SEE ALL THE FASHION, FUN, AND CRAZINESS HERE!

It all started in the car park with various bogans throwing bottles around Government buildings heading towards Commonwealth Place for one of the most anticipated events in Canberra this year. With the success of last year, Lexington increased the number of stages to three to put on an endless array of DJs and bands to ensure a bigger and better Foreshore Summer Music Festival.

The entry points were packed with punters ready for a good time. This year they went with technology in the VIP area to search for people’s name on computers, making the queue slower than the ordinary folk queue. As a VIP I expected that we would be allowed creature comforts such as a fast queue or even allowing food but apparently gourmet avocado, cheese, smoked ham and tomato sandwiches on cape seed bread were not allowed. One tip is to distract the security staff by putting the sandwich on top of your bag then being sent away in the corner to eat it while other edibles including an apple and dark chocolate are easily smuggled. Boy did they come in handy as anything remotely healthy or tasty was at least $10. Soft drinks retailed at $4.50 while beer was only $6 – the choice is simple. Fancy charging $4.20 for a sausage roll! Ridiculous and that doesn’t even include the sauce. That aside there were some freebies such as sun screen and lip balm but its likely these “freebies” were priced into the tickets. There were signs for free water but it wasn’t clear where the free water actually was. It was probably a good thing for the ordinary folk to ease up on any fluids as the queue for the ladies was an hour and half long at one stage. Note more toilets for 2009 please.

The fashion of the day seemed to lean towards sensible clothing and footwear, except for the booner in stiletto heels. There were a few people who thought fluoro was still fashionable (if it ever was) while others sported costumes including surf lifesavers and Price Attack wig girls. As always it’s good to get fashion tips from Canberrans so I watched out for what was in. Apparently it’s those headbands that you wear around the top of your head and you pull out some hair over the top so as to create the hippy look. This goes well with gladiator sandals that have at least 10 buckles and high wasted shorts that have managed to survive another season. The trashy look of the day was the one piece bathing suit worn as tops with shorts and skirts riding low enough so the upper hips are on show.

In the afternoon Sasha was entertaining a large crowd of dance music lovers at the Lake Stage, where big screens flashed random images on stage. Fans had their hands in the air for most of the set even when Sasha left the decks on auto pilot to hang out at the side of the stage with some friends. The Lawn Stage, an enclosed tent decked out in flashing bright lights, was also copping a viewing when Kazu Kimura from Japan took the stage. Punter numbers in the tent were pretty high for most of the day, especially for Basskleph, which pumped out a great remix of MGMT’s Kids. The Sun Stage was the chill out zone with lovely astroturf and indoor plants decorating the stage. It was a bit of a festival paradise as there was barely any rubbish on the crowd and the grass seemed mainly in tact, making it a nice place to park the butt for a while. The Sun Stage became busier as the day progressed with many just loving the space to dance to the DJs on offer.

The weather was wonderfully sunny but not too hot for most of the day. It cooled down fairly quickly in the afternoon and clouds began to emerge, threatening rain. The Lake Stage was beginning to fill up as the punters anticipated the onset of the big names to come. The Galvatrons pushed the decks aside and whipped out their guitars and synthesisers to glam rock the Foreshore crowd. With all that hair, it wasn’t surprising that their opening track sounded a lot like Van Halen’s, Jump but no one was complaining because it was so damn good. After the Galvatrons’ comic relief, Dukes Of Windsor were up and the crowd just got bigger. The endless list of hits, including The Others and It’s A War, got the crowd super excited and singing along.

It was getting to the pointy end of the evening so crucial decisions had to be made. Toilet now or later? Will it or wont it rain? If so, VIP tent or pleb area? Just when we thought the rain clouds had passed, more appeared.

PNAU began their set as the sun was going down and it was twilight. Some poor twerps were convinced to put on the sunflower and ducky suits that come standard with any PNAU show taking up most of the room on stage. In case the crowd didn’t know the words, the screen in the background flashed up the lyrics to the tunes for Come Together. The building alphabetical blocks came out for the “eh oh eh oh eh oh” song Baby. Finally, after taunting us all day, the heavens opened up and the Canberra crowd embraced it. As PNAU played on with Wild Strawberries featuring the strawberry characters with sharp teeth, a sea of hands waved in the rain in time with the music.

After PNAU wrapped up their amazing show, it was a nervous wait for the headliners The Presets. While some couldn’t take the rain and had escaped for shelter, most fans weathered the storm as nothing could keep them from being with their people. As soon as Toto’s Africa faded out and the spotlights blared, the crowd knew it was time and there were cheers from every corner of Commonwealth Place. The beginning of Talk Like That echoed hauntingly until Kim and Julian stepped out and stepped up the track with the fans going mental. It was a dance fest from the word go. The dance area was lit up with cameras and mobile phones attempting to capture the moment. The Presets had to slow it down to give everyone a breather, playing the intensely beautiful This Boy’s In Love. Cranking it back up, Are You The One? brought on coordinated clapping in the rain before My People swept the crowd into a frenzy. The Presets, chuffed with experience, complemented the crowd with Julian exclaiming “We’ve played my people all around the world, but that was one of the really special ones”. They left the stage after calling Canberra beautiful but we all knew there had to be an encore and following plenty of applause they emerged for a mind blowing finish. Julian asked Canberra to come home with the Presets so they danced and cheered harder than ever before. And with that the Presets bid goodbye “That was fucking fun. See you again”.