This year’s edition (the 5th) of Playground Weekender, a 4 day music and camping festival at Del Rio Riverside Resort at Wisemans Ferry, was from Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th February 2011. The festival pitches itself as a unique fixture on the Australian music calendar offering music lovers an alternative from the one-day inner city festivals and promises to be “more than just a music festival”. Weheartmusic let the lovely festival ladies get down and dirty with the crowds this year.... this is what they thought:
Due to real world work commitments we miss day 1 (Thursday) of the festival. On Friday morning we head off to Wisemans Ferry, a place we’re not sure how to get to, but still seem to have a better idea than the satnav machine. We eventually get there and load ourselves and our camping gear onto a water taxi which will take us along the Hawkesbury to the festival site.
It’s still before midday and the bars are closed, so we’re forced to make camp without our usual putting-up-the-tent beers. It’s a bit of a struggle but somehow, we manage.
We settle in at the Shack stage, a 50s rock’n'roll-themed area complete with Elvis cutout and real live roller girl. The dj is spinning some killer tunes and setting the party mood nicely, until it’s announced that Mojo Juju won’t be on at 1pm as scheduled because they couldn’t make it. This comes as a bit of a blow since they were the main reason we got up so early. Heroically, we press on, and take ourselves on a tour of the site to get a feel for the place.
There are six stages, most of which have djs playing dance music on for the majority of the time. It soon becomes a bit of a treat to see an actual band. If you’re a dj-loving backpacker this festival is for you, yet for all the trashiness there is still an element of family-friendliness. Odd combo.
The main stage kicks off for the day at 4pm with Strange Talk – a poppy, trendy, synthy, party band with entertaining songs, big sunglasses and shit banter. Stick to the songs, boys. They’re followed by Black Mountain who are good and rocky, like the steep escarpment behind them.
The crowd is getting bigger and drunker as Caribou take the stage. They play a great set and the crowd clearly loves it too.
The crowd clears out immediately after Caribou, leaving a sparse audience for You Am I. Poor Timmy (pictured right). He’s got a sore hand, no crowd, no shirt (yay!) and Qantas lost his stuff. But he can still shake it. And hide confetti in his hat. Musically the highlight was the song “I’m The Boy To Keep You Warm At Night”, which then merged into “Like A Rolling Stone”.
Cut Copy’s new album “Zonoscope” was released the week before the festival and the cutters used their set as an opportunity to play a few of the tracks and promote the album.
The new songs sounded pretty good and despite the majority of the crowd not appearing to be familiar with them they still danced along. The highlights though were the older songs “Hearts on Fire” and “Lights and Music” which had the whole crowd going crazy. Good use of cowbell throughout the set, as always more needed. You can never have too much cowbell. In general the band brought a lot of energy to the stage and ended up one of the highlights of the day.
Tricky turns up for the final set of the night, and doesn’t do much other than strut around stage with his shirt off and occasionally sing a line or two. After the energetic performance of Cut Copy it seems flat and is extremely disappointing. Then his band play Ace of Spades by Motorhead for 15 minutes while Tricky herds half the audience on stage. It’s confusing and not very entertaining.
On our way back to the campsite we pass the Shack where there are some truly excellent party times going down. It seems to be shaping up as the numero uno stage of awesome.
Saturday was very very very hot, so we stake out a lovely breezy spot on the river bank and kill time by discussing the many and varied ways that Playground Weekender is confusing us.
Firstly, there is nothing on until midday each day apart from the very loud dj at Club Tropicana (aka the pool) and a yoga session set to dance music.
Secondly, every stage finishes at 12am Friday and 1am Saturday, leaving the cafe at the campsite as the only place playing music in the early hours. A lot of time is spent sitting around not doing anything. It’s relaxing, at least, but who goes to a festival for relaxation?
Thirdly, only two of the six stages have been positioned so as not to sonically interfere with each other. It’s never good when bands and djs have to compete to be heard over each other.
Yet somehow all of these issues are almost completely eclipsed by the awesomeness that is Fancy Dress Saturday. There is often an element of fancy dress at festivals, but not on this scale. It takes the party atmosphere up about eighty thousand levels and brings out the happy as only homemade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costumes can. Special mention goes to the man dressed as Vivian from The Young Ones (unfortunately no photo) and outstanding homemade Mr Men costumes, which light up. Just, wow.
Giselle turns out to be that chick that plays that song, “Crave You”, about all the boys liking her except for the one she wants. Unfortunately the poor sound quality of the River stage hits new levels of poor and throughout her set there are loud sporatic crackles that can’t be ignored. Giselle pushes on though and full credit to her for doing it.
Percussion Junction are an entertaining interlude with their bongos and their hippy vibe. Makes a nice change.
Manchoir are fabulous. Blokes in stubby shorts harmonising the Home and Away theme, “I Touch Myself” and other assorted rock standards, and insisting the audience take part in a mexican wave of kissing. Pure entertainment gold.
Ignoring I Am Kloot’s obviously stupid name, they win points for being a band! A little mellow, but decent music that doesn’t require too much attention. Not bad, actually. They’re also English which helps them pull a bit of the English backpacker crowd to the main stage for the first time that day.
Parades are great but, to be honest, by this point we are far too distracted by all the amazing costumes to pay much attention the music.
There’s a fancy dress parade and prizes are handed out. We can’t see any of it but it doesn’t matter because the entire festival is a fancy dress parade.
Midnight Juggernauts come on, a little too early in the night perhaps (at 7pm) but they manage a great set, complete with sax solo.
Next is Toro y Moi who seem to be generating a bit of hype in the music world at the moment. Their chillwave sound, think Washed Out, is perfectly suited for the festival and the warm summer night. A great set of tight rhythms and nice tunes with addictive qualities. Fabulous addition to the line up.
Architecture in Helsinki do what they do and by god they do it well. With the release of a new album only a couple of months away they took the opportunity to try out some of the new songs which all have that distinctive AIH party feel to them. The new cover song is the ’92 hit ‘I’ve Been Thinking About You’, which is great, but they will never ever improve on their old cover, the Neverending Story. Unbeatable brilliance. It’s great to have AIH back on the festival circuit.
We finish off the night at the Shack with Sydney band Betty Airs, who play a fantastic blend of 50s and grunge influenced songs. The lead singer is wearing a flamenco type outfit, Peter Allen style, and lives up to the role by leading the small but enthusiastic crowd in a conga line. The whole place is bouncing with an awesome trippy party vibe. Guitar / singer Darren Cross (also known for being in the 90s band Gerling) takes a break from the music briefly to introduce the new bass player Patrick Matthews (formally of the Vines and Youth Group). After the last song the crowd decides it’s way too early for the party to end. After some encouragement Betty Airs keeps the music going for a bit longer with a cover of “Bad Moon Rising”. If you haven’t seen Betty Airs yet do it asap. Party!
By Sunday morning we can’t face the prospect of another hot morning with nothing to do followed by rumoured long waiting times for a ferry back down the river, so we pack up and head off.
While Playground Weekender, with it’s high quota of djs playing non-stop techno dance music is not necessarily the kind of festival we’d usually go to, it still has enough redeeming features. Fancy dress Saturday (which really should be extended to the whole weekend) and some fairly decent bands make it a great way to spend a weekend, without having to go far from Sydney.
Thanks festival ladies! Check out their other shenanigans here: http://festivalladies.com/
More photos to come!
Sally ([email protected])
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