Port Macquarie's boutique summer music festival, Festival of the Sun, will return this December 13th and 14th, but will trade some care-free vibes for some more sinister themes. With the festival falling on the notorious Friday the 13th, festival organisers have planned a Black Friday theme and dress-code.

Indie Folk act Tin Sparrow hail from Sydney and play sweet songs together, a lot. They like to do it so much that they opened this year's Festival Of The Sun, and we truly loved it. El had a drink with the whole gang, a merry bunch.

Nat Col & The Kings have had a stellar year touring around Australia. They have an amazing history between them and played around the world with some of the world's best. They delivered their talent at Festival Of The Sun in December, El had a quick chat to them about their comings and goings.

El caught up with Tom Busby and Jeremy Marou of Busby Marou to talk rock n roll and the many hidden wonders of Australia.

This years Festival Of The Sun saw itself through with brilliant weather and plenty of crowd pleasers. Held at the Sundowner Tourist Park at Port Macquarie’s Breakwall Beach, the festival stage was about 50m from the shoreline and the ground full of sand – genius construction as feet on this terrain are able to dance wilder and stand stronger through performances.

DZ Deathrays take the stage by storm. lierally, I'd say there would be enough energy and rage up there to create a man-made storm of pic proportions, the fans help out sometimes too. El caught up with Shane and Simon just after their set to talk of the times.

Fresh off the stage at Festival Of The Sun, El caught up with the Angus and Luke of Hermitude - and they spilled a big secret.

The beautiful sisters, Shalane and Tullara Connors, who make up the band Siskin River have been travelling up and down the east coast for months. We caught up with Shalane to explore their love of touring, the story of their name and when we can expect their debut album.

After touring the United Kingdom and the United States, Dead Letter Circus are back in Australia and are touring their new material in December.

Dead Letter Circus lived onsite in the Loose Stones studios on the Gold Coast to record the follow up to their chart topping debut album “This is the Warning.”

Dead Letter Circus have been one busy troupe this year, writing and recording their second album, as well as playing a number of gigs and festivals this year, including headlining Festival of the Sun. In the lead up summer, the AU Review's Rachel Sibley asked a few questions of drummer Luke Williams to find out exactly what the band has been up to.

This duo from the Blue Mountains are well adored. Since their inception years ago, Hermitude have been making progressive beats for an ever-growing fan base. Elke Giroux spoke to them about some of their most recent projects and Dr. Seuss.

Melbourne's own Husky are in the middle of a huge international tour and doing wonderful things with it - but they'll soon be back home with us, taking on the stage at Festival Of The Sun and finishing up their Tidal Wave Tour. The AU review's Elke Giroux shot them a few questions on how and what they're up to:

In this issue: Festival Of The Sun tickets are on sale, Big Day Out offers people the option to pay for their tickets installments, Meredith sells out for another year and more!

Filmed at Peats Ridge Festival and at Festival of the Sun, we find out the New Years Resolutions of bands from around Australia for 2012. Including The Brothers Grim, The Medics, Pigeon, The Holidays, The Delta Riggs, Microwave Jenny, The Snowdroppers, Benjalu, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Minnie Marks, Thundamentals, Sietta and Richard Cuthbert.

In the final video from our series at Festival of the Sun in Port Macquarie - December 2011 - Larry Heath catches up with Sydney's Art vs Science, fresh off their ARIA win. We find out what's next for the band, check out (briefly) their live performance, and more!

Camera: Yaya Stempler, Editor: Larry Heath.