With the launch of the inaugural Festival Awards here on FL, talk has turned to all things festivus. To launch a month full of festival goodness on FasterLouder, we have put together our ten most memorable Australian festival moments.
In no particular order, we present FasterLouder’s 10 most memorable Aussie Festival Moments:
The Dirty Three create a lightning storm at Meredith Music Festival
The performance by The Dirty Three at Meredith Music Festival in 2004 is now music festival folklore discussed in whispers and remembered in awe. The 14th annual Meredith saw the supernatural amphitheatre get hit by a “Hundred Year Storm” – cyclonic winds flattened tents and snapped trees in two threatening to shut-down the festival for the first time in its history. However, just as The Dirty Three took to the stage in the relentless storm which has since been described as – œbiblical’ in its proportions, the dark clouds seemingly parted either side of the stage, the wind eased and a massive lightning display erupted. The Dirty Three played one of the most intense sets of their lifetime lit up by a jaw-dropping electrical storm that lasted their whole set. Amazing.
Courtney Love flashes her hoo-haa at the BDO
BDO 1999 was memorable for many reasons. It had a volatile line-up that included a very controversial Marilyn Manson, Korn (at the height of their nu-metal fame) and the queen of crazy herself – Courtney Love, fronting up Hole. The most memorable moment of the tour wasn’t when Marilyn Manson jumped off stage to rough up a vocal punter, but rather when Ms Love got her crazy on the way only she knows how. Night after night her performances got weirder and more manic and were capped off when she flashed her boobs to the crowd and then crawled around the stage to reveal she was a keen advocate of going commando. Winehouse at Glasto seems like an amateur in comparison to the Courtney of old.
To see Ms Love in all her BDO crazy making the crowd “boo Nicole Kidman” – have a look here:
Sniffer dogs go backstage at Homebake
Despite the protestations of The Greens, sniffer dogs are as much a feature of Sydney’s Homebake as gozleme and VB tinnies. But never in a million years would you expect the pooches-in-blue to find their way backstage. However, at 2005’s – œThe Honours Years’ edition, the police decided it was time to give the artists a scare. And in case you hadn’t heard, not all musicians are, ahem, clean-living. If any of your favourite bands had an off-day that year, you now know why…
Iggy and The Stooges show the kids how it’s done at BDO
The day it was announced that the god-father of punk was going to bring his original Stooges to Australia fro BDO 2006 we pulled out our copies of Funhouse and prepared for the goodness of Iggy to reign down on us. The Stooges out did all expectations on that tour, blowing away the headlining White Stripes. However, the crowning moments at each of their shows occurred when Iggy asked the crowd to join them on stage. It had been a long time since festivals had been allowed to get this loose in Australia and only the god-father of punk could have made it happen.
The Pixies ‘Trompe le Monde’ at V Festival
Australia has seen its fair share of festival wildcards; not least a re-united Rage Against The Machine headlining this year’s Big Day Out with gale-force intensity. But there was something truly exceptional about indie legends The Pixies taking the stage at the inaugural V Festival in Australia. While so many – œcomeback’ tours fizzle, this was truly worth the wait. The set-lists spanned over 20 songs from the band’s illustrious catalogue, all delivered with genuine passion. “Thanks for having us down to play,” a beaming Kim Deal told Sydney. Any time guys.
Re-live the awesomeness of Debaser at V.
Nick Cave Get’s it on with Ms Minogue at the BDO
In 1996, the princess of pop – Kylie Minogue – had turned Indie Goddess all pixie-hair and naked video-clips. At the height of her new image she had teamed up with the master of melancholy Nick Cave to record the single Wild Roses. And in an awesome moment of worlds colliding she was invited on stage by Nick during his set with The Bad Seeds at Big Day Out – œ96. Seeing footage of it now, its hard to believe it is the same Kylie that only a few years later would throw our her Capri pants and pull on a pair of gold hot-pants to reclaim the crown as the queen of pop.
Limp Bizkit’s Big Day Out exit
In 2001, tragedy struck the Big Day Out when an out-of-control crush during Limp Bizkit’s Sydney performance resulted in the death of 15-year-old Jessica Michalik. The overwhelming sadness of the incident has made a significant impact on festival culture in Australia. Limp Bizkit cancelled all remaining Big Day Out shows, with frontman Fred Durst assisting the inquest. The D-Barrier was introduced for all subsequent Big Day Outs and the 2002 circuit included many heartfelt tributes to Michalik from bands on the bill. Despite the grief, as Jessica’s father George Michalik told The Age, “a lot of positive things have come out of this.”
Field Day heats up
Anyone who attended the New Years Day festival Field Day on 1 January 2006 didn’t need Al Gore to tell them the planet is fucked. That was the fateful day Sydney was hit with a freak heatwave, with toasty temperatures in excess of 45°C. You haven’t seen weird until you’ve seen 300 punters crammed into the one shaded sliver of dancefloor. Krafty Kuts’ closing set on the side stage had to be aborted by dangerous winds that threatened to topple the speaker-stacks. Amazingly, there were no significant medical incidents on the day – testament to some expert organisation from the promoters.
Wolfmother bid adieu at Splendour In The Grass
Taking to the stage in the coveted headline spot at this year’s Splendour, it was apparent Wolfmother had some dissension in the ranks. Sure enough, a few days after the festival, Myles and Chris announced their exit from the group. Singer Andrew Stockdale is now said to be continuing the Wolfmother name with new recruits. It was a charged final performance for the boys, with decidedly mixed responses from the crowd. One thing was plain to see though: this was a band with its minds in different places. But boy oh boy – they really got some mileage out of that debut album.
Nirvana play the first BDO
And one of the greatest festival moments of all time happened (quite fittingly) at the original Big Day Out in 1992 when Nirvana co-headlined with the Violent Femmes. The bill was made up of mostly Aussie acts, including some young upstarts by the name of You Am I. Nirvana, however, stole the show when 10,000 people tried to squeeze their way into the Hordern pavilion to see one of the most amazing sets that has ever taken place at a festival in Australia.
Words by Sarah Smith and Jack Tregoning
If you are a lover of things festivus don’t forget to head on over and vote in Australia’s first ever Festival Awards
THAT’S ENOUGH OF OUR BLAGGING – WHAT ARE YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS?
yeoman
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