Changing anything about a music festival that’s been in existence since the early 90s is no easy feat.

But with The Big Day Out’s 2013 reboot, it seemed only natural that the established festival would be borrowing some ideas from their new promoting partners,  C3 Presents, the brains responsible for Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits Music Festival in the United States.

The most noticeable addition (and perhaps the biggest crowd pleaser), was the introduction of Chow Town.

Originally announced in October last year, the idea is a new approach to festival food.  The approach involves featuring prominent local restaurants and asking the chefs to recreate menu items for a music festival setting.

With renegade Porteno/Bodega boys Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz announced as the ‘Culinary Outlaw’ ambassadors for the new venture, it was already whetting the appetite of festival-goers long before the restaurants or menu items were even announced.

The restaurants that took part included Golden Fields, everyone’s favourite burger joint, Huxtaburger,  modern Asian restaurant, Cookie,  food trucks Beatbox Kitchen, Taco Truck, the Spanish Anada, and St Ali.

Set up in a row of elegant-looking tents, the queues for the festival food started early and didn’t tend to subside throughout the long day. While there were some obvious instant favourites (see: Huxtaburger) all vendors got their fair share of punters.

Set up in a row of elegant-looking tents, the queues for the festival food started early and didn’t tend to subside throughout the long day

Up for offer from Golden Fields was an array of Vietnemese-inspired mobile-friendly foods including a delicious lobster roll and crowd favourite fried chicken bahn mi  – a fried chicken, Vietnamese slaw sandwich served in a baguette. The crispy chicken juxtaposed with the tangy slaw proved to be one of perfect additions to the festival food scene.

Golden Fields was one of the stalls that also offered a dessert option with a peanut butter and chocolate ice-cream sandwich topped off with salted caramel. The sweetness of the classic combo was made modern with the addition of the salted caramel and many punters could be seen around Flemmington Racecourse licking their fingers and savouring every last morsel of the sweet treat.

Anada took a less obvious approach with their festival fare and opted for more traditional Spanish offerings including paella, and fish croquettes – which were just salty enough to help beer go down a little smoother. In a bid to diversify the traditional menu, the Spanish restauranteurs offered up a spicy chorizo burger as well as some delicious and super popular chocolate churros. The donut-y treat was their biggest hit of the day.

Chow Town, unsurprisingly ended up being one of the best new additions to Big Day Out in 2013, adding an element of sophistication before unseen at Australian music festivals

Melbourne classic Cookie offered up a variety of Asian dishes, with their most popular being their lamb curry, which, while not usually a common dish to see at one-day festivals, went down a huge treat with crowds.

St. Ali were looking after the early-day punters – or perhaps those who hadn’t eaten breakfast yet – with tasty granola and halloumi fritters  with a sweet chili sauce up for grabs. Who said music festivals weren’t the right place to devour some brunch?

RB’s Fried Chicken and Huxtaburger were the stalls that made the least changes to their menus, and were, perhaps for that reason, among the most popular of the day. RB’s was the place to get he best fries of the day and the potato treats perfectly complimented the ir fried chicken tacos and fried chicken burgers.

The always-popular purveyors of the oft-claimed best burgers in Melbourne, Huxtaburger were still the hit of the day due in large part to the speediness and efficiency at which they delivered their offerings.

Boasting the longest cues of all the stalls, the Huxta crew know how to do short-order cuisine quick, and considering they needed to make few changes to their menu (bar the renaming of their food after Big Day Out acts, Red Hot Chili-burger, anyone?), it’s no large surprise that they proved to be crowd favourites.

Chow Town, unsurprisingly ended up being one of the best new additions to Big Day Out in 2013, adding an element of sophistication before unseen at Australian music festivals. We can’t wait to see what they’ve got liens up for 2014!