Dancing In The Field

After a nice little post NYE sleep – in I woke to a beautiful sunny day, weather perfect for a festival. Although it was a hot day this did not deter the masses to continue the New Year’s celebrations at the Domain in Sydney for the 10th Field Day festival.
With a broad musical line up including Justice, Trentemoller, Public Enemy, Mystery Jets, and Duck Sauce (think the Barbara Streisand song) there was something for all to get the feet dancing.

After managing to successfully run the gauntlet of security checks (the most thorough I have experienced at any festival) we finally made it into the inner sanctum of beats. Essential to any festival day our group strategised, choosing a meeting spot and listing our must see acts, afterwards scattering our separate ways for the first round of bands. My first pick was the local dj duo Canyons. Although many festival goers were hiding in the shade from the biting sun Canyons still managed to get a few to dance with a decent audience resting on the grass. As always they spun some obscure yet fun disco tunes. Bouncing from Canyons onto the last few songs of Chromeo we were in the thick of it with the people all around us singing along to their songs.

It was now time to take a break from the beating sun and grab some overpriced refreshments. With my mediocre burger and expensive beer in hand I took the opportunity to do a little people watch and check out the festival fashion. This is always a favourite past time of mine as a festival is always an excuse to wear outlandish outfits. Field day seemed to lack the really bizarre costumes with people being more conservative in their wear. The fluoro phase has well and truly been replaced by the early to mid 90s grunge and pop look. The general theme appears to be short denim shorts with miscellaneous top or the flower print jumpsuit (short leg type), these were accompanied by those black sandals with the high ankles. For the boys it was overwhelmingly the shorts and singlets. Luckily there weren’t too many bad fake tans.

After our little rest we planted ourselves at Centre Field waiting in anticipation for The Rapture. Although the band have only released two albums (and not recently either) they attracted a strong following and got the crowd going with their catchy songs. The Rapture were followed by Duck Sauce accompanied by a huge blow up duck on stage. They whipped the crowd into a frenzy with their hit Barbara Streisand, not a body was still!

It was time for another break, while we sat under the shade of the beautiful Morton Bay Figs we enjoyed the refreshing tastes of the cocktails the festival was offering. I opted for the Pimms vs Gin which were so damn tasty!

Wrapping up our drinks break the group headed over the Left Field to catch Mystery Jets. Although I was only familiar with a couple of their songs I quickly became a fan with their catchy choruses and their onstage charisma.

It was then time to make the difficult decision between seeing Art vs Science and Aeroplane. In the end Aeroplane won out as I had seen Art vs Science several times during the year. By all accounts it was the right choice as Aeroplane spun some awesome tunes and from Daft Punk to Sebastian Teller to The Cardigans.

To round up the day it was time for the headliners Justice who made the crowd go wild. After dancing our feet off we made a quick visit to Public Enemy and as Chuck D said it’s not the size of the stage but what you do with it and that certainly applied to Chuck D, Flavor Flav, DJ Lord and their entourage. Although not being familiar with too much of their discography they certainly were a highlight with their energy and attitude. Flavor Flav wrapped up the set with a rousing speech on power. So remember people fuck racism and separatism. Peace and togetherness equals power! Thanks Flavor Flav!

These words stayed with us as we wandered home after a good festival.