Festival FAQs
Schoolies Festival™ is held on Warland Reserve in Victor Harbor, 70km south of Adelaide. The main streets, shops and the beach are a minute’s walk away. During the day you may want to check out the beaches for a surf, enjoy some local shopping or even see a movie at the old-school cinema. For more info about Victor Harbor head to: www.tourismvictorharbor.com.au
The gates open at 7pm each night, so get there early to make sure you don’t miss a thing.
Dependant on weather and site conditions the gates close at 3am.
No, there are no alcoholic drinks available in the Festival. Schoolies Festival™ is an alcohol and other drug free event.
Yes, there are delicious treats and drinks available to purchase in various locations throughout the Festival.
A ‘dry zone’ is an area where the consumption of alcohol or possession of open containers of alcohol is prohibited. This applies even if you are just moving through a dry zone. So if you are drinking or have alcohol in the dry zone police can hand you a hefty fine and you may have to go to court. Be on the safe side and don’t pack it!
We are happy for you to bring in a sealed plastic water bottle or an empty plastic bottle for you to fill up at our water stations inside the Festival site.
The line-up will continue to grow and build in the months leading up to the Festival. For this reason, we cannot release the exact playing times for each act until much closer to the date. Keep tabs on our Facebook page for the latest announcements.
Firstly, please respect the privacy of other school leavers, artists and service providers at Schoolies Festival™. We have a team of creative geniuses dedicated to capturing everything that’s happening on the weekend, check out our Facebook and Instagram to see it all as it unfolds!
Small personal cameras and mobile phones are permitted for your own personal use, however:
- Any photos or video taken cannot be sold or published without written authority from Encounter Youth.
- Any photos or video taken is to be used for personal use only – uploading to your personal social media is fine.
- Before you upload anything, have a think about whether you’d be happy for anyone else to upload that exact photo or video of you. It might be funny at the time, but not so much the next day. Just remember photos on social media are for life.
Absolutely! Hosted by the incredible Encounter Youth Green Team and for just a gold coin donation. Use this space to drop off your hoodie or jacket whilst you dance the night away. Don’t forget to pick it up on your way home.
- The cloakroom doubles as our lost and found, so if you’ve lost something, go ask our awesome volunteers and they may be able to help you out.
Items not collected at the end of the event will be retained by Encounter Youth for 10 days after the event, contact us to arrange collection. Then all valuables will be handed to the SA Police and any non-valuable items (such as your favourite hoodie) will be donated to a local charity.
Be prepared! Make a meeting place with your mates at the very beginning of the weekend. Also don’t rely on mobile phones as the battery might die or sometimes reception can be hard to get. Have an action plan and stick with your friends.
Schoolies Festival™ is for 2019 school leavers and you will need to show a valid form of photo ID (showing your birth year as 2001 or 2002) on arrival to ensure entry into the Festival. A limited number of general admission entry tickets are available pre-sale only and are for students who are under 21. Photo ID will still be required for general admission.
Legal forms of photo ID include a current 2019 student ID card, a current drivers licence or a state issued proof of age card. Due to the nature of the event, Encounter Youth reserves the right to refuse ticket sales or entry to persons 21 or over or to persons who are unable to produce sufficient photo ID that can prove their date of birth.
We encourage everyone to pre-purchase their ticket before the weekend to ensure you have secured your spot. Our Ticketing & Wristband Collection Area will be open on Friday, Saturday & Sunday.
Our Ticketing & Wristband Collection Area is located on Flinders Parade in Victor Harbor, directly opposite the Encounter Discovery Centre, next to the public toilets. Handy Hint: Download the Free Schoolies Festival™ App and you can see the location on the Festival map.
Our Terms and Conditions state that lost or stolen wristbands will not be replaced or reissued and a damaged but still attached wristband may be replaced.
However we want you to have a safe, fun and enjoyable weekend so if you find yourself in this situation, we encourage you to visit our Ticketing & Wristband Collection Area and explain your situation. Take your valid photo ID with you, as this will assist us to understand your situation.
Please note: Issuing a replacement band is at the sole discretion of Encounter Youth.
All patrons must hold a Festival Ticket/Wristband to board the bus service, in absence of a Ticket/Wristband each person must pay $5 per bus boarding to the driver.
Ticketing FAQs
You will need to provide the name, address, phone number and email of the person purchasing the ticket. You will also need either a VISA® or MasterCard® to pay for your purchase.
For the safety of and to ensure each patron can be found on our system, we will request the individual details for each patron at the time of purchase.
For all ticket types we will require you to provide for each patron:
- First name
- Last name
- Email address
- Phone number
In addition, when purchasing Schoolies Festival™ Secondary Student tickets we will require you to provide for each patron:
- School attended in 2019
To find out more about how we will handle your personal information, please see our privacy policy.
If you bought your ticket without our Partner or Endorsed accommodation options, you should receive your ticket within 24 hours of your purchase. If this does not happen please check your spam/junk folder. If you still do not see your ticket, please contact us.
If you have lost or deleted the email with your ticket, please contact us and we can resend the email with your ticket.
In order to help prevent illegal scalping of tickets, we have limited the number of tickets that can be purchased in one transaction to what we consider to be a reasonable number of tickets.
These limits are:
4x Schoolies Festival™ Student tickets
OR 1x Schoolies Festival™ Standard ticket
If you require more tickets than this, you will need to organise one of your friends to do a separate purchase for any additional tickets.
If you booked with one of our Partner Accommodation Providers you should receive your ticket within 24 hours once your payment has been received. If you have not received your ticket within 24 hours of your purchase, please check you spam/junk folder. If you still do not see your ticket, please contact us.
If you booked with one of our Endorsed Accommodation Providers your ticket will be emailed to you a week or two before the Schoolies Festival™.
If you booked your Schoolies Festival™ ticket outright from our website your ticket will be sent to you via email once your payment has been received. If you have not received your ticket within 24 hours of your purchase, please check you spam/junk folder. If you still do not see your ticket, please contact us.
If you would like to change the name on your ticket, please contact us. Please note that change of name will be reviewed, and Encounter Youth have the right to deny any changes.
Please note: You will be required to show a current Photo ID in order to exchange your ticket for a wristband.
Schoolies Festival™ Tickets are not refundable.
There are no refunds for insufficient ID. Due to the nature of the event, Encounter Youth reserves the right to refuse ticket sales to persons not of school leaver age or to persons who are unable to produce sufficient photo ID that can prove their date of birth.
For more information on your legal rights for refunds please see the Live Performance Australia Ticketing Code of Practice.
Credit card payments are processed through the Eventbrite ticketing system. Please refer to this link https://www.eventbrite.com.au/security/ for any questions around security of your credit card information.
Other FAQs
Encounter Youth gathers a team of over 550 volunteers, affectionately known as the Green Team as you can spot them in their green t-shirt or hoodie. During the weekend you will see volunteers picking up rubbish, selling tickets or giving out free food…and that’s just the start! They are gathered from Christian communities across SA and pay to volunteer. They are all trained specifically for the Festival. Look out for the Encounter Youth volunteers in green, as they will be a great source of information, support and an extra friend to help you celebrate.
Victor Harbor is an incredible community with plenty of things for you to do. There is a local cinema, surf lessons, skate park and much more! For more info about Victor Harbor head to: www.tourismvictorharbor.com.au
We understand they may be hesitant in you heading down. We suggest having a really good conversation with them about your plans; sit down and talk about how you have prepared and what your safety plans are. We also have a page with info for parents, get them to read this and talk about any concerns together.
Unfortunately we don’t have the time and resources available to respond to individual questions for your project or essay, as we get lots of these requests and they all vary based on the particular assignment.
We have prepared some PDFs on different topics, that you may find helpful for your project or essay.
If you still have more questions just contact us!
Interested in finding out more? Check out our main Schoolies Festival™ page for a full overview.
If you haven’t bought a ticket yet, go get your ticket now!