If you asked people to sum up the day in three words, they would probably pull out the three d’s – dust, dirt, and drinks.
Blessed with rays of sunshine, but thankfully not a record scorcher like was seen at Big Day Out, over 10,000 people flooded the gates of Camp Shortland for the sixth round of Fat As Butter – well, most people made it through the gates.
Seeing people taken away and unable to walk before even making into the grounds, it may have left some thinking it was going to be an interesting day with some unruly crowds. But overall, punters were quite well behaved throughout, though maybe this had something to do with police presence.
If the day was to be split in half, the first part of the day could be described as some background music for people having a few drinks outside. Seemingly just dominated by DJs playing hit songs, while this made for a fun time, it kind of left you feeling like the Newcastle foreshore had just been turned into some kind of outdoor day-time night club more then a festival, but the DJs in question were talented enough to make it enjoyable.
First there was Porter Robinson on the Fabio stage. With the American starting his set when most people had finally rocked up to the venue and still completely full of energy, the crowd was big and jumping.
After finally emerging from the mosh near the end of the set and heading to the bar, a realisation hit. Though the festival usually gets a wrap for being full of underagers dressed in their questionable outfits, no one seems to have ever noted the up side of this – short bar lines.
Returning to Fabio, Digitalism busted out their DJ set. While it was definitely good, entertaining, and had the people going, it was just another current hit after current hit set list.
Quickly ducking over to the end of Bluejuice’s set at the Fat stage, the audience seemed to be loving it and remnants of their hit ‘Walking Around On A Broken Leg’ could be heard.
Next up, the line of DJs was broken by rapper Mickey Avalon who ultimately delivered quite an underwhelming set. Whether it was the fact it was hard to hear or the quite sombre crowd, something about it just was not entertaining. He also showed that, just because you have a half naked woman on stage, does not mean your performance will go off.
Despite the somewhat smaller area space of the festival, organisers managed to squeeze in plenty of money-spending opportunities with three stages, plenty of food choices, a merch stand. bars and even an array of rides.
No strangers to Newcastle crowds thanks to their frequent appearances at King Street Hotel, Bombs Away hit the Fabio stage as the clock struck six. It was at this point, as the bigger names began to come out, that the place started to possess more of a festival feel.
Drawing themselves one hell of a crowd, and smashing out the songs we all know to well, like ‘Super Soaker‘ and ‘Big Booty Bitches’, punters went nuts. A tight mosh, girls on shoulders, bras flying and constant chants of “tits out for the boys” pretty much sums up the Bombs Away experience that day.
There was plenty of attempts to open up the mosh and create circle pits throughout the set, which usually resulted in people busting out some awkward, partial dance moves. It just goes to show that maybe those type of spectacles should be saved for the heavier types of music guys
Though the numbers seriously diminished, those who stuck around still enjoyed themselves as Peking Duk took over and delivered some more dance music.
The headliners of the days, such as Bliss N Eso, definitely pulled off impressive sets with seriously large crowd numbers. From smashing out songs like ‘Down By The River’, pulling out collaborations as Bluejuice joined the trio to perform ‘Act Your Age’, and, at times, distracting but entertaining background videos, the boys showed why they always have people coming back for more.
Running over and only catching the last minute of the Aston shuffle set, there was a considerable crowd who all seemed to be into it.
One of the last major acts for the night, Gym Class Heroes, definitely pleased, coming out with a hit after hit set.
Starting us off with ‘Ass Back Home’, with everyone loudly singing along to Neon Hitch’s part, they dished out ‘Cookie Jar’, ‘Stereo Hearts’, ‘Cupids Chokehold’, ‘The Fighter’, ‘Clothes Off’ and the newer song of ‘The Queen And I’. Though everyone was clearly enjoying themselves, it seemed that the exhaustion of the day had caught up to most, with the mosh being quite a tame force.
As everyone piled out of the gates, it would have been a sight to see at the end of the night as hundreds walked along the foreshore.
To all those crazy people who still managed to have the energy and capacity to stand to continuing partying afterwards, I salute you.
While punters will no doubt be finding dirt and glitter in random places on our bodies for days to come, with people bothering to come all the way from Sydney enjoying themselves, its safe to say Fat As Butter served up another great day out.
