I’m an indie girl by nature, cutting my concert teeth on early Livid Festivals in Davies Park and Big Day Outs. I’ve never been to a dance club nor do I really dance when I go out. So it was a little bit of a shock for me to purchase a ticket to the Future Music Festival given my non dance background. I convinced two guys at work to come with me since they were both dance heads although not your typical gen ys. One was over 40 and the other was nearer to 30. I took my new Kodak Zi6 HD camera to document the event. All videos linked here are the low res version, but click on the HD link in the youtube window and you can see it in better quality.
The Festival was held at the Doomben race course which you’d think would be an odd venue but was actually quite suitable. The main stage and the Met tent were in the middle of the track and the rest of the clubs were near the grandstand. The only oddity was that you had to walk over a custom built bridge to avoid all us trance heads ruining the race track:
We arrived around 3.30pm along with what seemed everyone else. Only 30 mins later the entrance was empty but I suspect that was because everyone arrived the same time as us which was just in time for Paul Oakenfeld. This is what it looked like from the back of the main stage:
And this is what it looked like walking to the front of the main stage (don’t get sick):
Once I got to the front of the stage, Paul Oakenfold managed to remix one of my favourite “indie” songs Kings of Leon’s “Sex on Fire”. It was a good way to ease me in to the dance scene and I was immediately happy:
Setting up position just in front of the sound desk I amused myself by taking this short but gratuitous ass video (this is how to get your groove on):
Which then evolved to sticking the camera in my jeans and rotating as asses went by:
I then watched a little bit of Paul Oakenfold with the words Future Music Festival slip by in the background:
And then dragged Chris and Michael over to see CSS in the Met tent. The Brazilian band aren’t really a dance act in the doof doof sense of the word, but they do have groove as seen here:
CSS weren’t really cutting it for Michael and Chris so they left me to find their own style of music and thanks to the bad Optus issues I wasn’t able to find them again until the end of the night (well only Michael cause Chris left around 9.20pm).
After CSS I stopped for a disgusting portaloo break and recorded a video of a ride going around and round while the carney guy told a lame joke:
I then got stuck in a bad crowd situation trying to get to the main stage to see N.E.R.D. The police were trying to stop people get in by putting up a barricade which made everyone angry. I think they just pushed through and the police had to let everyone in because the next thing I knew the sea of people flooded forward and I was at the sound stage ready for the band to start. I wanted to get closer so I moved around to the front left of the stage and had fun singing along to all my favourite N.E.R.D hits. The ones that went off the most for me were “Rock Star”:
and “Lap Dance”:
as well as the song everyone hates but I love “All the girls standing in the line for the bathroom” followed by “She Wants to Move” followed by “Seven Nation Army”:
Once they had finished I tried to meet up with Chris and Michael but the phone network was still utter shit. Knowing that I only really had 30mins to explore the rest of the place I headed over to the Silent Disco which was fantastic. You line up to go in, get given headphones at the door and the next thing you know there are two DJs up on stage mixing up some tunes for you. One DJ is on one channel and if you don’t like what he is doing you can switch to the other guy. If you take the headphones off all you hear are people screaming and singing along. I thought it was fantastic:
I then headed up to God’s Kitchen and Lickit which were depressingly empty. Either this was because Basement Jaxx was about to come on or that people didn’t actually know there were two clubs up the top of the grandstand. I stayed there for maybe a few minutes and then took a panoramic video to show how big the festival was:
I rushed back to see Basement Jaxx but missed their first songs. I arrived in time to hear “Plug it in” which was fantastic, especially the guy in his MC Hammer pants and gold hoodie:
Michael and Amanda turned up after that just in front of the sound desk and we all danced to the rest of the set. Chris had left at this point cause he was shattered but I never got to say goodbye (grrr optus). I also enjoyed the Basement Jaxx “Where’s your head at” which had monkeys come out and dance. Well, people in monkey suits. Battery was flat on the Kodak by this stage so I only got this snippet:
When it was all over we had an argument with the security guards while waiting for Kelly to take us home. He was trying to make us leave, we were trying to stay because I had no way of calling Kelly (phone had gone flat too by now). The ravesafe people started to worry and got Kelly to come out and calm the situation. She had to pick us up outside and of course we walked the wrong way. Lucky I got Michael to give her his number before we left cause otherwise I think she might have left us. 🙂 Kidding, Kelly would never do that, she is too kind.
I had a great time at my first dance festival and although I really only danced for 5 minutes right at the end I felt it the next day when I woke up sore and tired. All the kids in their 80s neon clothing looked great – I think they are a much “classically” prettier crowd than the indie people and way friendlier. But I also suspect that the friendliness is due to some pills they may have popped before the show. Not sure I’ll do it again, but I think I may do a dance party some time in the future.