Fans Feel the Heat at Big Day Out Melbourne
With an enviable lineup including Kanye West, Nero, Foster The People, Soundgarden, Girl Talk, Art Vs. Science and Kasabian, Australia’s Big Day Out Festival held yesterday in Melbourne was not to be missed. Touring around Australia and New Zealand, the festival, in its 20th year, is known for its world-class lineups over the years. Yesterday was no different as Melbournians sweated it up in the heat at Flemington Racecourse.
With the acts performing on seven stages, it was a pick-and-choose situation and you just had to hope that you made the right choice.
In the mid-afternoon heat the Jezabels, a quartet from Sydney, took to the main stage and played to a crowd who couldn’t get enough. Fresh from a Top Ten finish in the TripleJ Hottest 100 (highly esteemed list of the top 100 songs each year), they played favorites such as "Endless Summer," the perfect track for a summer's day no one wanted to end.
Also from Australia, and taking to the stage just after the Jezabel,s were Adelaide hip-hop group the Hilltop Hoods. They proved why they have a reputation as a group that thrives in a festival environment, putting on a fantastic show that got the crowd up and dancing in the heat. Playing classics such as "The Nosebleed Section" and "The Hard Road" as well as newer tracks like "I Love It," they got the thumbs up from a satisfied crowd.
Kasabian and Girl Talk clashed but I didn’t want to miss either so I started off at Kasabian where the UK rockers put on a very solid performance. I had wanted to hear Fire but apparently they saved it for last, at which point I was deep in the Girl Talk crowd, getting into Gregg Gillis’ tunes.
I had seen Girl Talk at the Governor’s Ball in New York back in June 2011 so was keen to see him again. There was absolutely no disappointment the second time around. The Boiler Room, where he was performing, was filled to capacity and the crowd danced to his trademark party megamix — Adele, INXS and even Kylie Minogue’s Locomotion making it into the mix.
Kanye West closed the main stage. He was a controversial choice for a headliner in 2012, the most mainstream performer to have ever played at Big Day Out however he ended up drawing the biggest crowd. Right on time, he appeared being lifted by a cherry picker crane in the middle of the audience, opening with "Dark Fantasy" and this was the start of his nearly two-hour set.
Playing a set list of new and old songs including "Power," "Touch The Sky," "All Of The Lights," "Stronger," "Jesus Walks" and "Runaway" with a vigorous show including ballerinas and impressive light effects, he was a definite crowd pleaser on the whole despite some slightly self indulgent ramblings that had him telling life stories as he lay on his back looking at the sky from the stage. That being said he redeemed those ramblings when 75 minutes into his set he announced that “We only just getting started, this is the first song of the night.”
Unfortunately the day did have to end, but I’m pretty confident that the majority of the 42,000 attendees left with good memories from the good times they had.
Images by Olivia Donati
