Harvest Festival, Werribee Park

The festivals location is very comparable with the English End of the Road festival in Salisbury. Both are situated in Parks, but not the parks we know in Belgium. You could compare the location with 'Den Uitlegger' in Kapellen (if you know it) or any other small national park. It's just one big green zone where they've put some stages and some tents on. In Werribee they've created three music stages whereof one in a tent (here you could shelter from the burning sun). In Belgium we need to change our money into food and drink tokens, in Australia and England that seems not to be the question. Everything is paid in cash. Prices were not too bad, as long as you remember that Australia is more expensive than Europe:  $ 5 for a 600ml coke bottle and about $ 10-15 for a meal. Beer and spirits are more expensive than soda's (how it should be !). Sorry, no pictures. I didn't want to take my camera with me… :) First band of the day was Winter People. There were not bad at all. Bringing live violins on stage is always a winner, especially when two nice looking girls are playing them.  It's a band that could reach the duysterplaylist ! Next I went to see The War on Drugs. A known band to me as I already saw them a couple of times, previous on Primavera last May. They did what was to be expected, although they were playing way too early in the afternoon. Too bad for Dark Dark Dark but I thought their set was pretty boring. I do like the album, but live it is just too static. There was almost no interaction with the public. Most songs were exact copies of the album and that tends to get boring. The organisation really needs to find a way to organize their schedule a bit better. Dark Horses was playing at the same moment as The Dandy Warhols, and it was really visible in the crowd. Guess they started with about 300 people watching them, about 20 minutes later there were only 20 to 30 people watching the end of their show… Then the time came to find me some food and drinks because both The Dandy Warhols as Silversun Pickups where not that interesting. The latter were just boring while the first were not too bad, but I was just waiting for their early 2000 hits Bohemian Like You and We Used to be Friends. Next were Liars, they played a very, very psych set with a lot of serious beats. They were also the first band making the people dance. Officially there is a 100dB limit, but that was a joke, especially in the tent where Liars was playing… But again, at the end of their set most 'fans' left for Cake: see Silversun Pickups. Beirut wasn't that good either. They should have been better. I had the feeling they were jet lagged, a lot. (Couple of days after the festival there was an announcement Beirut had to cancel all their remaining Aussie gigs due to illness). Chromatics was no doubt the best band playing that day (I didn't watch all bands off course).  There were not that many spectators, but what a party they've created ! Although the set was very similar to the Primavera one, they were responsible for the first goose bumps of the day. The set ended as usual with their Kate Bush and Neil Young covers. I still don't understand why they don't start their set with that Neil Young cover. It would be a great way to start dancing the night away... But then again, Chromatics were scheduled at daylight. I had to skip Ben Folds Five because I wanted to see Chromatics again. I didn't feel bad at all… Next up was Beck. It seemed to be a greatest hits show. Not so weird if you check his back catalogue. Nice set with a lot of variaton, nice performance. Grizzly Bear was a very busy place to be after Beck. They started with a 30 minutes delay so I could only see the first half hour. In England you could see they were not used to the new songs yet. Well that's over now. Hell, those new songs do sound great live ! Too bad I could not stay until the end, because Sigur Rós was beginning at main stage. Sigur Rós was good but they weren't great. Seems to be weird to tell you this but I have the feeling the Icelandic band has lost his magic touch performing live. There songs still are great. I really do like them, but I'm missing the energy and emotions I'm used to when seeing them performing live. Again, no goose bumps except for Untitled #8 and Svefn-g-Englar, and that's just not enough. And to be honest I don't know what the Australians were thinking but going towards the end of the set a lot of the people went away… (left early or going to Santigold for a couple of songs ?) The festival ended with Sigur Rós at 22:00, no encores, no extra's. It seems a very Belgian thing to end festivals at 02:00 at night (Primavera keeps on going until 5, but it also starts only at 17:00). I'm also wondering why I have the feeling bands are not really playing as passionate as in Europe. Are they still suffering from the jet lag ? Are they having not that much of fun ? The public here isn't also that fanatic, they favour beer and being together more I guess. :) It was an expensive day, but luckily I did enjoy the day.

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posted via: http://www.dew4chter.be/blog