- This year's Golden Plains was the fifth edition of the festival. The venue, the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre, has played host to the larger crowds of the well-established Meredith Music Festival since 1991. This sister festival, however, runs on many of the same principles: Bring your own booze, have fun and no dickheads. Golden Plains has built a reputation on attracting fun crowds, booking favourite acts from all sorts of genres and a great vibe. Its fifth birthday lived up to all expectations.
"Dickheads or people involved in dickhead behaviour will usually find that a solid citizen will firmly but politely inform them that their dickhead behaviour is not admired or appreciated," reads the online policy statement. Of course, there are always a few dickheads, but they're hardly a worry in comparison to the vibe that dominates the festival. There's a cap of 8,000 people, so claustrophobia doesn't set in. The BYO policy also means that people don't have to worry about spending too much money, and there's only one stage, so there are no clashes to worry about.
The line-up catered to a broad taste, and, better still, it delivered artists that patrons could discover themselves for the first time. If you didn't know Belle and Sebastian's music, your first impression would have been an excellent one. If you weren't familiar with Joanna Newsom, her voice would have stayed with you well after the festival. If you knew Os Mutantes were well regarded, but didn't know why, they definitely lived up to their reputation. From whichever musical persuasion, Golden Plains had compiled a soundtrack for the weekend that took in a broad church.
As for electronic music, Mount Kimbie closed out the first night, with an hour set starting around 3 AM. The energy of the crowd had worn out over the course of the day, but as the British duo took to the stage, the remaining couple of hundred were sucked in by tracks like "Ruby" and "Carbonated." Perhaps an open-air festival is not the place to get the best out of Mount Kimbie's sonic excursions, as they deserve a much more intimate environment. It always felt as though the sound was at a distance, when all you wanted was for their sound to wrap itself around you.
Jamie Lidell's set on the second night, on the other hand, was an exchange of energy between him and the crowd. On the surface, the electronic samples and soul aesthetic delivered by the Englishman may seem counter-intuitive, but there's no doubt that it works. Lidell was a crowd favourite, if not for the fact that his set was less demanding than many of the acts that shared the stage. Later that night, Melbourne's own Bamboo Musik DJs played to the relieved few that desperately needed a dose of acid house and techno, closing out the festival at 6 AM. A testament to the team's record collecting capabilities was Zsa Zsa la Boum's "Something Scary," slipped in amidst flashing strobes.