- There couldn’t have been a better setting in Australia, or anywhere in the world for that matter, for one of Sydney’s first summer dance festivals of the season to take place. With a magnificent backdrop of Sydney’s most beloved landmarks, Fuzzy once again outdid themselves with their third installment of Harbourlife, which again took place at Fleet Steps at the picturesque Mrs Macquaries Chair. It was definately a very glamorous way to welcome in the summer and what a perfect day mother nature handed us, unlike the previous two Harbourlife festivals which were unfortunately dampened by wet weather. With a setting of two outdoor stages being the Harbourlife stage and the Fuzzy Breaks stage and with huge names such as Martin Solveig, Mark Farina, Touche, Hermitude, James Taylor, Dreadzone Sound System, Q45 and our beloved locals Jonathan Wall, Illya, Jessica Joy, they certainly had enough tunes pumping out over the harbour that were sure to cater to most musical taste buds.
On arrival at the gates just after 4pm there was already a great vibe around the entrance. Lots of smiling faces greeted us as we made our way down to the breaks arena which was located not far from the main entrance. Hermitude was pumping out some wicked tunes as we greeted some familiar faces along the way. As is the expected at any outdoor Fuzzy event, we passed many ladies wearing teeny tiny short shorts, many boys with their well buffed upper half exposed for all to see and there were loads of fun and funky outfits to be seen.
Apart from the eye candy all round there were also food stalls, bars and lots of areas to sit and chill out in the sun or under the trees. We kept on our journey to the main stage via the bar which surprisingly was a very quick ordeal as their were plenty of friendly bar staff to deal with the enormous crowds in need of a cold drink. Arriving at the main stage we were pleasantly surprised by the new stage setup which was now set up with the city to the left of the stage which seemed to work a lot better than the previous set up with the stage back towards the water. By this stage Mark Farina was already behind the decks and the crowd was going wild.
Bumping into some more familiar faces we decided to take a walk up the steps to take in the breathtaking views and admire the huge crowd below. Looking down on that crowd sure did raise a few goosebumps while Farina pumped out some fantastic house tunes and really did cater for what the crowd and also the magnificent venue called for.
Before I knew it it was rolling on 6.15 and Mark Farina was handing over the decks to DJ Touché. We decided to brave the crowd and made our way to the front. Touche also read the crowd really well and knew exactly what they were looking for, he dished it out quite nicely for us playing some dirty house tunes with a hint of electro and also churning out some crowd pleasing classics like ‘Abra Kadabra’, ‘I just Can’t Get Enough’ and ‘Sweet Dreams’ as well as dropping in some Bush and Depeche Mode to which he received a great reaction from the crowd.
Needing another drink and a breather we made our way back over to the bar with a pit stop at the Breaks arena. Dreadzone Soundsystem were up and had the crowd in the palm of their hand. Not wanting to miss out on the start of Martin Solveig’s set I didn’t hang around for long and kept on my way back to my favourite spot on the steps. Before long Solveig was next on the bill and we were on our way back down the front. Just as you thought the vibe couldn’t get any better, as the sun went down over the glistening harbour you couldn’t help but feel the energy growing in the crowd with a cool breeze picking up and giving us some much needed cooling down. Martin also played some great crowd pleasing tunes like ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’ and his own number ‘Everybody’ as well as Ibiza summer favourite ‘Pump Up the Jam’ remix and ‘House Your Body’.
As Solveig started into the last hour of his set the clouds started rolling on in and sensing the rain was about the come crashing down on this perfect day we decided to get a head start home at around 9.30pm before the heavens opened.
All in all this was very well organized event and Fuzzy really did have the punters in mind when planning this event. Its no wonder Fuzzy events sell out months in advance and we are all looking forward to Field Day and Fat Boy Slim.
Well done Fuzzy – you’ve done it again!