Review: The All Weekender Bender!

For the last few weeks on whiteboydancefloor we’ve been banging on about how a truly fun festival is not just a festival or a line up, it’s an experience, a total package, a trip… Honorary White Girls Mel & Tara have arrived back from Playground Weekender and now that the dust has settled, we’ve managed to get hold of these two in order to find out just what happens out at Del Rio, Wisemens Ferry…

So we’re back from Playground Weekender and what a trip! For many it was indeed a memorable trip in all senses of the word. The people you meet are just so free, escaping from reality for an extended weekend where despite the sniffer dogs at the entrance and the Lebanese security guards around the place (sadly Ken Hell & Weapon X weren’t playing) it would seem there really are no rules. And anyway, rules are meant to be broken.
We arrived at around Midday on Thursday and caught the second ferry across so that we didn’t miss out on anything. While Thursday is light on for bands, it’s more about meeting up with the rest of your friends, getting yourself out of the rat race mentality and right into the festival groove. This wasn’t a hard task. As we settled into the festival vibe we caught serial festival pest Ajax and unsurprisingly he turned out another solid set, I guess he will proverbially be a suitable festival entrée.

On Friday we saw Ok Go really put in a good shift at the office, jovially tearing through a set of guitar lazers and catchy tracks. They had the crowd in raptures when they reminded us “you are descended from criminals, we are descended from people who love God”… hilarious. Friday also saw The Holidays provide a commendable if not overly memorable performance too.



The whole escapism of the event is characterised by the Saturday, where it is encouraged to dress as your alter ego. Here, it is socially acceptable to be normal, ordinary, and while it may seem you are not being yourself, for most it was a day where their true character shone through. Memorable costumes would include the $2kissing booth, The Simpson family, a human whoopee cushion, a birthday cake, KISS, the Flintsones, and that's not to mention some really weird ones like kamikaze. We left Mel and Tara in the tent and went as The Fun Police… naturally the requests for strip searches and the desire to be handcuffed didn’t stop all night. Being the responsible Fun Police that we are, we saw it as our duty to confiscate all illegal substances we could find and deal with them appropriately…



Highlights from Saturday included the hilariously funny and smartly dressed Man Choir, the crowd pleasing cult Polyphonic Spree and of course the lo-fi sounds of The Cribs with priceless piece of history that is Johnny Marr. Mind you, before we even knew exactly the importance of Johnny Marr we were already Cribs enthusiasts. Encapsulating the fun of Saturday Night dress ups was the abba-inspired Bjorn Again who hit the sweet spot with the whole good time feel circling around.

Sadly despite the fancy dress vibe it also saw the biggest flop of the entire weekender, yes we are talking about the over-hyped Lupe Fiasco. Others will probably tell you he was amazing, but it’s amazing what the right buds will do for creating warped opinions. After keeping the good Weekenders waiting for what seemed an eternity, he proceeded to babble shit on stage and rely mostly on his backing tracks to do most of the work. I understand that with acts like Lupe, backing tracks and samples are needed, I’ve seen them used by far more interested artists. What resulted was a lot of tired Weekenders showing their distaste and heckling someone who possibly thought he could get away with mediocrity because he’s touched Kanye… think again Lupe. However his patchiness was quickly erased from the minds of our fellow reveling weekenders as we partied well into the night, dwelling on the endless supply of good, casting aside the bad vibes with a simple kick, push.




By Sunday it was clear the music was creating a real feeling of unity among Weekenders, especially with the makeshift Teepee Party rave on Sunday night that didn't end til about 7am. Perhaps Bluejuice were in attendance as they were definitely a lot less animated and theatrical in comparison to other performances we had seen of them. Evidently this was not a festival for those who were fans of a peaceful night’s sleep. Sunday was dominated by an amazing set from Orbital. With the influx of British backpackers, it helped that Orbital was received by the right kind of crowd. We couldn’t say we were lifelong Orbital fans previous but after seeing them bring their crazy goggles and high energy set to Del Rio, it wasn’t hard to see why they have been so prolific.

The best part about this festival for us was that it was not only the music bringing people together with the major acts only really on toward the end of the day. With Playground Weekender offering a vast array of other attractions beside the music, sometimes watching music was not the main priority, mixing with the amazing ensemble of fellow Weekenders was far more exciting. It’s so rare to find this many people gathered in the one place and not have to worry about your experience being ruined by the dickhead factor that most other festivals in Sydney are over run by.

Living with thousands of complete strangers is really an experience. One that could be said is good and well maybe not bad, but definitely different- and life isn't worth living if you never experience difference to the known.

Waking up to find someone has used your campsite as a toilet (much cleaner for them but unfortunately not for the unaware campers) while there is now a knife stuck into your 'shade tree' is just not something that happens every day. However, this kind of freedom to make your mark on fellow campers (or should I say campsite?) is also found in the sharing of food, water, supplies, but also sharing experiences. It would be impossible not to meet new people at this festival with punters coming not only from Australia but from America and the UK. For example I talked to some who used waves as a metaphor for describing happiness in life in the way that you need to experience the down to appreciate and realise the high. From Thursday to leaving on Monday, we rode the crest of the wave the best we knew how!

This post was written by Tara Clifford in partnership
with Melissa Kliese and final editing by me...