Veröffentlicht
Jan 20, 2007
Held at Doug Jennings Park on the Gold Coast Spit, this festival is in an incredibly beautiful spot, away from any buildings or roads (both good and bad) and surrounded by ocean, parkland and not much else, which augured well for an event of this size where the sound needs to be loud, bassy and uninterrupted. Logistically, however, Summafieldayze is in a spot that leaves a lot to be desired in terms of transportation, especially with public transport a good thirty-minute walk away. A lot of grumbling could be heard within the crowd about the $40+ cost of parking beside the venue and the fifteen-minute walk to $20+ parking, and while shuttle buses were available from Surfers Paradise, they did not stop at a train station for Brisbane festivalgoers to get home. It also appeared that the organisers hadn’t provided enough buses for the crowd at the end of the festival, and with taxis not available for miles, it was a long walk back for many.
Transportation issues aside, Summafieldayze is one of the most eagerly anticipated events on the Queensland social calendar. Alongside the best of local QLD and Australian talent, this year’s event featured the cream of the international crop that had toured the southern states' music festivals the week before: Hybrid, Switch, Bob Sinclar, Judge Jules, Darren Emerson, Martin Solveig, Axwell and Tocadisco to name a few. Held beside the beach, in the sun and featuring a large range of musical talent to suit all tastes, it is no wonder that the festival is probably one of the largest in Queensland, Big Day Out aside. Attendance was supposed to have topped 20,000, but after witnessing Field Day in Sydney the week before, which drew 28,000 punters, I think the true number was probably closer to 15,000. Still, it was an impressive turnout.
The day started out with Switch on the Smirnoff Stage, who was absolutely incredible. It was a fantastic way to start the day: great beats, memorable tunes (Hot Chip’s ‘Over and Over’, Basement Jaxx’s ‘Take Me Back to Your House’), the crowd was wired and it was still early in the day. My only gripe would be that the set was almost exactly the same as his Field Day set – wouldn’t it have been good to play something different? Nonetheless, the set was a killer.
Prior to catching Tocadisco, we did a bit of wandering about around the usual food & drink stalls. Having to go to a window and get a drink card to buy alcohol was a bit of a pain, and something I would discourage at future festivals. Not only was this time-consuming, but the outcome wasn’t shorter drink lines or quicker service: The bar staff seemed to take longer to work out the correct way to punch the drink cards and in one instance actually miscalculated, resulting in us losing money that we could not recoup. There were also very long lines for food and EFTPOS, and having used all our cash on drink vouchers (seemed like a great idea at the time), it took us over an hour to get cash out and then over half an hour to get food.
I had no idea what Tocadisco were going to play but I was pleasantly surprised by their energy and uplift. Their surprisingly fun set mixed up thumping prog, pop cheese and the tracks of the day (Bodyrox ‘Yeah Yeah’, Blur ‘Song 2’ and Sneaky Sound System ‘Pictures’) and turned the rammed tent into a mass of happy faces and dancing feet. Hybrid’s live set, on the other hand, didn’t impress me. Perhaps it was hearing the hype from people who had seen them at Field Day the week before that did it: I was expecting a lot more. Or maybe it really wasn’t that good a set. I found it hard to get into, impossible to dance to and not really suited to the festival.
Judge Jules was another act that I had no expectations of but he was fun, sending out slamming techy sounds that the crowd was well into. On at the same time, Martin Solveig played a typical Solveig set of chartoppers and his own material – I have seen him a number of times and he appeals to a very small section of punters. Nonetheless, for a bit of karaoke house, I’m sure he was fun for some.
Mylo came on after Solveig and he also played a typical set of his hits (‘Drop the Pressure’, ‘No More Conversations’) while managing to squeeze in other cheesy and overused tracks such as Moby ‘Go’, ‘Pictures’, ‘Yeah Yeah’ and Faithless ‘Insomnia’. Queenslanders seem to love their cheesy house so the tent was packed from woah to go.
Axwell was an act I was interested to see after hearing about their Pacha set on NYE in Sydney, and they didn’t let me down. A fantastic set, cheesy at times, but fun, party prog house sounds. Underworld, Axer and Booka Shade was heard in the set, and despite the small numbers of people dancing in the tent – not necessarily a bad thing! – he did amazing job to keep the hype up. I didn’t stop moving until we parted ways to go see the start of Emerson.
Darren Emerson was the calling card for me to go to Summafieldayze. I have been impressed with his work for some time now, and not just because of his previous involvement with Underworld. He was amazing. Set of the day! Beginning with Underworld ‘Rez’ and ‘Cowgirl’, Emerson lifted the crowd and took them on a journey. Unfortunately, most of the punters were off watching Plump DJ’s or Bob Sinclar so the tent did lack atmosphere, especially after the sound level dropped halfway through. Mr. Emerson clearly looked pissed off – an international headliner ought to be – and his set went a little downhill after that.
Seven out of ten for this festival experience. Summafieldayze organisers definitely need to improve on some logistics, but despite all of that, the sunshine, the location, friendly faces and the amazing acts we got to see made up for it.
Photo credit: Julian Smith