- For the second year in a row, Sugar Mountain returned to Melbourne's Victorian College Of The Arts, a site whose creative personality falls firmly inline with the festival's contemporary approach. Located a stone's throw from the CBD, the campus sprawl contained a mix of old brick buildings and architecturally modern colleges, with meandering walkways leading to three stages of varying size. Galleries hosting art installations were dotted in between, and there was even an "immersive restaurant experience."
By the time I got there on Saturday morning, the clouds had dispersed and the sun split the sky. The early crowd at the coconut-clad Boiler Room stage seemed a tad shy, with early requests by the MC for dancers to move in view of the camera falling on deaf ears. The stage soon filled-out for L.I.E.S affiliate Florian Kupfer, who served up slow, distorted techno before gradually raising the tempo, eventually getting the dance floor moving with a Nitzer Ebb remix, before finishing with Larry Heard's "The Sun Can't Compare." Local veteran DJ JNETT followed, delivering a set of percussive Chicago house that got the crowd smiling. As Maurice Jnr. & Roy Rozell's "Popcorn Riddim" burst through the speakers, a loved-up law student handed out cigarettes to everyone in sight.
Kelela cut an angelic figure against a golden shimmering backdrop at the Car Park stage, working her way through most of her recent Hallucinogen EP. A tall, grey building enclosing the space had been splattered with vibrant colour to striking effect, transforming the usually mundane environs. Towards the end of an otherwise perfect performance, Kelela addressed the crowd as Sydney instead of Melbourne, causing a ripple of gasps and giggles.
The smaller stages finished up at around 10 PM. With the moon high in the sky, headliners Hot Chip took to the fabulously dressed main stage, which resembled the flailing tentacles of an oversized sea anemone. It had been a number of years since I last caught the UK band, and although I'd always enjoyed their shows, I wasn't terribly excited about catching them here. In the end, though, they rocked it. The day really came together for the band's final hour: nearly 6000 punters squeezed their way into Dodds Street while Alexis Taylor and co. flawlessly smashed out a back catalogue of hits, finishing with a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark" to a rapturous response.
Sugar Mountain was free of any of the typical festival annoyances: queues for entry, toilets and the bars were short if mostly non-existent, and there was plenty space to walk quickly and easily around the site. As a forward-thinking inner-city festival with great taste, it's filled a gap in the market. With a few minor improvements—I'd like to see the sound stepped up across the site—it will not doubt go from strength to strength over the coming years.