What a complete rip off
I really wanted to plan this out, say it properly, get all my thoughts and feelings articulated correctly about Saturdays Jam presents Good Vibrations festival in Sydney.
But deal with a dot point rants
*On arrival, you notice that the grounds were full. To the brim. Everywhere was a thoroughfare. 36000 people milling about in the sun. For the space, they had oversold it by at least 10000 people. The grounds were just a fenced in pen, with no scope for sitting under any bar 1 tree, and without the provision of ANY seating, bins or shade. Potential for danger - massive.
*The stages, for the most part, were far too close together, so the sound bled quite badly.
*It was sooo oversold, that instead of being able to get into the tent that Nightmares on Wax were playing their relaxing dub in the dark, we stood in a beer line, hearing some of the shockingly banal Cut Copy (dude man, you cant sing, and a crowd responding to your calls to "come on!" over the top of a repetitive, standard house beat shows more about the vacuousness of your music than it does of your potential to rock) and a mash of bad house music stages...
*We took refuge under the ONLY tree in the area allowed, which was by the Laundry stage, and were subject to Desyn Massiello and DJ Dan, neither of whom did anything special, but it was rarely horrible as well...
*But then it hits you.. your name is Al, you don't really like banal house music that much, but you were coming along to this festival coz there was a fair amount of relatively cool (potentially anyway) hip hop stuff on the bill... and that's where it starts to really hurt, when you notice that Snoop Dogg, Rahzel and DJ Yoda all clash (at least in part). You battle on, to be wowed by Snoop for a little bit, bail over to Yoda for a second or two of stuff that had the day been kinder to you you prolly would have really dug, and then catch the end of an appallingly disappointing Rahzel, nowhere NEAR the best beatboxer in the world... "get the fuck on with it, you fucked up one trick pony" yelled Bec after the dickhead burned about 10 minutes of stage time getting the crowd to MAKE SOME NOISE for his then very very disappointing rendition of "if yr mother only knew" or whatever its called...
*So, the one saving grace of the entire thing is that at least you get to see the Beastie Boys. And you get to the stage to find the unthinkable. Unprecedented. The absolutely most devastating and incomprehensible outcome. THE MAIN FESTIVAL STAGE SPEAKER STACK HAD BEEN BLOWN UP BY SOME LOSER SOUND GUY NOT KNOWING WHAT RED LINING MEANS. read that again. Seriously. I have been going to festivals for years, and that has NEVER happened. Not once. Ive had bad sound, I've had sound turned down due to complaints, but never in my life have i been subject to something as appallingly unprofessional and grossly incompetent as THE MAIN STAGE SPEAKER STACK BLOWING. So subsequently, the Beasties set, which looked like it would have been quite good, was completely unenjoyable - mainly because even when you could hear it, it was still only half the sound, and the disappointment was added with every note... The sheer incompetence of whoever was doing the sound must be noted, and he personally should be begging Justin Hemmes and the rest of the notorious money grabbing Merrivale crew to refund everyone. Absolutely gutted, we left before the end.
So lets recap. It was an EXERCISE IN CATTLE HERDING THAT WAS OVERSOLD, UNDER CATERED, RETARDEDLY PROGRAMED WITH NO CARE FOR THE PATRONS, JUST BANK BALANCES. THE MAIN SPEAKER STACK BLEW, OVERALL IT MADE STONEFEST LOOK LIKE SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS TIMES BY COCKATOO ISLAND. THE SINGLE WORST EVENT I HAVE EVER BEEN TO.
In saying that, we had made the most of it, and didn't walk away completely distraught. But having fun with your friends DESPITE, instead of ENHANCED BY what you just paid $100 for is outrageous.
No photos.
But deal with a dot point rants
*On arrival, you notice that the grounds were full. To the brim. Everywhere was a thoroughfare. 36000 people milling about in the sun. For the space, they had oversold it by at least 10000 people. The grounds were just a fenced in pen, with no scope for sitting under any bar 1 tree, and without the provision of ANY seating, bins or shade. Potential for danger - massive.
*The stages, for the most part, were far too close together, so the sound bled quite badly.
*It was sooo oversold, that instead of being able to get into the tent that Nightmares on Wax were playing their relaxing dub in the dark, we stood in a beer line, hearing some of the shockingly banal Cut Copy (dude man, you cant sing, and a crowd responding to your calls to "come on!" over the top of a repetitive, standard house beat shows more about the vacuousness of your music than it does of your potential to rock) and a mash of bad house music stages...
*We took refuge under the ONLY tree in the area allowed, which was by the Laundry stage, and were subject to Desyn Massiello and DJ Dan, neither of whom did anything special, but it was rarely horrible as well...
*But then it hits you.. your name is Al, you don't really like banal house music that much, but you were coming along to this festival coz there was a fair amount of relatively cool (potentially anyway) hip hop stuff on the bill... and that's where it starts to really hurt, when you notice that Snoop Dogg, Rahzel and DJ Yoda all clash (at least in part). You battle on, to be wowed by Snoop for a little bit, bail over to Yoda for a second or two of stuff that had the day been kinder to you you prolly would have really dug, and then catch the end of an appallingly disappointing Rahzel, nowhere NEAR the best beatboxer in the world... "get the fuck on with it, you fucked up one trick pony" yelled Bec after the dickhead burned about 10 minutes of stage time getting the crowd to MAKE SOME NOISE for his then very very disappointing rendition of "if yr mother only knew" or whatever its called...
*So, the one saving grace of the entire thing is that at least you get to see the Beastie Boys. And you get to the stage to find the unthinkable. Unprecedented. The absolutely most devastating and incomprehensible outcome. THE MAIN FESTIVAL STAGE SPEAKER STACK HAD BEEN BLOWN UP BY SOME LOSER SOUND GUY NOT KNOWING WHAT RED LINING MEANS. read that again. Seriously. I have been going to festivals for years, and that has NEVER happened. Not once. Ive had bad sound, I've had sound turned down due to complaints, but never in my life have i been subject to something as appallingly unprofessional and grossly incompetent as THE MAIN STAGE SPEAKER STACK BLOWING. So subsequently, the Beasties set, which looked like it would have been quite good, was completely unenjoyable - mainly because even when you could hear it, it was still only half the sound, and the disappointment was added with every note... The sheer incompetence of whoever was doing the sound must be noted, and he personally should be begging Justin Hemmes and the rest of the notorious money grabbing Merrivale crew to refund everyone. Absolutely gutted, we left before the end.
So lets recap. It was an EXERCISE IN CATTLE HERDING THAT WAS OVERSOLD, UNDER CATERED, RETARDEDLY PROGRAMED WITH NO CARE FOR THE PATRONS, JUST BANK BALANCES. THE MAIN SPEAKER STACK BLEW, OVERALL IT MADE STONEFEST LOOK LIKE SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS TIMES BY COCKATOO ISLAND. THE SINGLE WORST EVENT I HAVE EVER BEEN TO.
In saying that, we had made the most of it, and didn't walk away completely distraught. But having fun with your friends DESPITE, instead of ENHANCED BY what you just paid $100 for is outrageous.
No photos.