Despite what many may say about the demographic of punters that this festival attracts, Future Music put on a well-oiled and tight operation.
There was never more than a few minutes wait in the toilet queue and the bar lines were fast moving. With that said, festival prices were taken well advantage of with drinks averaging around ten big ones. However, in our festival landscape, such prices are to be expected.
Another detail taken very good care of was the negligible amount of sound bleeding from stage to stage. The two main stages were probably less than 50 metres away from each other, but while standing in front of one, you couldn’t hear a peep from the other. All in all, a damn fine effort in mega gig logistics.
The main drawcards were pretty obvious, even though neither act was given the duty of closing out the festival. Pharrell Williams took the stage at 4pm (for a somewhat lazy 30 minutes) with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis appearing at around 6pm.
However, this could have been a nice manoeuver to avoid a controversial timetable clash, and despite the two popular acts, there were plenty of kickass DJs, MCs, and bands to check out.
Mid-afternoon and Knife Party’s own Haunted House tent was already pumping with its huge video screens showing images of one giant tarantula dancing behind I See Monstas. The London-based group have been supporting Knife Party on the Haunted House tour, and if they had been playing a little later, the trio would have surely garnered a larger crowd.
Before Pharrell hit the stage, Dada Life was revving up the growing number of festivalgoers. There’s something abrasive and just downright dirty about Dada Life, which complemented the oddly erotic cartoons playing during their set.
Pharrell took the stage and performed to a crowd that surely consisted of every single person in the festival limits. Playing through hits from his time in N*E*R*D, like ‘She Wants To Move’ and ‘Lap Dance’, the artist also included a few dubious numbers.
The most notable went to Gwen Stephani’s ‘Hollaback Girl’, which Pharrell had a hand in writing but doesn’t appear in at all. While the song was playing, the artist wandered around the stage saying things like “yeah” at the end of some of lyrical phrases. Why do that in such a short 30 minute set when you’ve just released a solo album?
One of only three bands on the line-up (if you include Macklemore and Ryan Lewis), Cut Copy pulled a decent size crowd on the other main stage. Mostly playing songs off their newest release Free Your Mind, it was a hard slot considering Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were less than 30 minutes from playing on another stage. As a result, fans of the American hip hop duo left early to secure their places.
It has to be said that as a prominent figure in current pop culture, Macklemore can be looked up to as a seemingly decent human being. He doesn’t carry messages of hate and doesn’t focus too hard on the avarice plaguing so much rap music. What more could you want from a pop artist than songs about hope, dreams, and equality?
Bounding out on stage after Ryan Lewis and the rest of the band, Macklemore hit the crowd with ‘Ten Thousand Hours’, ‘Thrift Shop’, and ‘Same Love’. It’s inspiring to see an artist take on issues like marriage equality. At the end of ‘Same Love’, the MC even asked the audience members who were in support of the cause to raise their hands.
Once their set was over, it was clear that it was getting to the point in the evening when casualties were starting to dot the ground. All in all, there didn’t seem to be any problems; judging by police accounts, it was pretty well behaved festival. Let’s all give ourselves a big collective pat on the back.
Catching the end of Tinie Tempah’s set closer ‘Miami 2 Ibiza’, there was a brief pause by the dodgem cars to watch the drunk drivers battle it out before hitting up the Haunted House stage again to catch Knife Party.
Performing on a ten foot high platform with a frontage that acted as a screen and an electronic backdrop, locals Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen projected maniacal beats from the balcony of their spooky house.
The power of the music infected the packed out tent as lasers drew a web across the roof and pyrotechnics blasted from in front of them. Leaving no doubts about why the stage was given to the act, Swire and McGrillen overloaded the senses, washing the crowd in colours and sound.
Stepping out into the cooler night broke the Knife Party-induced daze and it was back to stage hopping to see the closing acts.
Deadmau5 took the Safari stage with Phoenix performing next to him on the other main stage. The crowd for Deadmau5’s house music probably tripled the French indie boys’ crowd, displaying the punters’ predilections.
A surprise came from one of the smaller stages in Gesaffelstein, whose set was very minimal. The artist looked like an Eastern European dictator atop a stone slab. The set was filled with infectious beats with builds that he would frustratingly dissipate while still keeping the audience on the line for that drop.
Festivals are turning into dinosaurs all over the place, but Future still manages to draw the big names. Say what you want about the crowd – it still shines among the rest, and is an event that other promoters should use as a guide.
