Happy 2014 everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful NYE and have had a brilliant year. Best wishes for 2014.
The Falls Festival.
How best to describe the Falls Festival?
As an assault on the senses?
Your sense of smell is completely assaulted from every direction. People who haven’t washed for days, people smoking cigarettes and marijuana, the gradually increasingly disgusting long drop toilets, delicious smelling food and alcohol, alcohol, alcohol.
As a note here from the less pessimistic parents, this festival was held in the middle of a paddock, rather a number of paddocks. The set up was amazing. There was no running water, so composting toilets were assembled on site. They held up considerably well given the use. The whole atmosphere of recycling/greeny was fantastic, from these toilets, to having free drinking water available and encouraged to use rather than purchasing multiple bottles of Mt Franklin, to having a Green Patrol crew continually cleaning up, to the stalls for “Greeny/Tree Huggers” of Save the Whales etc. It was a really fantastic feel, very family friendly, and we felt safe letting the girls roam together. Lots of nice people, and the family zone was extremely well behaved and quiet. Lots of young teenagers getting drunk, but we saw no fights at all and no aggro. We were more likely to get an apology when someone bumped past you.
Your eyes are battered by flashing stage lights, bright clothing, very little clothing and unique artwork.
Your ears are struck by loud, incredible music, so many bands that you can’t remember more than a few. The Cat Empire, the Wombats, Vampire Weekend, Emma Louise, Asta, the Correspondents, Hermitude, Neil Finn and so many
more.
Your sense of touch is confounded as you collide with people around you dancing, jumping up and down, doing the tango (that’s right, we saw that) and moving to the music.
Your taste buds are astonished by spicy curry wrapped in roti, hot chips and gravy, Malaysian noodle curry in a milk shake cup, baby burgers (now with 10% more baby, erm… I’ll explain later), gozleme, pork and apple sandwiches and calamari with palm sugar dressing.
The Falls Festival was amazing. Absolutely insane but amazing.
We began our second day of festival-ness with a sleep in and a late breakfast. The first act of the day was at 11:00, giving us plenty of time. Maddy and I ventured out early to find a good spot to watch Chase City, a moderately interesting former Triple J Unearthed surf rock band. Not my thing, but pretty cool. Remembering the epic-ness of our last holidays hair wrap (for those of you who didn’t see it/read the blog that time, a hair wrap is cotton or wool wrapped tightly around strands of hair), Maddy and I sat through a long line for the cheap, pretty hair decals. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, alternating between chilling in the bus and listening to the various bands. Some stand outs during the day were The Correspondents and Lulu and the Paige Turners. We also listened to some very funny comedians, the best being
Dave Callan with hilarious jokes about why cats and dogs were domesticated and an epic dance to Beyoncé. After a delicious tea we assembled near the Valley Stage (which lies about 1.1km from our bus- we had to walk it about 20 times) to watch London Grammar, The Violent Femmes and The Cat Empire. The Cat Empire (as usual) put on an awesome show, always a highlight. Dad and I stayed to watch Vampire Weekend for a bit before we followed Mum and Maddy back to the bus for bed.
The next day? More of the same. We relaxed and watched bands during the day then danced to some amazing bands on NYE. Before the bands, though, there was a crazy parade of people in homemade costumes made at the Village (basically a small area dedicated to art). Neil Finn was amazing, there was maybe 10,000 odd people singing along to “Better Be Home Soon”. MGMT next were insane, with good music but crazy, trippy graphics on the screens. Finally there was the countdown, and then The Wombats, which were absolutely awesome. Surprisingly, I knew maybe 4 songs and Dad knew every song (a weird thing considering I don’t listen to Triple J much). As soon as they finished we headed back to the bus and slept, exhausted.
Highs:
Dad: The Wombats, The Cat Empire and Dave Callan
Mum: Neil Finn, Asta, Emma Louise, The Cat Empire, Clairy and the Raquettes, Dave Callan and Lulu and the Paige-Turners
Maddy: The Comedians as a whole, London Grammar, The Wombats, The Cat Empire
Gabby: The Wombats, The Cat Empire, Dave Callan, Neil Finn and The Correspondents
Fashion Crazes:
Plastic 80’s style sandals with socks
Ponchos
Flower Crowns
Onesies
Toasties (like Onesies)
Hair Wraps
Beanies
Lows:
Seeing a guy trying to pee into a beer can in front of us while in the crowd
Smoke, alcohol, marijuana
Drunk people
Wicked Vans: lots camped out
Fauna: zebras, unicorns, horses, cats, Pokémon- oh, wait, just people dressed in onesies
Vehicles Overtaken: 0
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