There’s a certain something about Laneway Festival that really sets it apart from other Aussie touring festivals prix viagra 50 100. After outgrowing humble beginnings in which thousands of punters crammed into the alleyways of Uni SA’s City West campus it moved to a new home at the new Hart’s Mill in Port Adelaide three years ago and after this year it feels as though Laneway has near perfected the Adelaide leg of its annual touring festival.
Dull is not a word used to describe Laneway. Upon entering the festival, you could expect to be greeted with an abundance of glitter, colour and energy. The conditions were perfect, it was warm but not sweltering like past years had been, and everyone in the venue was buzzing with excitement. By 12 we were off to see the first act of the day – Aussie songstress Julia Jacklin. Her cruisey, folky vibe was the perfect way to ease into the day as more and more people started to trickle into the festival.
After spending an hour or so exploring the festivals many stages we settled on the future classic stage for home-grown electronic act Roland Tings. Playing a live set, the boys got the crowd dancing and cheering without hesitation even though it was the hottest point in the day. The two closed their set with club favourite ‘Pala’ and after a 45-minute long boogie it was time for a rest.
Aurora was the next act on the list and easily one of the highlights of the day. The Norwegian songstress captivated the crowd with her mesmerising voice as she danced around the stage in an almost interpretive fashion. Saving hits like ‘Warrior’ and ‘I went too far’ to the end of her set when she finally played them the crowd lapped it up.
We then sat on the sidelines to catch the tail-end of Sydney rockers Gang of Youths. Playing a set jam-packed with crowd favourites such as ‘Magnolia,’ and some of their newer stuff the energy levels among the crowd were high and lead singer Dave Le’aupepe returned that energy bopping around the stage and even getting into the mosh-pit at one point.
As the sun set we strolled along the river to the Future Classic stage to catch British electronic act, Tourist. Boasting an impressive lights show of strobes and lasers it was hard to see two metres in front of you – so it was easy to get lost in the music. Another one of my highlights of the day, Tourist’s brand of dreamy, emotive electronica was the perfect backdrop as the day cooled to night.
The day had drawn to a close and we were starting to feel the effects of a long day in the sun so we opted to sit back and relax to the sounds of Nick Murphy (new alias of Chet Faker). Opposed to previous years the set-up of this year’s laneway provided a multitude of places for punters to sit and relax out of the heat and away from the hustle and bustle of stage areas. A favourite of ours for the day was along the river, a long thoroughfare between two of the smaller places, but an area with a lot of room to stretch your legs and a quiet enough space to have a chat and catch up on the highlights of the day so far. And that’s what we did. Until we heard the familiar riffs of Aussie faves, Tame Impala ring out.
The main stage area was packed to the brim. The rest of the festival must have been empty because it seemed everyone turned out to see the psychedelic rockers close the festival. Taking the crowd on a journey through their back-catalogue they played a variety of material both old and new. As their set drew to a close the entire arena was showered in confetti and another year of Laneway drew to a close.
While making the sombre trek out of the festival and heading for home it truly felt as though 2017 had been Laneway’s best effort yet, and while I don’t know what stops the organisers will pull out to make the 2018 edition even better – I’m looking forward to finding out.
Chelsea Illman
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