What do you do when the area around your festival site is ravaged by Victoria’s most destructive bushfires since Black Saturday just three days before it starts? What happens when the threat of possibly evacuating 16,000 party ready punters gets too real?
Why, you make like the Falls crew, of course – roll up your sleeves and move the entire festival an hour up the road within thirty hours. A festival with months of on-site planning wouldn’t have pulled itself together as well as the Victorian leg of Falls Festival’s move to the Mt Duneed Estate winery, and despite the heat, the dust and the crowd that seems to be becoming more mainstream with each year, the festival was – as per usual – a huge success.
The Arrival
Despite the location change, it really was business as usual for the stalwart of Australian New Year festivals – there were no policy changes, lineup alterations or camping restrictions other than a lack of ice being sold, which was rectified by the second day anyway.
If you can move a whole festival and the only thing that doesn’t quite make it is the ice, you’re doing alright. Driving in, we could still see the bare bones of the stage still being put together – but true to form, by the time they needed the stage it was there at the bottom of the huge valley in all its glory.
Boogie Nights, held in the Grand Theatre, went down a treat as weary roadtrippers emerged from their afternoon naps draped in various states of the night’s theme, tinsel.
Melbourne funk tribe Sex On Toast wasted no time in starting the party as cars were still queuing for the infamous contraband search at the festival’s entrance – though it does seem a little misguided to put bands on so soon after opening the gates, the 10-man band drove a bunch of particularly dedicated followers and plenty more curious onlookers to the arena.
If you can move a whole festival and the only thing that doesn’t quite make it is the ice, you’re doing alright.The rest of Boogie Nights saw sets from Fleetmac Wood, Art Vs Science and total enigma and most-bizarre-human-on-the-planet Weird Al Yankovic, whose costume changes and stage Segway riding filled up the tent faster than you can say ‘White And Nerdy’.
The real lineups started on the Tuesday – and coincidentally, so too did the heat. Punters braved the near-40 degree temperatures in the unshaded Valley Stage, to their credit helped along by security guards with sprinkler hoses and water bottles, and even a sprinkler tent to walk through on your way into the crowd – ten points to you, Falls.
Day One
A radiant Ainslie Wills opened up the first day, which was full of new favourites and a couple of trusty old Falls veterans. The Melbourne singer has had a brilliant year, from her starring role in #1 Dads single ‘So Soldier’ to stunning EP Oh The Gold, she’s a true superstar finally getting some of the recognition she deserves – and with a big crowd for 11am singing through their egg and bacon rolls, no less.
The afternoon saw two of the festival’s most outstanding acts by all accounts in Leon Bridges and Halsey. Bridges’ old-school American charm – and funk and soul tunes – had people swinging and spinning around, dipping each other so expertly we might as well have been at a 1950s school prom.
Playing straight after Aussie legends Hiatus Kaiyote, in her first ever Australian show, Halsey took the sunset shift and blew it out of the park. People flocked down the hill to watch the 21 year-old New York beauty in some of the most memorable and addictive pop songs of the year, possibly with more energy than every other Falls act put together.
She seemed as happy to be there as we did – and as quickly as she fell in love with Australia, the whole of Falls fell right back.
Today was my first Australian show. A video posted by halsey (@iamhalsey) on
The first day was expertly closed by Falls faves and our favourite marsupials The Wombats and their barrage of hits that drew pretty much the whole Falls population – plus a special post-set tribute (“Fuck you, Lemmy!”) to Motorhead’s Lemmy who had passed away earlier that day.
Day Two
Upping the heat again, Day Two saw us running up and down the Mt Duneed hill between stages, racing to catch an incredibly diverse group of acts through the day.
From Irish singer-songwriter wunderkind SOAK soothing our pounding hangovers in the morning to Alpine getting our boogie back on, Mac Demarco and Courtney Barnett taking on the sweaty mid-afternoon heat and winning by a mile with huge crowds and Gary Clark Jr. (plus five-minute guitar solos) killing it as the evening rolled on, to say there was something for everyone is a cliché but also a huge understatement.
Photo: Matt Green, source: Facebook
A couple of the day’s highlights played to disappointingly small crowds, though – Mercury Prize winners Young Fathers brought their profound, melodic hip-hop and smashed a late afternoon set, as did Australian singer Ngaiire with her huge voice and sassy AF backing singers, but neither pulled the full tent they so blatantly deserved: Australia, take note.
The second night was certainly geared to the more electronic side of things, and was evidently a pull for those normally more inclined to EDM festivals (and not wearing shirts). RÜFÜS, Bloc Party and Disclosure put on a four-hour party despite a couple of sound issues, and both visually and musically filled the Valley with droves of boogieing fans, singing along even when they didn’t think they wanted to.
Day Three
With the mercury toeing the 40 degree line on New Year’s Eve, Falls’ final day of music was a little bit of a sweaty struggle, we won’t lie – but another diverse lineup made 14 hours in the searing sun worth every second.
Gang Of Youths seem to become a better live band every time they step onto a stage, and with a poignant message from frontman Dave Leaupepe about respecting women’s bodies particularly in a festival environment they won over the packed early morning crowd in a heartbeat.
During the afternoon of local legends, MEG MAC prompted one of the biggest festival sing-alongs with ‘Never Be’ and ‘Roll Up Your Sleeves’ rounding out an almost unbelievably successful year for the now internationally acclaimed soul-pop singer, and Holy Holy’s soaring guitars and catchy rhythmic lyrics were perfect to find some shade and sway along to.
Mt Duneed’s Falls is not only a heartwarming way to end 2015, but a pretty bloody good antidote to a year that seems to have been nothing but trouble for music festivals.Back in the Grand Theatre, the R’n’B was free-flowing as Prince-approved guitar prodigy Harts played his multiple instruments, then played them while STANDING UPSIDE-DOWN just to put us all further to shame, then Toro Y Moi’s hour-long dance party was enough to drag even the most exhausted revellers to their feet.
New Year’s countdown entertainment was provided by Oxford indie-rockers Foals, who – despite playing nowhere near enough of their old bangers – killed the midnight slot by playing half of ‘Two Steps Twice’ before the clock ticked over, and rounding it off as the confetti, champagne and kisses were flying around.
Photo: @i_am_anthonysmith, source: Facebook
The New Year celebration at Mt Duneed was, cliché as it is, more than just the end of a year and another festival. Festival organisers and workers sidestage embraced each other as the clock struck 2016 in an outpouring of relief that a festival which, a week beforehand, was almost cancelled, had gone off without a hitch.
From tradies who gave up their time to build the makeshift stage to the extra volunteers to the $100,000 raised for bushfire victims through an extra release of tickets, an event like Mt Duneed’s Falls is not only a heartwarming way to end 2015, but a pretty bloody good antidote to a year that seems to have been nothing but trouble for music festivals.
