It’s an “exciting” prospect for the band that claimed first place in Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown in 2015, and keyboardist Elliot Margin says the whole group is certainly looking forward to it.

“We’ve been playing this tour with Pink for a while now, and so we feel like we’ve got all our new music and the sets really tight, so now we’re all really keen for that festival crowd,” Margin said. “Festivals are really different to those venue gigs that we have been doing, it’s a big bundle of high energy that we can really vibe with, I think.”

Margin admitted The Rubens were strong advocates for the entire festival scene, and said most of the band members would “get among the punters” at festivals so they could enjoy the music, even camping at Splendour in the Grass in recent years.

“Whenever we go to a festival we really want to go behind just the music and we want to feel everything that the event has to offer,” he said.

“We love watching other bands, and seeing how they’re playing and how people react to them, and just enjoy all of that. There’s a real ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ thing at festivals that always makes it a bit more intense than an organised venue, and so that’s really cool.”

As well as the “whirlwind” tour that will be arriving in the Hunter in the early days of November bringing new tracks from The Rubens, Margin also said he is looking forward to “seeing old fans” after gigs at Novocastrian venues like Bar on the Hill, and old festivals like Fat As Butter.

“We’ve been away writing for a while, so we haven’t really had a chance to get anywhere that wasn’t just an inner-city venue, so it’s exciting to get back to all these places that we’ve missed and see all these old fans that give us so much love,” he said.

“It’s always really cool turning up in places like Newcastle and seeing all these new fans that have been listening to us while we’ve been away, and it’s really special to be able to play for them and give them their first live gig.

“Newcastle especially is always such a cool time, we always have a lot of fun, so we’re looking forward to seeing every in the This That crowd come November.”

The Rubens headline This That festival at Wickham Park on November 3.