Parklife Sydney 2009

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  • Parklife is one of Australia's oldest outdoor festivals and was the first large-scale event staged by Fuzzy, now one of the country's largest promoters. Starting off with the now iconic Sublime club nights, they moved on to the big time with their first Parklife in March 2000 out in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney. Ever since, the event—and Fuzzy—has gone from strength to strength. Parklife went national and now appears in five states, while Fuzzy have expanded to include outdoor events such as Field Day, Shore Thing and Harbourlife. Fuzzy have always focused on bringing out the big dance acts of the moment with headliners such as Felix Da Housecat, Basement Jaxx and Adam Freeland, while simultaneously featuring the best Australia has to offer. But success has also come with growing pains. Despite routinely selling out their events and presenting stellar line-ups, Fuzzy has also suffered from accusations of poor organisation, below-par sound and overcrowding at some of their flagship events. Photo credit: Pandeh A. Seedy It was with this knowledge that we joined 35,000 other hopeful ticket holders in braving rather inclement conditions in the Centennial Parklands. Entering the festival, it was clear that crowd management had been taken into account by the organizers. Instead of depositing us next to a stage or bar, the entrance led into an open centre, just north of the lake (or pond, depending on your viewpoint and level of pedantry) thus allowing people to disperse evenly throughout the grounds. Given the choice of the whole park, we decided to investigate the Water Stage and made our way through the crowd. Parklife was already heaving but the space opened up all around, with progress only slowing once you entered the packed throngs around each stage—each of which was set far enough apart to ensure little or no noise bleed when standing on the peripherals. Our spirits already buoyed by the realisation that it wouldn't take an hour to cross between both ends of the event, we were further enlivened by the clear, bass-heavy and loud music that reached our ears well before we even made it to the back of the crowd. Fuzzy had finally delivered on production, and huge stacks of speakers towered above the crowd, threatening in aspect but delightful to the ears. Photo credit: Pandeh A. Seedy The Stafford Brothers and Timmy Trumpet—an act which sounds more like a risqué gay porn video than a musical trio—had a big crowd bouncing just a couple of hours into proceedings. The music was a taste of things to come—bass heavy electro which didn't break any boundaries—but at least it was entertaining. That was more than can be said for Shazam. If you're going to give yourself a stupid name, you'd better bring the party to life. Sadly, Shazam was clearly not aware of this—perhaps a chat with Timmy Trumpet would've helped—and instead phoned in a dire performance of bog-standard electro house which he presumably played straight from his iPod since a genuine attempt at mixing never made an appearance. Retreating from the awfulness, we tramped across the grass to the Earth Stage only to be rather disappointed by the Junior Boys ambling along with some slow melodic house. Next door at the Air Stage, the French wunderkind Busy P was smashing out some tunes designed to shake the bass bins off their mountings; breaksy remixes from producers such as Justice and The Chemical Brothers vibrated through our ear drums. The track selection was fairly uninspiring, but it passed the time until we could head back to Earth to see Aeroplane's DJ set, an act that appeared to have aroused a fair amount of excitement in the crowd despite the clock only having hit quarter to five. Aeroplane can produce great sets as well as average efforts and there was a concern the Belgian duo might indulge in some eclectic styles that would miss the mark, but instead they took proceedings to another level, rocking the crowd with hands-in-the-air electro house. Photo credit: Pandeh A. Seedy On route back to the Water Stage we stopped to take in a bit of MSTRKRFT, but their distinctly average offering did nothing to excite or thrill and sounded distinctly reminiscent of their 2007 effort. The crowd enjoyed them finishing with "Bohemian Rhapsody" but it felt like a bit of mouldy cheese on top of a rather stale sandwich. Moving swiftly onwards through the crowds, we arrived in time to see Kaskade kick off. With the night closing in and a sprinkling of rain in the air, the crowd was ready to be warmed up, and he didn't disappoint with a set full of big tracks including "It's You, It's Me" and a mighty remix of "Show Me Love" which set the right party vibe for a festival heading towards its manic conclusion. Erol Alkan, on his first visit to the land of Oz, did the honours. Over the course of what seemed like an awfully short period of time, he showed exactly why he is the best at what he does, blasting the crowd with bone-shaking electro basslines, tweaks, swirls and other noises that lack appropriate adjectives. Tunes like "Waves" and "Death Suite" vibrated through the faithful listeners packed around the stage. Erol was in his element as the big screens behind him exploded with colour; it was the set of the festival with 90 minutes left on the clock. Photo credit: Pandeh A. Seedy Following Erol was going to be a tough task, but it seemed as though Tiga might pull it off. His first few tracks were atom bombs of electro goodness, but sadly he seemed to go off the boil and the tunes began to become a bit generic. The crowd quieted down, and we had the perfect opportunity to sneak off to Claude VonStroke. Well into his two hour set, the energetic DJ was bouncing behind the decks with a huge smile on his face. The only niggle was a lack of bass: The tunes were great but the volume just wasn't enough to draw you into an experience. Nevertheless, we hung back to simply admire the man's work—"Who's Afraid of Detroit" and "Whistler" included—that kept the crowd alive. Parklife was a well-executed festival which has never pretended to be a serious music lover's paradise. And, in truth, it doesn't need to be. Barring Erol, the line-up was nothing you hadn't seen before, but Parklife isn't about bringing out the obscure or the retired. It's about a day of wandering around with your mates listening to big beats from start to finish. Mission accomplished.
RA