diary of a punter
We asked one of the lovely lasses we met at Splendour to tell us about her festival experiences.
Diary by Meg Rayner.
Thursday July 29th
Like a kid on Christmas, I awoke on Thursday morning at 7.30am buzzing with excitement about the trip to Woodford for my first ever Splendour in the Grass experience.
My boyfriend and I had a hearty bacon and egg breakfast, before meeting our friend Guy (from YCDJs) to drive to Melbourne airport.
My flight left at 2pm and I was pretty excited to meet the guys from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club as we boarded. British India shuffled on to the plane last, insisting on wearing sunglasses during the flight. At Brisbane, I jumped on the first train to Caboolture. An hour later, I changed my mode of transport again, this time on a shuttle bus towards my final destination...
Little did I know the 20-minute trip would last an epic four and a half hours! Luckily our shared excitement meant most people ended up chattering away for the trip, and I handed out a box of chocolates with my new found festival friends.
By the time I finally arrived at Splendour it was almost midnight. I was tired, cranky and just wanted to crash out. Another quick bus trip took me to tent city where I dumped my gear and trekked into the festival to meet my friends.
I scoffed down a bowl of pad thai, my first meal in hours, and made my way to the Jager Cube where I met my three gorgeous camping buddies Amber, Emma and Kat, who were drunk and dancing like maniacs to 90s RnB. After an epic 15-hour journey it was the perfect start to Splendour.
Friday July 30th
My first night in tent city was delightful and well-worth the extra cash. The tent was set up when we arrived, we each had a bed and mattress off the ground, and the common room had amazing cooking facilities and (more importantly) a seemingly endless spread of power boards to charge our phones (how else could we post endless Facebook updates to make our friends back home jealous?).
After a shower, we wandered into the festival in search of food. We ate some dumplings and settled on the hill near the GW McLennan Tent to listen to Washington and drink our smuggled rum and cokes. Met up with some other friends and made a beeline for Foals at Mix Up. They put on easily one of my favourite performances of the whole weekend, and I danced with my hands in the air in the crush at the front of the stage.
As the weather dropped we returned to the tent to put on some warmed clothes and I was shattered when I realized we'd missed BRMC. My mood picked up again though when we joined the sweating, throng of people dancing to Hot Chip. A slight sense of claustrophobia saw me watch LCD Soundsystem from the side of the tent where I caught up with an old friend I hadn't spent time with for years. I trundled up the hill to The Ampitheatre with him and his girlfriend to watch Ben Harper. It was really relaxing and beautiful under the stars and despite the soothing music, which was made all the more awesome with the addition of strings, we found ourselves engaged in a debate about religion. On our way back to the heart of the festival for more food, we caught the final few moments of Scissor Sisters, and were lucky enough (or perhaps unlucky enough?) to see Jake Shears strip naked on stage.
Off stage, Friday was also the beginning of a few festival games we grew to love. The first was called 'decoy'. This involved Emma walking through the checkpoint to the festival first with a bottle of water and making a scene when security asked her to pour it out. She created enough of a diversion for Amber, Kat and I to walk through behind her, with strategically placed flasks of spirits down our shorts or in our gumboots.
The second was called 'pre-planned outfit', which created hours and hours of fun. All over the festival we'd spot girls that insisted on wearing outfits that they'd obviously been planning for weeks, despite the weather soaring well past the 30-degree mark. This meant beanies, scarves, floral leggings, and better still ? velvet.
Saturday July 31st
Saturday morning and a hangover saw us drag our beds out of the tent and into the sunshine where we lounged like lizards and worked on tanning our pasty-white Melbournian skin. Since my friends the Yacht Club DJs were playing early, we hiked up the hill to the Mix Up Tent and were impressed by the fun-loving, dance-inducing set they delivered. We cheered as Gaz jumped off the stage and cruised over the surprisingly large crowd in an inflatable boat. They certainly did our hometown of Ballarat proud.
Saturday was a day of clashes between the stages so after YCDJs we rushed to the Amphitheatre to watch Band of Skulls then back to Mix Up for Two Door Cinema Club and a final dash to the Amphitheatre for Philly Jays. I've seen these guys before and knew they'd come back from London to play Splendour so we were pretty disappointed that they cut their one-hour set to a measly 35 minutes. My friends were keen to stay and watch Operator Please so we went into the moshpit for a boogie and I have to admit I enjoyed their a live mash up of Destiny's Child's 'Lose My Breath' and No Doubt's 'Hella Good'.
We were in search of cocktails when we caught Bluejuice's final two songs. I really liked that they were poking fun at themselves, shirtless and wearing ridiculous leg-warmers, on a neon set they said they'd decorated themselves. We missed Tame Impala and Wolfmother while having a few drinks but managed to elbow our way into a good spot in the Amphitheatre for Florence and the Machine and The Strokes.
This might sound a little strange but I had actually missed the whole Florence bandwagon and am now happy to admit I am a convert. What an incredible performance and voice! We all had cape-envy at the end of it. I had really wanted to watch Band of Horses but didn't want to lose my spot so we sat tight and waited for The Strokes to begin. They were everything I hoped they'd be. Loud, fun and I was glad they seemed to be enjoying it too.
Sunday August 1st
By Sunday I had 100% settled into festival life ? cold showers, ant bites, walking for miles to see the bands, and eating beef nachos or BBQ pork buns for breakfast. Scottish band Frightened Rabbit kicked off what would be my final Splendour day and I found myself wishing they would play on when they were done. Amber had been looking forward to seeing them all weekend and her recommendation proved to be a winner. We stuck around for a few Mess Hall songs before joining the masses at Miike Snow.
Sunday afternoon was spent in TeePee Village eating chicken and tofu skewers before I found out my lift back to the airport would be leaving about 10pm that night. In hindsight, booking flights at 11am on the Monday was probably not a good move. While there was still daylight I packed up all my clothes (of which I'd worn probably 20%, practically living in the one black Bonds singlet the entire time) and enjoyed an afternoon binge session of 'ghetto punch' created by Amber and including fruit and lots of vodka. We ate a quick bite and watched some K-OS before heading over the GW to watch Broken Social Scene. I'd heard amazing things about this Canadian act and fell in love within the first few chords.
I didn't want to leave as my friends pulled me out mid-set to see Jonsi at the Mix Up Tent. I really loved his set and felt totally transported from reality. I lost my friends as they split up to watch Goldfrapp and Mumford and Sons, so I watched a little Kate Nash and headed back to the tent to be collected by my boyfriend and his mates who had a car and were heading into Brisbane for the night.
I wasn't too disappointed to miss Pixies because I saw them last year at Festival Hall, but when I heard how amazing the Mumford and Sons and Goldfrapp performances were, I felt a pang of jealousy that I'd missed out on seeing two of the biggest acts of the festival. This lessened slightly the next day when I heard of the ten-hour long queues out of Woodford, considering we'd experienced no traffic leaving the night before and got to enjoy a hot shower in a Brisbane hotel.
Overall my Splendour experience was mind-blowing and I think it's probably had to put into words the atmosphere and vibe that permeated the grounds. Tent City was like it's own little town, where all the neighbours were friendly and willing to lend a cup of water to clean your teeth. I even had access to the Gold Bar, which was another micro-universe full of bands, media and randoms that had wrangled their way in and were trying to look like they fit in.
I've never been to a Splendour in Byron Bay and I'm sure it has it's own perks, but Woodfordia certainly worked for me and no matter where it's held next year, you can guarantee I'll be first in the line waiting for tickets.
Oystermag
