How Party in the Paddock's 2024 return is a 'religious experience'

Many are groggy from Friday night's opening festivities, waking mid-morning to distant music on the horizon and hastily brushing their teeth to join the others heading stage-bound in dusty plumes.

Plenty sit around trestle tables and discuss the day ahead and the night behind, but all of them are here for one reason: to Party in the Paddock.

The thousands of revellers have converged on Quercus Park for the 11th outing of what is the state's largest musical festival, which this year is hosting more than 190 musicians across its four days.

"It's massive for us," founder and organiser of the event Jesse Higgs said.

"This is the biggest Party in the Paddock we've ever had - the people wanted a music festival, and that's why we're here."

Opening Thursday night, the independent arts and music event kicked off with acts like Teenage Dads and San Cisco for its "Pre-Party" night before it settled into the swing of International stars like British drum and bass band Rudimental and German rockers Milky Chance on Saturday.

And those larger acts will be joined over the weekend by Australian performers like G Flip and Tash Sultana alongside a plethora of smaller interstate and local performers - many of which punters are as excited about as the bigger names.

"We're keen to see some of the big ones like Hayden James, but we'll get in there to support those local bands," said Chelsea Peacock, a festivalgoer from Hobart.

One of those local acts is pop-punk rising stars Offset Vision - a launceston group gracing the festival's stage for their first time, having found success in the triple j Unearthed initiative.

"We played our first gig at a house party and we've come from playing in pubs with a 100 person cap so this is pretty strange to be here," Offset Vision's James Baker said.

"I think we're more nervous playing in our own state but to be able to represent where we're from and play in Tasmania is pretty awesome."

And aside from the music, this year's Party in the Paddock has continued its ethos of artistic flair and oddities: whip cracking expos, an Elvis impersonator and drag shows are a few of the surprises mixed in among the stages and tents.

"We come here because festivals are almost a religious experience," said Billy Otto, an artist who performed on the Vibe Town stage on Friday night to open the event.

"Out there, there are life's ups and downs, chaos, world problems; but here people are together, there's a symbiosis and a family energy between you and people you don't even know.

"That inner child comes out and you just feel free; life is simple again."