With festival season’s official start around the corner, it’s all about to go off again, but for folks in Australia —specifically at Chi Wow Wah Town —the beat’s still thumping.

CWWT’s 2016 edition just wrapped up not far from Melbourne, where 1,000 punters grooved in an immersive "secret Victorian forest" environment that was as carefully curated as the lineup itself. Organizers Ewan Scott and Danielle Erdeli from Vision Hound proudly share that the music (“proper journey music daytime through night time and back again”), the art (“small art details hidden everywhere you look”) and the people ("possibly the most finely tuned crowd Melbourne has seen in a long, long, long time”) aligned perfectly this year for some serious magic-making.

The Sydney Morning Herald dubbed Chi Wow Wah Town one of the country’s best "micro-festivals" —smaller, boutique events that aim for intimacy and a more holistic experience. Most of CWWT is built with recycled materials but its conscience goes deeper than that. The festival benefits the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.

“Party with a purpose is the only way to party,” says Erdeli. “It’s a huge component of the original underground party days that seems to have been overlooked by mainstream events and larger parties all too often now. Further to this, one of our founders suffers from the disease, so we do everything we can to help find a cure.”

Music as a source of medicine? Oh, hell yes. It’s hard for Erdeli to pick out her favorite sets, but she says closing act Sven Dohse, an underground Berlin DJ, went from “unknown to instant hero,” and the crowd implored Robag Wruhme to “play forever.” There’s a good sampling of full sets on SoundCloud, where CWWT plans to release a set per week until they run out of recordings. Peep these, then head over to SoundCloud for more.

Uone – Director of CWWT and Australia's leading international touring artist 

Andreas Henneberg – German techno maestro’s debut performance in Australia 

Thankyou City Live – Two brothers at the forefront of Australian electronic music production

Moodmachine – The Melbourne-based duo, known for their deep techy sounds, pushed the boundaries with a live singer and guitar aspect to their performance 

Ay, Chi Wow Wah!