Entertainment & Music Music festivals

Silent Alarm

sack Lyon
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'tis the season.

Whether it's the fourth annual edition of the new Bogans On Pingers fest in the CBD offering a 'cosmic whirlwind across four Gregorian days, filled with booming emotion through speakers, stacks of diversity in the language of music, shared with similar minded hearts, heads, and dancing feet...' or Jizzfest or some indie rock catastrophe where a dude from Triple J does a zany announcement at 10pm before Dune Rats come on to collect their $4,000 split nine ways for the sixth time in the calendar year... no matter what, there is a festival for you and your Personal Brand.

I guess now Instagram is king and there's so many of these things, one will reflect your intended look. It's a good way for young people to hang out with their friends, take drugs, and spend $12 on a can of essentially mid-strength beer masquerading as an artisanal experience, but the older I get the less inviting these things look. You sit around in a tent coming down and sweating buckets looking at blades of dying grass while you will yourself up, or else you pay $180 to see a band you really like play a 40 minute set at 2pm, and about three bands you don't mind put in a half hearted set of songs while bitching about how hot it is in their jeans.

Maybe you muzz and still mourn the death of Zyzz and watch Chestbrah compilations to this day, pumped to wear little shorts and stringy singlets while bangin sloooots from Campbelltown as you follow around Stereosonic like a religious pilgrimage.

Maybe you go to Sugar Mountain and wear all black and ask someone to move so you can hopefully get to the front of the Boiler Room set and text your mates at home saying 'can you see me on the livestream? Get a photo.'

Maybe you actually don't care about stuff and have a good time, spend money, and come home happy because you danced around to some bands and had a laugh with your friends and who knows, maybe bumped into some people or met someone or something.

Do you go to music festivals?

Did you ever go to one overseas and now reminisce about it almost daily?

Were you not there for Nirvana's 1992 set at the Big Day Out, but tell everyone you were?

Was there an ill fated festival you loved?

Do you just go there to take drugs and hopefully bang a chick with cat-eye pupils and barely anything on?

Or are you all about the music, man?

Was it cool seeing Blink 182 in 2000 while taking ecstasy that still came in pills and not capsules, while getting free samples of a new vodka cruiser in a 50ml cup, while someone got crushed to death at the front?

Does anyone else just end up sitting there for like two or three hours because all the bands are s**t and they make you feel 'lame' for not getting 'it?' While the sound of distorted and aimless bass just acts as some undercurrent of The Festival Experience?

Do you keep your wristband so hopefully you can strike up chat with a hot chick in a smokers room at 1am?

Are you :hearteyesemoji: over the Coachella lineup? Is it #goals and #toomuch?
 
Don't go much these days but I've been to a few, in Aus and Europe. Have had some good times, intriguing conversations and met some decent people all over the world, who I still keep in contact today. Good for a day out to hang with mates but these days the benefits just don't vastly outweigh the costs for me. Plus, hate being swamped by the wall of cops and sniffer dogs every time I try enter the festival gates.
 
Oct 2, 2007
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Saw Stone Roses at Future Music a few years ago and it was 70 minutes of absolute bliss.
Went that year but didn't make the hike over to the stage where the Roses played. Was a really bad call, as instead I watched some DJ who I don't even remember. Silly boy, as I may never get to them now.

Love a music festival, get a crew together and drink beers in the sun while watching bands. Good days.

In my 40's now, but going to head to Falls in Freo on sunday just to watch Liam's set. Looking forward to it even though I'll be the oldest person in the crowd....
 

NotAMagpieBogan

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Went to Splendour in The Grass last year and had a great time, was my first large festival. One thing that’s majorly obvious is how much Triple J dominate any sort of indie or alternative scene here. Bands like The Smith Street Band or Dune Rats for example have ginormous crowds, but bands or artists like Father John Misty or LCD Soundsystem have nothing compared to them. Basically due to the fact that they don’t get played on Triple J. Splendour In The Grass seems to be a strange mix of people in the crowd. You’ll get your typical glittered up indie girls and boys, who are obviously part of the Instagram crowd. Then you’ll get your more seemingly normal people who are just there to see the bands they want and cbf with the camping and what not, and then you’ll get some random oldies. It was a great time for sure, which included seeing Lil Yatchy just for the meme.

Part of me wishes I could get as hyped as those that enjoy seeing Dune Rats or Tash Sultana or whoever play their 50th festival of the year, cause it looks like they have a load of fun. But I just can’t get into it like that.

I went to Laneway at the start of last year, which I guess you could say is a big festival. I enjoyed that a bit, although the Melbourne location is the absolute shittest site. So inconvenient, and the main stage is so thin that you’re going to be stuck 70 metres away from the stage, where if it was anywhere else, you’d be 20 metres away. Going to Laneway again in a month answer really looking forward to it, even if the site is shithouse.
 
Sep 15, 2011
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After working through the snide tone and judgements, I realise you want to know if people like festivals ;)

I used to go a few dance music festivals, because I liked to have a good time with friends, dance around a bit, get pissed and have a day to remember. Now I'm older, I'm all about the music and go if there's a stacked line-up that I really want to see (last BDO a few years ago, Laneway last year).

Had a couple of memorable overseas ones, but mostly went when festivals were really big in Perth, raking in the filthy mining cash (2008-2011 or so).
 
May 5, 2006
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Used to go to RockIt and Big Day Out back in the day. First 2001 or 2002, last 2008. All up probably went to half a dozen RockIts and 2 or 3 Big Days Out. Was 23 when I went in 2008 (mainly because Rage Against the Machine were playing) and was already over it by then. Never been to one of the multi-day camping festivals or those Breakfest/Sets on the Beach/Summerdaze type things either. RockIt was always my favourite because of the simplicity. One big stage, one 18+ area, $4 full strength beers and a line up of bands from maybe 12-10pm.

Granted I'm not really the target market but I couldn't think of anything worse now. The big overseas ones; Tomorrowland, Exit, Sziget, Coachella, even Burning Man which isn't even a music festival - these things seem to exclusively attract people who are desperate to be seen there. Are mosh pits even a thing now? Everyone needs a few metres of space to get the right angle and lighting for their #festivalselfie. Fuuuuck that. It's like everyone is desperate for generic festival #285 to be their Woodstock. To the best of my knowledge Woodstock was a hastily cobbled together one-off that was free and nearly sent the organisers broke. Coachella turns over $100m+ and is about as corporate as US sports - which is no surprise given who organises it.

None of these things represent counterculture or sticking it to the man. You're not a free spirit because you're walking around wearing the same dress/headband combination everyone else bought online from ASOS taking the same photos using the same hashtags on your iPhone X...
 
Oct 2, 2007
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Glastonbury is a great festival. Like an actual festival, not just music. People go there and don't even watch the bands, just go to the festival. Went to political speaking tents, comedy shows and even spent some time dancing with the Hare Krishna's. Sit up in the greenfields where there is all sorts of s**t going down. Very different to the commercial festivals that we have here.
 
Went that year but didn't make the hike over to the stage where the Roses played. Was a really bad call, as instead I watched some DJ who I don't even remember. Silly boy, as I may never get to them now.

Love a music festival, get a crew together and drink beers in the sun while watching bands. Good days.

In my 40's now, but going to head to Falls in Freo on sunday just to watch Liam's set. Looking forward to it even though I'll be the oldest person in the crowd....
Same vintage but just love seeing live music. It's like sport, you can enjoy it on tele but nothing beats being there. I took my Mum to see Bruce last year and it was her first gig since Brian Jones was still in the Stones (seriously), she loved it and now constantly texts me to see if I want to see whichever boomer nostalgia fest is trailing through town.
 
Mar 26, 2012
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Used to go to every soundwave until it shut up show, and am now a Unify regular.

Have recently started to dabble in the mainstream offerings, like GTM and Origin last year and laneway the year before.

Would have gone to falls this year but am on site during.

They're usually very fun days filled with friends. drinking, music and good vibes
 
Sep 27, 2008
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One of my most memorable music festivals was the Sagres Rock Festival in Portugal back in 2000.

It had a great line up of bands but the location left a lot to be desired, it was in the middle of nowhere in this hot dusty shithole of a place, they had a water canal near the campground where you could go for a dip to wash the sweat and dust off and they also had buses that took you to a town near the beach but that was about an hour long trip and you had to put up with some of the locals playing their bongo drums on the bus.

The campground was also full of Portuguese dudes jamming with bongos and guitars which was kind of cool at first but got old pretty quick, a lot of dope was floating around there too and we managed to score some off these stoner Portuguese dudes in a tent near us which was quite potent stuff.

We then made our way down to the main stage area where we saw Elastica, Placebo, Beck and Bush, they were all pretty good but Beck was the highlight.

He had like an 18 piece band playing with him and I remember them playing this song which seemed to go on for hours.



It probably didn't go on for hours but with the dope we were smoking it sure as hell seemed like it.
 
There was a short lived festival in the 90s called Summersault which they held at the Entertainment Centre and it was beyond s**t. The line up was good Beck, Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys, Rancid, Pavement, Sonic Youth but the main stage in centre itself was is s**t at the best of times and the second stage was a glorified flatbed truck in the carpark. Most notable thing I can remember about it was my brother being so stoned he slept through the Foo Fighters.
 
Oct 2, 2007
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Same vintage but just love seeing live music. It's like sport, you can enjoy it on tele but nothing beats being there. I took my Mum to see Bruce last year and it was her first gig since Brian Jones was still in the Stones (seriously), she loved it and now constantly texts me to see if I want to see whichever boomer nostalgia fest is trailing through town.
Yep, seeing live music is awesome. Great entertainment, whether you are just watching and appreciating the skills, or jumping around like an idiot. Although I'm at the point where the venue is a big part of the equation. I'm over the big stadium shows where you get herded around like sheep drinking mid strength swill, while you watch the band on the big screens, like when Foo Fighters tour. It needs to be a good experience and luckily we have some cool venues in WA, like Freo Arts centre, Astor theatre, Kings park and even Rottnest pub is great for a gig. Now I just track these venues for when someone interesting is playing......or Jebediah who I will see anywhere.
 
Nov 28, 2011
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Was lucky enough to perform at last years Woodford Folk Festival over five nights

Had a ripper time, but it also confirmed to me that I'm pretty much done with festivals unless I get in for free/performing

A week long ticket was $600, but being in a band didnt have to pay that, yet still ended up spending a craptonne over the week

It's actually ridiculously expensive for regular punters to attend
 
Sep 22, 2011
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'tis the season.

Whether it's the fourth annual edition of the new Bogans On Pingers fest in the CBD offering a 'cosmic whirlwind across four Gregorian days, filled with booming emotion through speakers, stacks of diversity in the language of music, shared with similar minded hearts, heads, and dancing feet...' or Jizzfest or some indie rock catastrophe where a dude from Triple J does a zany announcement at 10pm before Dune Rats come on to collect their $4,000 split nine ways for the sixth time in the calendar year... no matter what, there is a festival for you and your Personal Brand.

I guess now Instagram is king and there's so many of these things, one will reflect your intended look. It's a good way for young people to hang out with their friends, take drugs, and spend $12 on a can of essentially mid-strength beer masquerading as an artisanal experience, but the older I get the less inviting these things look. You sit around in a tent coming down and sweating buckets looking at blades of dying grass while you will yourself up, or else you pay $180 to see a band you really like play a 40 minute set at 2pm, and about three bands you don't mind put in a half hearted set of songs while bitching about how hot it is in their jeans.

Maybe you muzz and still mourn the death of Zyzz and watch Chestbrah compilations to this day, pumped to wear little shorts and stringy singlets while bangin sloooots from Campbelltown as you follow around Stereosonic like a religious pilgrimage.

Maybe you go to Sugar Mountain and wear all black and ask someone to move so you can hopefully get to the front of the Boiler Room set and text your mates at home saying 'can you see me on the livestream? Get a photo.'

Maybe you actually don't care about stuff and have a good time, spend money, and come home happy because you danced around to some bands and had a laugh with your friends and who knows, maybe bumped into some people or met someone or something.

Do you go to music festivals?

Did you ever go to one overseas and now reminisce about it almost daily?

Were you not there for Nirvana's 1992 set at the Big Day Out, but tell everyone you were?

Was there an ill fated festival you loved?

Do you just go there to take drugs and hopefully bang a chick with cat-eye pupils and barely anything on?

Or are you all about the music, man?

Was it cool seeing Blink 182 in 2000 while taking ecstasy that still came in pills and not capsules, while getting free samples of a new vodka cruiser in a 50ml cup, while someone got crushed to death at the front?

Does anyone else just end up sitting there for like two or three hours because all the bands are s**t and they make you feel 'lame' for not getting 'it?' While the sound of distorted and aimless bass just acts as some undercurrent of The Festival Experience?

Do you keep your wristband so hopefully you can strike up chat with a hot chick in a smokers room at 1am?

Are you :hearteyesemoji: over the Coachella lineup? Is it #goals and #toomuch?

Four Gregorian days?

Seriously?
 
Sep 27, 2008
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There was a short lived festival in the 90s called Summersault which they held at the Entertainment Centre and it was beyond s**t. The line up was good Beck, Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys, Rancid, Pavement, Sonic Youth but the main stage in centre itself was is s**t at the best of times and the second stage was a glorified flatbed truck in the carpark. Most notable thing I can remember about it was my brother being so stoned he slept through the Foo Fighters.

Probably didn't miss much with the Foo Fighters, they mostly play generic FM radio friendly rock for the masses with a predictable show.

That was what I liked about Beck, he didn't play the show I expected, thought he'd be more acoustic and laidback but he pulled out a big band rock show.

Beck is like a modern day Neil Young in that he has songs from so many different genres that you never know what kind of show you will get from him.

He keeps you guessing and just when you think you know what he will do, he will do something completely different and it will still be brilliant.
 
Topical as the current Song Contest theme is *first concert* (nominations from *first musical festivals* were permitted too)
I haven't been to many - I'm much more of *live sport* than *live music* fan (especially if we're only talking about artists which are well known enough to even be on youtube!)
But have enjoyed the ones I have been to!
 
Jan 21, 2013
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Went to Falls last week and yeah it was great, got extremely drunk, took drugs and danced my feet off but I think that'll be the last Falls for me. Heading to Laneway and Golden Plains in the next few months though.
 
Sep 10, 2010
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Topical as the current Song Contest theme is *first concert* (nominations from *first musical festivals* were permitted too)
I haven't been to many - I'm much more of *live sport* than *live music* fan (especially if we're only talking about artists which are well known enough to even be on youtube!)
But have enjoyed the ones I have been to!
I also enjoy asterisks.
 
Sep 15, 2011
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Used to go to RockIt and Big Day Out back in the day. First 2001 or 2002, last 2008. All up probably went to half a dozen RockIts and 2 or 3 Big Days Out. Was 23 when I went in 2008 (mainly because Rage Against the Machine were playing) and was already over it by then. Never been to one of the multi-day camping festivals or those Breakfest/Sets on the Beach/Summerdaze type things either. RockIt was always my favourite because of the simplicity. One big stage, one 18+ area, $4 full strength beers and a line up of bands from maybe 12-10pm.

Granted I'm not really the target market but I couldn't think of anything worse now. The big overseas ones; Tomorrowland, Exit, Sziget, Coachella, even Burning Man which isn't even a music festival - these things seem to exclusively attract people who are desperate to be seen there. Are mosh pits even a thing now? Everyone needs a few metres of space to get the right angle and lighting for their #festivalselfie. Fuuuuck that. It's like everyone is desperate for generic festival #285 to be their Woodstock. To the best of my knowledge Woodstock was a hastily cobbled together one-off that was free and nearly sent the organisers broke. Coachella turns over $100m+ and is about as corporate as US sports - which is no surprise given who organises it.

None of these things represent counterculture or sticking it to the man. You're not a free spirit because you're walking around wearing the same dress/headband combination everyone else bought online from ASOS taking the same photos using the same hashtags on your iPhone X...
Don't like camping at the best of times,don't think I could stand it as part of a festival.

I can definitely think of things worse than festivals, though maybe I've been lucky. I've been to two since age 35: the last BDO and Laneway last year. Both probably underperformed crowd wise, which mean I could get nice and close early in the day to some bands I like, get between acts pretty easily, and move back when the crowds started to perform and still see plenty. I'm not up for moshing in a crowd anymore, but definitely like to sit back and watch music I like played live.
 
May 5, 2006
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If there was a band I wanted to see I'd rather just go and see them in concert than paying twice as much to see a bunch of other shitty bands as well. The whole reason I liked RockIt was that it was a simple one stage affair and tickets were in the tens of dollars, not hundreds. Plus it was bands I liked at that time. Big Day Out was more a case of picking out a couple of bands I liked, checking if they overlapped (they always did) then weighing up whether it was worth spending $150 or whatever it was as a student.
 
Sep 15, 2011
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Laneway was good last year in that there was more than a handful of bands I wanted to see, few of them clashed and it was definitely cost effective to see them in one place (can't remember the cost, but about $150; I've since seen Gang of Youths for $60 and will be seeing Car Seat Headrest for $55, so given I wanted to see at least three or four other bands, it seemed like value for money). BDO was Pearl Jam and Arcade Fire for $180. Pearl Jam played a two-hour set like they would on their own for $100 and Arcade Fire were worth $80. The rest was just gravy.

Wouldn't go if it was just one or two bands I wanted to see.
 
Sep 10, 2010
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If there was a band I wanted to see I'd rather just go and see them in concert than paying twice as much to see a bunch of other shitty bands as well. The whole reason I liked RockIt was that it was a simple one stage affair and tickets were in the tens of dollars, not hundreds. Plus it was bands I liked at that time. Big Day Out was more a case of picking out a couple of bands I liked, checking if they overlapped (they always did) then weighing up whether it was worth spending $150 or whatever it was as a student.
One of the problems of being in Perth was that we rarely got the side shows that Melbourne or Sydney saw. BDO, RockIt, et al were generally the only time some bands ever toured oz.
 
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