A couple of hundred people sprawled on the lawn in their pleasure of sun or shade grooving along to *Andrew Winton*’s laid back tunes set the tone for most of the day at the West Coast Blues and Roots Festival. Some of those who had come early wandered among the stalls and met up with friends, the others divided their time between the two big stages, traipsing back and forth to watch Breakthrough winners Fall Electric, the resonator guitar blues of The Fumes and The Vasco Era.

Despite suffering from a mighty hangover that he said wasn’t his fault, The Vasco Era vocalist Sid O’Neil blew the crowd away, beginning a cover of Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love With You solo in a sweet choir-boy voice before being joined halfway through by the rest of the band in time to invest the song with passion that would have turned Elvis an envious green. Although they remained seated, the audience was won by the time The Vasco Era played Kingswood, the song that was made popular by a stint in high rotation on Triple J.

The crowd had thickened up around the Harbour Stage in time to hear *Bob Evans*’ set, but there were still plenty of places to sit on the grass up near the front of the stage, as people were content to stand back and watch the big screen, or wander about the market stalls and soak up the uniquely Fremantle atmosphere. It was around lunch time that The Pigram Brothers took the main stage and provided some easy Broome-style storytelling songs to aid the digestion. It wasn’t until they started the sound check for *Gomez*’s set that the mosh started to really feel like one, with the combination of alcohol and anticipation combining to force those still sitting to stand up and squish in to get the best view. Gomez loved the crowd, and the crowd loved them right back. There wasn’t time to play all the favourites, but they made a good attempt. After that, most people stayed exactly where they were, sending a representative off to buy drinks while the rest kept their place in the crowd for the big names.

Xavier Rudd played a nice mix of songs from his past albums, and introduced the crowd to a couple of new ones which will be on the album he is working on at the moment. Rudd’s music seemed to have connected the crowd to some ancient Australian dance style, only previously embraced by our indigenous brethren, because by the second song, every third person looked like they had joined a corroboree, grinning and dancing and stomping their feet in time to Rudd’s music. Having trouble getting into his kit, he commented that it had been a while since he had sat at it, indeed, if any more instruments are added to his shows, he will have to be strapped in and wheeled onstage. Even those who were perhaps waiting in the audience for the next band, could not help but be caught up when Rudd played Let Me Be, and everyone roared with approval before making a surprisingly tuneful accompaniment.

By the time The Cat Empire and The John Butler Trio played, it was difficult to distinguish any change in the audience, they were hyped up and ready to embrace anything they could sing and dance to, and they did. From a distance, the audience looked like a pulsing mass in which individuals were difficult to recognise, and speaking to some of those who were part of it the next day, they felt as if they had joined with everyone else in some way as well. Leaving the audience in such a state was the nicest thing they could do for Wolfmother who gave their usual spectacular show. Although they introduced a new song, spectacular shows are only spectacular the first time or three. At a festival, where more than one band is playing at a time, there is always the option of going to see something new. Under the Big Top and the Coke Stage, Blue King Brown and Blue Shaddy enjoyed large crowds despite being billed at the same time as the main act of the day.

For those who had Saturday tickets, the festival was over, and well worth the ticket price. For those with sold out Sunday tickets, the anticipation of what the next day would bring helped to stave off the fatigue and muscle aches until Monday.