I finally got the faith to accept a ticket to 'Splendour In The Grass'.
Since my terrible experience at 'The Big Day Out' this year i was a little hesitant. To call it a festival might be a little to unethical. I would look more a long the lines of a patriot convention or Summernats to give you more of an insight of the atmosphere.
(just to piss on the ashes the line up was just as offensive, I only wanted to see my good friends 'The Scare' and the final act 'Neil Young').
The most exciting part about Splendour was the fact I had never been to this festival before, or to Byron Bay so there are two that I can tick of my list for 09. I could not resist after how a number of friends speak so highly of it.
I managed to score a guest pass off my roommate and good friend Simon from 'The Lost Valentino’s'.
My good friend Liam managed to also get one the same week.
We hired a car and drove up north to Byron and arrived there late in the evening. We arrived a little later than planned and unfortunately missed out on seeing our friends 'Bridezilla’ play on the first day.
There was only really one other band that day we did not want to miss out on. The 80's
alt rock, dance outfit from Manchester, "Happy Mondays". Rowetta's backing vocals were so powerful it was like she was giving birth in my ear! Overall it was a great set and I had never seen anything like it.
'Happy Mondays' were the last set of the day. We later managed to hitch a ride with a boy driving out of the festival and stayed at a friends place just outside of Byron. (I have not hitched a ride since I had a bad experience a few years ago when a car full of wasters picked me up and would not let me out unless I had drugs to hand over, to my dismay, I did not. They taunted me for another few km’s and dropped me off an hour out of town).
On Sunday Liam and I caught a free bus ride into the festival. We went to see the multi-instrumentalist Christian folk band 'The Middle East'. Which was pleasant considering the time of the day and there was not a lot people traffic at this time which gave us the advantage to walk around quiet freely.
We left the set early to catch 'The Lost Valentino’s' who had quiet the large crowd of spectator’s. Their manager was handing out coins to the crowd (which I knew would have ended in a disaster of coins raining from the sky.) There was a lot of movement and dancing around to the bass fueled set of the Valentino’s, Then the expected had begun. The coins were falling and embedding into the ground like hail stones.
We managed to get the chance to walk into town for some REAL food after the regret of thinking that $15 for enchiladas would be a good idea. It turned out there vision of enchiladas were three snack size curry puffs on a plate with lettuce and salsa. From this experience I have now and forever given up on festival food.
Whilst walking around in town we grabbed a burrito and hung out for a while until we had to go back and catch the next act. A guy drove past and accused me of looking like 'Edward Norton' as an insult. I though that was more of a compliment if anything.....
It was time to head back to the festival so we hitched back to the festival (its supposed to be common in Byron), so I continued to go along with it.
This time the driver was a parachute packer, then later found out he was also a sky diver but was too humble to say.
We waited out for the final act 'The Flaming Lips'. The set made my week! A back drop projection of a naked girl’s silhouette opening her legs and gave birth to the bands entrance. Wayne Coyne then made his entrance inside an inflatable ball and progressed to roll around in the crowd. Everything seemed so perfect at that moment. The opening song was like a Christmas Parade.
Streamers shooting out from the roof and giant balloons were filling the air. Along side the expensive stage show the performance was amazing and will go down in history. FACT.
On our way home we made the late decision of making a surprise visit to my parents home. What more would make a perfect weekend then to have a relaxing few days at your old family abode for a bit of rest, relaxation and Cable television. The first day we went surfing and later realising how unfit we both were after being in the water for half an hour the exhaustion and feeling sea sick was disappointing though it is the greatest formula for the perfect sleep.
A few things to keep in mind after this trip are as followed.
First, to still have a little faith in some Australian festivals and secondly,
Hitch hiking is still accepted and partially safe in some parts of Australia though I am not that easy to give in. I know there are a whole new breed of Ivan Milats out there sitting in there cube asbestos shacks waiting for there next run of bad reality TV shows to give them enough time to get trigger happy on some young adults trying to experience a cheap way to travel.
x
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