After picking everyone up and playing a quick game of tetris to fit everything in the car we started the long boring drive down to the event. Several hours, a half assed game of eye-spy and some wicked tunes later we finally got there and were faced with the dilemma of carrying all our stuff from the car to the campsite in one trip. We somehow managed but I don't think my shoulders will ever feel the same again. The worst part was having to stand in the queue for ages and all the hassles we had to go through to get into the festival (ticket check, ID check, luggage check, sniffer dogs). We all got more than a little sunburnt.
When we finally got into the actual camp grounds the organisers had decided to wait another half and hour before opening the next lot so we had to dump our stuff in the shade under a tree and wait. By this time I was disgustingly sweaty and seriously regretting wearing a black shirt. They eventually opened it and while everyone else went running for the shady bits we decided to just set up in the shade we were already sitting in. We go the tent up with little trouble. We were slightly over the border line that marked the area where we were allowed to set up our tent but we got away with it. After moving our luggage in I wasted no time in changing my shirt before we set off through the sea of tents to explore base camp.
Base camp was rather awesome. Pretty much everything you can think of was there. General store with a good selection of food and drinks (and free condoms), silent disco, costume shops, hippie markets, bumper cars, lounge tent full of couches, groove tent, Indian restaurant, several gourmet food stores... Like I said; everything.
We wandered around checking things out, chilled in the lounge tent where Rob broke a chair, met up with some mates, rocked out at the silent disco and posed for photos.
Eventually we ended up at the Other Stage (Southbound sports the most ridiculous stage names ever) to wait for Jamie T. There was a hilarious video playing between sets that was full of 4chan memes and people were throwing boxes of tissues around so we were well amused. Jamie T was the highlight of the night and set the weekend off to a good start.
We went to our mates tent to chill for a while but eventually the cold drove us back to the tent where we decided to call it a night. Unfortunately we'd set up right next to the smoking area and someone had got hold of a boom box. The party was in full swing til well after 2am and everyone except Ash got about an hours sleep, if that.
Needless to say Saturday started early with breakfast at 6:30 and a shower in there somewhere. We met some aliens while wondering around and checked out some stalls. First band we watched were Hungry Kids of Hungry but we missed the beginning of their set after going to the wrong stage. What we did see was pretty good though. I've forgotten most of the details from Saturday but we saw bits of Chairlift, The View and Little Red before settling down to watch Kate Miller-Heidke.
Kate was awesome. Good set with some hilarious surprises including a bit of Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name Of mixed into one of her songs, an awesome cover of You're the Voice and a song about Facebook. Cool shit in the mosh as well, some guy had his mate on his shoulders, who in turn had his girlfriend (I assume that's who she was) on his shoulders. One of the coolest things I've ever seen.
After that it was pretty full on but mostly at the same stage (called This Stage). We watched Kisschasy from the shade while Rob went skipping with some people who'd made a skipping rope out of lanyards. We were right in the thick of it for Art vs Science who were fucking awesome as usual. Sang myself hoarse and danced like crazy and was completely knackered by the end of their set. Good times. We watched the start of Editors but ended up having a water fight and had to go back to the tent for dry clothes. We got back just in time for the last few songs so we headed into the crowd and danced like loons. The singer has an amazing voice but also the creepiest sideburns ever.
We had a piggy-back race over to That Stage (wtf?) to watch some aussie hip hop guy called Urthboy. Was pretty fun. After that we watched Wolfmother whilst lying in a pillow square. Best idea ever. Then it was back to That Stage (actually this might have been when we had to piggy-back race. Can't remember) where we watched Yacht Club DJs. They were wicked. Good dance tunes and some random songs like the Sesame Street theme and a couple of songs from the Lion King. The Blink 182 and Jimmy Eat World songs went down well too. Finished the night with Moby before heading back to the tent for a much needed sleep.
We got a good nights sleep the second night but still ended up waking early. We had time to kill so we relaxed in the tent til it got too hot then headed into base camp. We bummed around there for a while moving from shade to shade and filling up with some more food. When they opened the gates to the main area we headed for This Stage.
Sugar army were first. They put on a good show but none of us had heard much of them so we couldn't really get into them. Then was LISA MITCHELL who was absolutely amazing, as I knew she would be. Her set was far too short but she played a good selection of songs. I wish she'd played Valium though.
Sunday was really laid back compared to the first two days so we had heaps of time to kill. We wandered around the festival for a while and eventually went back to the tent for lunch. Me and Rob finished off the Milk and pretended to be drunk off it. Brought the lols. Took some fun photos of all of us in the tent too.
After a while we went back to the shade next to This Stage and listened to Xavier Rudd. There were lots of Hippies around. Temper Trap were next but all I cared about was Sweet Disposition. I went nuts when they played it. It was amazing. We watched a bit of Sarah Blasko before going in search of dinner. We skipped Hilltop Hoods 'cause we'd seen them before. Dinner was rather amusing. I got half a wood-fired pizza and wolfed it down, then went back for the other half. Ash and Julia got wraps, and Rob got half a pizza, then a panini which he didn't like, then a crepe which we convinced him to shove half of into his mouth. Hilarious.
We were all a little hyper and getting a bit silly. Was almost like we were drunk but none of us had touched alcohol since Friday. We took over a couch in the lounge tent and heckled the bands playing on the open mic stage. Also found a pair of sunnies but didn't keep them. Then we went back to the stage to watch Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
They were good fun, even though I only knew one song. The costume changes were cool and the stage backdrop was awesome. We finished off the night with the rest of Major Lazer's set. The place was absolutely packed but we managed to worm our way into the crowd a good distance.
We made our way back to the tent and started packing shit up so we could make a quick getaway the next morning. Somehow managed to get all my stuff back into my bag. We hit the sack but before we could fall asleep the campsite went nuts. It started with someone letting of a couple of fireworks, then all of a sudden there was a massive crowd outside our tent. We all ran out to take a look and found several thousand people crowded around watching some guy trying to pole-vault with a sign post he'd stolen. A couple of cops turned up but they knew they couldn't do anything against so many people so they hung back. Eventually what looked like every security guard and cop at the festival pitched up and started dispersing people. We went for a quick walk around and found that a bunch of people had toilet papered some trees. Funny shit.
After everything had died down we tried again for some sleep but we were too hyped up. Ash must have inhaled too much weed smoke because she went a little mental, but then we all went a little mental and many gross lines and sexual innuendos we spoken. When we awoke the next morning we found that the toilet paperers had been busy all night. I gotta say it looked pretty amazing. We packed up the rest of our shit and managed to lug it out to the car. We'd planned to go to the beach before we left but it was pretty cold so we just set off home. I managed to drop everyone off and get home without driving into a tree so all in all the weekend was a great success.
It was a fantastic experience and definitely one of the best weekends I've had. I'll definitely be attending next year. If you wanna see more photos head over to my Facebook album.
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