Five Things Caravãna Sun Can’t Live Without When On Tour

August 17, 2022

Caravãna Sun are hitting the road this spring, with shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Wollongong, Fremantle and Broome, as well as a headline slot at Summer Escape, the band’s own festival at NightQuarter on the Sunshine Coast.

The Sydney/Byron Bay foursome released their latest album, Burning Palms, in March 2022 and followed up with a performance at Splendour in the Grass. Ahead of the tour, bass player and vocalist Ant Beard underlines five tour essentials.

Caravãna Sun’s must-pack tour items

1. Swimmers/board shorts

If there’s one thing you can bet on, it’s our ability to find a body of water and jump in it. We’ve jumped fences at 3am in Austria and jumped off 10m diving boards. We’ve done laps in nearly every European city that has a public pool and ended up having too many nude swims at sunrise after shows. Yep, with swimmers or without, we will swim.

2. Chilli sauce

We’ve had some incredible meals around the world, but the severity of hotness when it comes to chilli has continuously let us down. By carrying your own, you’re sure it’ll be one hot experience. Whether it’s your standard pizza or cheeky kebab, we’ll always find a way to turn the heat up.

3. Noise cancelling headphones

We call noise cancelling headphones “tour tools”. Everyone has very different sleeping habits and often you’re sharing a room with one of your band mates. Take me for instance, I’m a big sleep talker. Middle of the night, I’ll pop up in bed and start explaining the difference between a sulphur-crested cockatoo and a gang gang cockatoo. While I personally feel this is riveting, people don’t usually want to hear about it at 2am.

4. Spare gig clothes

Caravãna Sun is known as a fairly high energy live band, so you can end up burning through clothes like there’s no tomorrow. Not to mention shows in the Kimberley! I’m still waiting for Lululemon to bring out some fashionable, 80s suit wear for the stage. I’ve learned to stay away from all synthetics due to some embarrassing nipple bleeding situations. Cotton and natural fibres always.

5. Patience

Perhaps the king of them all. Our game is summed up in one line: “Hurry up and wait.” No matter if it’s sound check or waiting for your festival transfer, being conscious of these situations means you can take care of what you have to in order to be patient. In our band, that usually means some form of snacks. Being prepared with an emergency pack of M&M’s crispy has seriously saved us big time.