After terrorising hundreds of small children in hyper-violent bumper car rallies (RIP 7-year-olds, sorry horrified parents), thousands descended into Luna Park’s Big Top for Come Together Festival.
After a one year hiatus, the Queen’s birthday weekend in Sydney marked the ten-year anniversary of the combined hip hop/indie festival.
Saturday’s hip hop portion of the event saw fans enjoying a notably large police presence, and a pat-down worthy of the international airport, before heading in to enjoy the show.
Opening the weekend was home girl Sarah Connor, who adequately rocked her opening set, and was received well by the crowd. Arguably next month’s big thing, this girl is on the cusp of really making it, and gave a performance worthy of the stardom she’ll soon have, not her current status.
With a single stage and super quick changeovers, Saturday night’s filler acts were a blur of “put your fuckin hands in the fuckin air” (if we had a dollar for every time that was shouted on Saturday night, we’d be walking away with a tidy profit).
Ivan Ooze, Coin Banks, and Remi invariably provided decent entertainment, but if the tiny smoking area upstairs was any indication of the general interest level, a lot of people were phoning it in until some of the bigger acts came out.
[include_post id=”449087″] The night kicked up a notch as Horrorshow and Thundamentals took to the stage, with Horrowshow stoked to be closing out their recent tour with such a great crowd. Thundamentals took us to a different place with a serious political agenda in their set, encouraging kids to convince their parents not to vote for Tony Abbott.
Finally Seth Sentry came out to rock the house, closing Saturday’s leg of the festival with a high energy all out dance party, and proving that the gap between average Aussie hip hop, and great Aussie hip hop is a vast expanse.
Sunday rolled around, and after another afternoon of aggressive bumper-cars, Sydney two-piece Polish Club opened the indie portion of the weekend. The Unearthed duo have an amazing energy, but were a little green, we can’t wait to see how they bloom in a few years.
Ecca Vandal strutted and flitted around on stage, with a voice a hundred times more powerful than her tiny frame lets on, this Melbourne girl has some serious energy, and a couple of decent hits as well.
Following up, Montaigne was treated to the first truly enthusiastic welcome of the evening, and was thoroughly deserved. Described on Unearthed as what her namesake “Michel de Montaigne is to Renaissance philosophy, she is to music,” she has a wickedly warm sound, the kind of artist you immediately know is going places.
Similarly, Elizabeth Rose and Safia both went off, perhaps proving that it’s easier to get a cheer from indie crowds than it is hip hop fans.
By the time Jungle Giants took to the stage the room was so well warmed up that all it took was a cheesy “allo allo allo” to have the crowd shrieking. There wasn’t a moment during their entire set that the room wasn’t completely buzzing with movement and dancing.
Taking out the weekend were Aussie festival staples Ball Park Music. So much more than the kids they were when they burst onto the festival scene a few years ago, these guys are the quintessential ‘better live than in the studio’ band.
‘It’s Nice to be Alive’ still goes off with the same vigour it did when it debuted nearly five years ago, with the packed out Big Top going all out with frenetic dancing and jumping to close out the awesome weekend.
Check photos from out day one and day two of the festival here.
