2026 Sonder Festival Review: Community in the Age of Mobile Phone Audiences

Sonder 2026 Official Lineup Poster

India Machin | June 2026

Sonder is an independent music festival based in Tallarook, just an hour outside of Melbourne, Australia.

Occurring on Easter weekend, that being 3-5 April this year, and boasting artists such as Osmosis Jones, IN2POL and Bakey, it was fair to say the line-up was pretty stacked. I went along with my friends to scope it out.

We decided to volunteer at Sonder many months prior, and for the first weekend festival I’ve volunteered at, I would recommend it to anyone: the payoff was most definitely worth it. 

The grounds were very small, in comparison to most European or other Australian festivals I’ve attended. The campsite was positioned in the hills of rural Victoria, and we set up camp next to a dam; the views at sunset were exquisite. In the main area, there were only three stages: the outdoor stage, the hangar and the chalet, the latter two of which are both indoors. I would describe the whole festival set-up as unpretentious and accessible. 

Recently, we’ve all seen the online discourse surrounding Coachella; namely, the backlash directed less at the festival itself and more at the crowds. On a wider scope, and with our current social media age, many negative comments have infiltrated the live music and festival scene, noting that crowds have now morphed into vast expanses of phones. 

Granted, it’s human to feel the instant urge to document something, whether that is for yourself or for Instagram. Yet, Coachella, particularly Sabrina Carpenter's performance featuring Madonna, has sparked an argument within this arguably detrimental culture: that no one is present to enjoy the music anymore. 

In light of this, Sonder was an extremely refreshing experience. The crowd appeared slightly older: more people in their mid-to-late twenties and fewer festival first-timers. This, along with the lack of phone service and the festival’s modest number of stages and camps, made it feel somewhat… intimate?

Personally, this is a first for me, having been to my fair share of festivals in the UK and Australia. Additionally, we saw several artists enjoying other artists' sets, just mixed in with the crowd and their friends as regular punters, which certainly added to the overall feeling of comfort.  

My friends and I all remarked, on several separate occasions, on the clear lack of phones we saw over the entire weekend, whether we were walking around or in the thick of the crowd. The odd phone was there to capture photos or certain moments, but for the most part, they were absent. People were just having a good time. 

Sonder festival is still pretty novel, with this being its third year. This factor arguably added to the sense of community I felt there; everyone I spoke to was so friendly, and unlike most experiences, I didn’t stick strictly to my own bubble. Ultimately, it just felt like a break from reality for 72 hours, which is what festivals are supposed to be about, aren’t they? 

Musically, my standouts for the weekend were Osmosis Jones’ set on Saturday: think high-energy, with the sun setting over the mountains in the distance, and IN2POL’s afternoon set: groovy, feel-good funk underneath clear blue skies. 

The weekend was great for many reasons, but my main takeaway was that whilst a large online narrative appears to dominate that the dance floor might be dead, I would disagree; there is still hope for us.

Perhaps these smaller, newer, less commercialised festivals, with smaller line-ups, fewer stages and more intimate crowds, are where the community and connection to the music seem to still be truly thriving.