If you're not a fan of reading long, drawn out reviews I'll keep it simple for you so you can tune out. Playground Weekender remains the pinnacle of Sydney's festival calendar. While I'm sure your facebook like mine has been bombarded by pointless status updates and forced awkward lean festival photos telling you how amazing Soundwave was but do your best to ignore it. No one day festival hosted in a sterile concrete jungle will ever compare to the serene beauty of Wisemen's Ferry.
Before I go into my own festival experience, let me just reiterate that what Playground Weekender nails is that the music is just one component to a truly multi-faceted experience. Elements like food, shade, crowd flow and the band they chose all contribute to attracting the best festival crowd in Australia.
Moving on... I'll be doing this review as a joint one with Mel who got there earlier and was able to stay later than us so she saw a lot more music. Thanks to working full time I don't arrive on site at Wisemen's Ferry until around 7pm and shortly after I meet Chris in the car park. Unsurprisingly being 7pm on the Friday night with everyone finishing work for the week, the line for the ferry over to the festival site is massive. We clearly over packed and paid the price of lugging way too much equipment on the ferry. Take it from me guys, pay the extra and take on the tent hotel, tipi package or cabins. If not, pack very very minimal!
With security checking bags excessively and in an effort to cure our boredom in the queue we resorted to pumping Girl Talk from the iPhone and drinking our contraband straight, leaving some in our party of 4 a little worse for wear. Tired, hungry and drunk, I decide to leave my wallet in the car and only realised this when we have made it through the first checkpoint. By this time Cut Copy was well and truly over but Mel who covered Playgrounder for us last year had arrived on Thursday and saw some of the acts.
In Mel's words Friday night went as follows:
"Unfortunately Cut Copy didn’t quite live up to all the hype so luckily for us the River Stage was right next door and we were able to dance the night away to the Hungry Kids, breaking out all there good songs including Scattered Diamonds, Let You Down and Wristwatch. Then it was all happening at the Shack with the Gay Bash DJs rocking it out, playing song after song that the crowd could get there party on to. Once all the music was over and you finally think it’s time to head back to your tent to get some sleep for the big day tomorrow Playgrounder throws another surprise at you with the 24 hour party tent!... Finally all the Playgrounders were able to forget that long 5 hour wait and the fact they had lost 6 bottles of vodka and were able to enjoy what playground weekender is all about."
However I must say I think I would have been far more enthused by Cut Copy's mature white boy styling.
Meanwhile we arrived and set up our tents, finally finishing a botched job with no airbed pump or hammer at 2:30am in the morning. I couldn't work out what I needed more, sleep or a shower.
As we woke to the sweltering heat of Saturday, I walked past the morning yoga and thought to myself "this place really is awesome". It typified the quality of human being who attended this festival. I couldn't wait to start sampling some of the food outlets. Anyone who read my Splendour review knew that food is always high on my priority list. For brekky it was real fruit smoothies all round which left Clare less than impressed by my delicious banana, mango and orange selection. Not to worry, Slushie stall opens in an hour. On Saturday there weren't any bands playing until 3pm which I thought was perfect as it allowed everyone a chance to explore the grounds, relax, eat and have a few in preparation for the Saturday Night dress up! For the record anyone who ripped out their outfits before the 3:30pm-4pm mark (AT THE EARLIEST) were definitely seen as Playgrounder rookies. While Mel's friend Sian (pictured below) was upholding the honour of noble seamen, I felt there was a distinct lake of sailors at a festival which had nautical relevance.
With Playgrounder entering it's fifth year (I think) the Fancy Dress efforts were immensely impressive. Anyone caught in the token "tennis guy with a mo" or "bumble-bee" outfits were incredibly lame. Admittedly I wasn't much better in the token Mexican sombrero combination however Chris looked fantastic in his Rumba man tribute to the Boy from Oz.
And yes he is available for Lipton Ice Tea ads.
While we were still getting acquainted on site, Mel went and saw The Man Choir and Giselle.
"Last year Man Choir was one of my top acts of the festival and this year they didn’t disappoint. They started by thanking the owners of the land, the “Del Rio people” before singing a great harmony to the Australia Nation Anthem aka the theme song to Home and Away. Their mix of choir and comedy had the crowd pleased enough to take part in the Mexican Makeout Wave, everybody getting their pash on for the hell of it!"
Thanks to festival goers exhausting the water capacity of the showers it was time for a bit of bathing in the Hawkesbury river with luffa and soap in tow. Our initial groans at the lack of a decent shower turned into a classic festival moment that we all shared in collectively.
As night drew closer and the outfits started to come out on mass, you could feel the atmosphere of the festival going up by 1000. It was the best atmosphere I've ever experienced at any music festival, it could only be compared to say the feeling of togetherness and collective enjoyment you get from sitting with a group of like minded supporters cheering on your favourite sporting team. Everyone was united and it was great.
To be continued.... pictures coming whenever Chris has a chance... they're worth the wait. Cheers to Mel for chipping in with the review and I stole some of her pictures without asking to give this post some life.
No comments:
Post a Comment