Illawarra taste-makers Yours & Owls have taken a different direction for their first major festival of 2018, focusing on collating some of the finest Australian rock musicians for a concert at MacCabe Park in Wollongong on February 11. Barnesy will join Ian Moss, Mental As Anything, Diesel and Daryl Braithwaite for the one-off show.

“My job, is to turn every night of the week into Saturday night for people. It’s the best job there is,” Barnes said.

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Yours & Owls co-founder Ben Tillman said the festival capacity was between 4000-5000 people and will house their usual gourmet food trucks and markets.

“We thought it was a good opportunity to do something different and also appeal to a whole new audience,” Mr Tillman told the Illawarra Mercury.

“Jimmy Barnes is one of a very elite few who can legitimately call himself one of the founding fathers of Australian rock’n’roll. He is true royalty.”

The announcement comes after hundreds of fans lined up to meet the main man at a Wollongong book store last week, who was in town to promote the second instalment of his memoirs Working Class Man. The text has already gone to number 1 on the Neilsen Bookscan chart on Thursday – less than two weeks after its release.

The Wollongong festival will be the prelude to Barnes’ “Evening of Stories and Songs” tour which kicks off at Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul on March 15 before heading around Australia and New Zealand.

Show date is Sunday February 11, MacCabe Park in Wollongong. Tickets on sale via www.ticketmaster.com.au