It's been a bumper few weeks for Australian festivals and announcements; we've picked the cream of the crop so as not to leave you hanging! First off, we turn to the latest news from Heatwave Festival over the whole "D12 not showing up" thing...

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.

Fresh from playing a captivating set of luscious indie pop at Peats Ridge Festival, Simon and Will from The Holidays chat to Lucy Inglis of The AU Review about the magic of Peats Ridge, their upcoming album, possible tours and the thrills of being a part of Harvest.

Now in its 8th year, the Peats Ridge Festival seems to be getting bigger and bigger. World renowned as one of the leading sustainability events, "Peats" is one of the must do NYE events on most of Australian bucket lists. A gathering for all things eclectic, the event creates a environment like no other.

As we hit the second day of 2012, we take a look back at how hundreds of thousands of music fans around Australia brought in 2012 through a string of events on New Years Eve and New Years Day.

Fresh from playing the Vanguard in Sydney, we catch up with the UK's Gemma Ray, who's currently on a tour around the country, to talk about her forthcoming record Island Fire and more. You can catch Gemma at Peats Ridge Festival next week!

Let's talk Island Fire, due for release in February - have you been giving Australian audiences a taste of the record on your shows in Australia?

I've been playing about half of the new album with my current trio.

Hitting Australia next week, we catch up with Mongolia's folk rock collective Hanggai.

How did Hanggai come together?

Getting set to tour Australia for No Years, Peats Ridge and a couple of sideshows are Canada's Yukon Blonde. Tanya Ali caught up with the band's bass guitarist to talk about the tour, the new EP, How I Met Your Mother and a little bit more. Read on!

It's been a huge year for you guys - what have been some of your highlights of 2011?

After a day in the park playing football with their support bands Northeast Party House and The Jungle Giants, Dean from Ball Park Music talked to me about their Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs national tour.

You have been on a national tour around Australia for the debut release Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs, how have the shows been going?

Peats Ridge Sustainable Arts and Music Festival today announces a massive 26 new acts to their already bulging festival line up.

Revived American rocker and master lyricist, Jim Ward, world breaking Canadian band Yukon Blonde, Melbourne band of the moment - Aria Award nominated Oh Mercy, hot Aussie favourite - Canyons, and bursting local act New Navy are among the newly announced.

With the always phenomenal Peats Ridge Festival (held over New Years Eve just an hour or so north of Sydney) just around the corner (hard to believe, no?), Larry Heath caught up with Festival Director Matt Grant to chat about the event, the lineup and more...

How do you feel the line up has shaped together so far?

I took a bit of time out to speak to Hanni El Khatib earlier this week. A real nice guy, making some really amazing music, while being so very humble about it all. Here is what he had to say about his up-coming trip down under.

Whereabouts are you now?

I'm in LA, home on break for this past week.

Have you been busy with shows in the past couple of days?

We were just in Europe and in Canada.

How was that?