Photo via Stills In Time
Splendour In The Grass is the trend-setting festival each year. It’s a display of what fashion is in, what artists are in and what words are in. Sometimes that’s an exhausting atmosphere to be apart of but it also means that the people watching is top notch. We watched a lot of people this year including punters and people in bands and have put together a definitive list of the biggest trends at Splendour In The Grass 2016.
Being A Funny Bugger On The Facebook Page
The Splendour In The Grass Facebook page is usually a place for lost and found notices or general complaints and while there were plenty of both this year, it seems people also saw it as the perfect place to launch their career as a comedian. There’s a million LOLs to be found right here but nothing gets better than the story of James’ 2L milk that he misplaced on the Thursday night of the festival. He kept punters updated all weekend and while it doesn’t look like he found it specifically, somebody did find a truck full of milk on their way home. There’s no use crying over spilt milk but when there’s laughs to be had it’s definitely worth milking.
Nans Wishing Their Grandchildren A Great Splendour
Splendour’s biggest viral posts came from surprising people this year. The Nans of Splendour (NOS) took to the Facebook page before the festival began this year to accidentally wish their grandchildren a great festival, in turn racking up thousands of likes on their posts.
Chanting DJ Otzi
We’re sad, devastated even, to report that chanting DJ Otzi’s Hey Baby is still a thing. It was even more prevalent than last year with masses of people using any period of silence to fill it with Otzi. There was barely a visit to the amphitheatre that went without hearing the song and as a direct result there was barely a morning where we woke without the song in our heads. Thanks everyone involved. Thanks a lot.
Talking About Splendour In The Mud 2015
This year’s Splendour was beautiful, better than beautiful. It was 100 per cent sunshine with temperatures usually reserved for summer. There was literally no way to possibly complain and yet people still found a way. Nearly every conversation detoured into talking about how bad the weather was last year. “This is so nice compared to last year,” may have even been the most spoken phrase of the entire festival.
#NeverForget
Wearing glitter
The flower crown was dethroned this year as the most popular fashion choice with glitter making a stunning comeback. Even if you didn’t enter the festival with glitter on chances are you left with it on whether it was intentional or not. Once the sun set the festival looked like a giant disco ball on most night and while it’s a pretty sight the aftermath is not pretty at all. Glitter gets stuck in literally everything and people will most likely still be picking glitter from their hair by the time the festival rolls around next year.
Watching Ex-Australian Idol Contestants
Finally, being an ex-Australian Idol contestant is nothing to be ashamed about. Despite the fact that Shannon Noll never made it to the festival, his absence was made up for by Guy Sebastian, Ngaiire and Matt Corby. Sebastian jumped up with Paces on Saturday night for a slamming version of LDRU’s Keeping Score while Ngaiire brought her neo-soul to a packed out Mix Up Stage. Corby closed out the GW McLennan stage on Saturday night and played a flute...a flute, of all things. Also a special shoutout to ex-The Voice contestant Vera Blue who jumped up with Illy for their megahit Papercuts and also sung Never Be Like You with Flume.
Letting Everyone Know How Many Sticky Fingers Songs You Know The Words To
Apart from Flume, Sticky Fingers were the most popular act at Splendour this year. They drew a massive crowd on Saturday and seemed to be the measure of how worthy you were of being at Splendour. The sinaglongs during their set were audible from stages far away and in the crowd you could see groups of people looking each other in the eyes as they sung each words as if to say, “If you stumble on this line, are you even a Sticky fan?” They were definitely the act of Splendour that even if you didn’t see them you’d tell people you did to avoid being lynched.
Climbing Things
This is certainly not a new craze but there seemed to be more people than ever attempting to scale heights at Splendour. Punters did the standard thing and climbed poles in the tents but there were also some getting higher than ever. Two guys climbed a tree in Sticky Fingers for the best view in the amphitheatre and then one went one better and climbed a massive pole during Flume. It looks really cool until the panic comes across their face when they realise what goes up must come down. That’s perhaps the best warning you can have to not do it.
Catching The Bus
There was a record number of people getting out of the festival at night this year and as such, Splendour had a few teething problems. The buses were chaos on the Friday night of the festival as they attempted to get thousands of people home. Many waited for four hours and got back to their places in the early hours of the morning. To Splendour’s credit, they got increasingly better and offered everyone free rides home on Saturday as an apology.
Word by the interns' Sam Murphy.
