Big Sweltering Day Out

[image from my "fortune cookie" camera]

There’s something about Big Day Out in Melbourne that brings
the hot weather, and this year was no exception. With approximately 42,000
festival goers all sweating it out BDO went off with a bang, as it usually
does.

This year’s festival marked the 20th anniversary
for Big Day Out and also a jump in ticket prices, but still an amazing line up
with heaps of diversity. Some highlights of the star studded line up were; My
Chemical Romance, Kimbra, Kanye West, Art vs Science, Foster the People, The
Living End and a non musical talent – Tony Hawke.

Given last year’s temperatures Big Day Out has altered
several factors in their layout scheme, more water sprinklers were added for
cooling delight and all but the two major stages were under shelter, protecting
your delicate skin from those lethal UV rays. Sunscreen was on hot demand and
as was the free slurpies, where the queue never seemed to dwindle.

[Kimbra rocking the Green stage, take40.com]

As for the music, the first band I saw was the Kentucky band
Cage the Elephant. From the first song this band went insane. I’d only known
one of their songs, “Shake me down” but the rest of their songs got me going as
well. It could be said that the lead singer was ‘slightly intoxicated’ but
weren’t we all, either from a natural high or something more man-made? Through
the whole set, front man Matthew Schultz, danced and jolted around, crowd
surfed, walked over the crowd and really put his all into the music. The sweat
was dripping down on us all but that didn’t change the fact that this was a
great band.

Next off the barracks was a slightly tamer band, Best Coast.
Also American this one woman fronted band eased the souls of all the fans, and
even cracked a few jokes to alleviate the sticky crowd. The Vaccines followed
close behind and with their catchy, dare I say pop-ish, tunes had the sea of
people in a fit of enjoyment. The Jezabels also was on my watch list and were a
soothing change to the heavy base and screaming that vibrated through the
tents.

[the sweaty throng of people, take40.com]

At the suns peak The Living End approached the stage and
virtually set it on fire. They had the crowd in the palms of their hands,
filling the whole of the Orange and Blue stage section and then some. For their
more well known tracks, “Prisoner of Society” and “West end riot” the ground
was literally rocking with the mass of people in a trance to the beat. The
Cello player was even so daring as to prop himself on his cello, which sent the
crowd roaring once again. Out of all the bands I’d say that The Living End
worked the crowd the best, knowing what to do and when to do it, even at one
point using the remaining Australia Day pride and singing, “Waltzing Matilda.”
Which if you’re not Australian is an Aussie hit.

To finish my night off I saw my almost favourite band of all
time, Foster the People. With their numerous chart-toppers their set went off.
Not a soul under the tent wasn’t dancing and singing and if there was someone
that wasn’t they were taking a breather from the oven like surroundings. “Call
it what you want” had the crowd shouting their hearts out. Foster squeezed the
life out of their hit “Pumped up Kicks” adding solos and dance tunes to really
set the crowd off. This was their final song, and the obvious choice, everyone
left the stage on a high, sweaty but in utter bliss.

It’s hard to compare previous Big Day Out’s to
each other, and this being my third year I consider this the best. My first was
amazing as it still had the excitement of my first festival, but this one has
been full of many unforgettable moments and amazing performances. So if you’re
going to pick a festival that you want to have a good time at, I say pick Big
Day Out.