Festival director Russ Goodear said the aim was to “start small”.  

“We’re scientifically building a festival so it will have some longevity about it – we’re going for better before bigger,” Goodear said.

The festival aims to celebrate Australian music and will centre around concerts at the Lighthouse Theatre and Lighthouse Studio, as well as a “Back To The Bay” concert on October 31 at the Lady Bay Resort.

The “Back To The Bay” event – a pet project of Goodear’s that has been part of festival planning from the start – will celebrate long-gone Warrnambool music venue the Lady Bay Hotel with a “mix of bands from that era and a headline band from Melbourne”.

“At the very least in year one, if we have a fantastic Back To The Bay party, if that kickstarts a festival, I would be a happy director,” he said.

Goodear said the Aus Music Festival will centre on the Lighthouse Theatre, with fringe concerts at the city’s pubs and venues and possibly Flagstaff Hill or the Warrnambool Show, which will be on the same weekend.

He said he had met with several venue owners with the idea of them hosting genre-themed gigs.

“We want the venues to run their own satellite events, and we’ll put them in the program and on the website and become a partner in the process.”

There are also plans for an Australian music poster exhibition, an Australian “top 100 songs of all time" DJ set, a Music Victoria industry forum at Deakin University, and a concert involving 10 different acts performing the festival’s theme song for 2015 – The Church’s Under The Milky Way – in 10 different ways, but Goodear said none of these elements are fully locked in yet.

Plans to have a marquee at Surfside 2 caravan park were abandoned following discussions with the council because “the process wouldn’t have been ready this year”, Goodear said.

“The goal for us is to make it manageable and have something that is able to be a starting point,” he said.

“We have a fantastic team with 15 people on the committee and they’re all passionate and there’s about 40 people in separate planning teams.”

A line-up is expected to be announced by the end of July, with Goodear saying the committee was seeking emerging and local bands to compliment the bigger names they hope to secure.

“There are a lot of great bands around here,” he said.

It's hoped tickets will go on sale in August, with the Lighthouse Theatre handling the ticketing.