Newington Armoury is situated a short drive from the Olympic Compound at Homebush. There are beautiful rolling slopes and lots of open grassy areas. Or there was, until a whole lot of kids rocked out that way, pitched their tents and went to see some music.

When I arrived I was keen to get in the thick of things, I ran around the whole venue to get it clear in my head. Then I dashed back to the Big Top stage to catch The Camels. They were rocking it out in their normal style, but it was a bit too early to go hard. The die-hard fans were going nuts front and centre, but the rest preferred to hang back and just take the tunes in. Then I dashed down to the bunker to check out Toy Death. This act is a BDO Lilly Pad mainstay and brought their chaos inspired act to The Great Escape.

Next I grabbed a beer and sat in the sun to watch Wolf and Cub. Their hard rock sounds washed over the grassy slope and I was amazed to discover I was having a really good time. The last time I saw Wolf and Cub was at St Jerome’s Laneway festival and I was overwhelmed with their music but taken a bit back by the claustrophobia of the venue. None of those issues here, everyone was spread out and chilled out listening to their tight sound.

Over to the Grove stage to check out Dave Graney, Clare Moore and the guitar player who made up their ‘band’. Once again it was a beautiful chilled out set that incorporated great tunes in a scenic location. Now, over to the Big Top to shake some booty to Combat Wombat. I was so focused on the main acts I didn’t realised what a stellar line-up of Aussie hip hop Elephant tracks organised for this stage including Local Knowledge, Tzu and The Herd. I scarpered off at some stage cos hip hop isn’t my bag, but if it was I would have been in heaven.

There was so much happening everywhere you went. On a public holiday it was great to see so many market stalls open for business and they were situated in between all the sculpture and ad hoc performance art. There were heaps of food stalls and many bars. The preferred drink seemed to be Toohey’s Extra Dry in the limited edition BDO version, and I always asked for a can with a picture of Gerling on it, but mainly got Wolf and Cub.

I ran into the Wolf and Cub boys at one point and they were happy with their set, but not their wrist band situation. As artists they were given AAA artist passes, but didn’t get an over 18s wristband and had to con people into buying beer for them. I also ran into Dave Graney and did the teenage fan thing, ‘Ohmygod, I love your work, you’re such a mainstay of Australian music.’ I asked him what he thought if new Aussie acts like the Grates and he didn’t have much of an answer, just to say he really liked the underground bands in Melbourne, like the Wagons and The Emergency.

At this point I had to rush down to the Riverside stage and grab a bonza possie for Martha Wainwright, my must see for the day. I shuffled past Silverchair who had pulled a large crowd and an extra band member, Paul Mac on organ. With all his hair cut off, Daniel Johns looked a little spooky to me, especially washed in green light, dancing like a pill freak.

Martha was enthralling. The crowd were on the edge of their seats listening to her unusual voice and quips about Australia, America and travelling in between. She served up her hit ‘Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole’ to my delight and then closed her set with a French tune, beautifully suited to her unique voice.

Sigur Ros started their first tune behind a shower curtain, their silhouettes outlined by red light. After the first tune the curtain was whipped aside to revel their huge line-up including a guitar played with a bow. It was a collectively moving experience, their epic sound perfect to fill the massive stage and open space.        

By the second day the majority of the grass in the venue was replaced by dust. I pushed my way to the front to see the Vasco Era to avoid the huge dust cloud in the middle of the dance floor. The Vasco Era put on an entertaining show to say the least. Their singer channelled Jack White and Tim Rogers, and looks fetching in a suit. The crows were just as impressed by their roadie who could drink anything at anytime. Apparently it was his twenty-first birthday and a considerate fan threw a full can of beer onstage. The roadie sculled it and upstaged the band for a brief period.

There wasn’t much of a vibe on the second day, it felt like great amounts of energy had been used up the day before, and everyone just wanted to chill out. The Hauntingly Beautiful Mousemoon supplied the perfect hand-over music and performed with a dance troop of pantomime clowns that encouraged the crowd to waltz to their music.

All that was left was to avoid the dust and wait until the Black Keys. Finally the time arrived and everyone got funky to their tunes. I was too exhausted to get into it much, and there was standing room only so I called it a day for a early start on Easter Sunday.

My mother called me at 8am to say ‘Happy Easter’ and I thought I should get up and to the Armoury in time for British India. They drew a small crowd, but everyone there appreciated the music. The dust was a problem again, but it didn’t stop people dancing. British India have a huge repertoire for such a new band, and are recording their first album at the moment with Harry Vanda. They don’t have any more shows booked for the year, so I was glad to have caught them.

Next on were Wallspace. I’ve never heard of these guys but saw them from a tip-off. The powerful voice of the lead singer blew me away, she sounded like a poppier PJ Harvey, but needs a more confident stage presence to back up her voice. They’re a definite act to watch.

The rest of the day was devoted to singer/songwriters. I caught Claire Bowditch, Lior, and Xavier Rudd before checking out Josh Pyke. Josh is as cute as his songs are sweet, so it was no surprise to see that he attracted a large amount of seventeen year old girls. They yelled out ‘I love you Joshie!’ in between songs, and even rushed the stage during his hit song ‘Middle of the Hill’.

Sydney locals Expatriate rocked the night with their new romantic tunes. My final act for the weekend was The Mountain Goats, and they attracted a huge crowd. Everyone sang along to ‘This Year’ and ‘Dance Music’. These are personal songs about John Darnelle, the lead singer’s, abusive childhood and he spoke candidly that the songs were based on true stories and encouraged the audience that the hard and sad times in their lives will pass.

As a festival, there weren’t many huge acts to justify the huge ticket price; I think they should have stuck with an all Aussie festival to allow more people to attend. The vibe was very chilled out, the Saturday and Sunday were almost sleepy. The venue was beautiful and interesting with army relicts through the site. The evenings were chilly, worth wrapping up for. By Sunday the main talking point was that no one had any life left in their phone battery rather than any of the acts.