Commercial dance music festivals are a growing entity. They’re growing in stature, credibility and esteem. People go to them for the right reasons. Including yours truly who was offered a day ticket to Stereosonic this weekend and when you get such a proposal accompanied by the assurance that the super sort you’ve been chasing for a month will be in attendance, there’s really only one response. Her blatant infatuation with the festival leaves me with the safe assumption that she’s not a Cool Accidents reader. Anyway the hopeless romance I have with original, boutique music not to mention the fairer gender had me on the first train to Flemington which from the off was a surefire indication of the beautiful things the day was going to throw our way.
On arrival at the Showgrounds the first thing on the agenda was of course getting an alcoholic beverage to settle the sheer exhilaration of it all. We needn’t have worried; the queue to buy the innovatively priced $30 drink ticket followed by the queue to buy from the huge variation of canned drink handled that in flying colours.
Alas, time to head to the ingeniously curated main stage where the one man band charismatically stood on a tall platform staring and nodding towards what must have been a fine pair of kicks. I’m ashamed to say that I can’t remember his name although I could take an educated guess that it was of Central European origin. My evident enchantment with this artist was not enough to retain my attention longer than a song or two. Or was it three? Tough to tell. I decided to take a breather from the main stage and it’s noticeably inebriated yet well-conditioned audience. Search #stereosonic if you don’t believe me.
On my travels I took a trip to the densely arranged portaloos which were abstractly decorated with heaps of those small plastic bags you might keep a button in. Once again my passionate yet limited comprehension of commercial EDM means that my next stage visitation is also uncaptioned but at least I could see the DJ in question.
I could go on forever about this memorable and momentous day of music but severe effervescence coupled with hindsight drink ticket purchases got the better of me and the ability to recall the rest of the day’s events get a bit hazy from here on in. What I do know is that it must have been a fractious debate between the festival directors to decide whether Calvin Harris or David Guetta would headline. I can imagine there’s lots to take into account what with their insane stage set ups, delicate PA formats and flights back to Europe. Token fireworks to top it all off? Why the hell not.
And in answer to the question I can hear ya’ll screaming; no I didn’t get lucky.
-Stan R
