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Ticket Details
Push Over – 40 Years Of The Push is an all-ages event at Live at the Gardens. Tickets are on sale through the official Live at the Gardens ticketing channels.
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