Parklife 2007 - Melbourne 22.9.2007
Author: Alice Sheppard
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Actually no, it wasn't birds I could hear as I strolled down the banks of the Yarra River. The steady beat of some of the world's best DJs was drifting out from the welcoming gates of Melbourne's Parklife 2007.
As a steady stream of teens, dressed in fluorescent clothing, passed through the entrance way, I managed to shuffle forward to where my friends were waiting. 'I'll just grab a drink' I half yelled over the music.
'Grabbing' a drink however, did not turn out to be as simple as I expected. After waiting 15 minutes for a drink card, then another 20 in the line for the bar, I finally managed to have two drinks in my hand and $18 out of my pocket! 'Never mind,' I thought, 'it's all worth it!' (Apparently, my Media Pass entitled me to free drinks and food, but alas, I was completely oblivious to this… it probably would have made things just a tad easier!)
My friends and I carried on our merry way to meet some other acquaintances on the steep, grassy hill leading up to where the Water Stage was set up. As we stood there arguing over which act to see first, we finally made the decision to wander over to the Earth Stage where the Greenskeepers were performing. I had never heard of any of their songs, yet I still managed to dance away for the entire set. It wasn't until their final song that I finally realised who they were. Their most popular and well-known tune, Lotion, based on the book Silence of the Lambs, had the whole crowd singing along, despite some disturbing elements contained in the lyrics!
Following this, we decided to retrace our footsteps back to the Fire Stage near the entrance to watch Muscles perform live. Having seen Muscles before, I was excited knowing that his songs would be familiar to me. As the crowd surged back and forth to his hit song Icecream, the fact that I could not see the stage (due to my not-very-high stature) didn't seem to matter. The crowd's energy and excitement were intoxicating, everybody was in great spirits and nobody even spilt a drink on me! I had a few offers of shoulder rides from obliging gentlemen, but the idea of being thrown off into the stampeding crowd did not appeal to me in the slightest.
From about 3.30pm onwards, I spent all my time at the Water Stage. The line-up was absolutely amazing and my friends and I could barely drag ourselves away to even go to the toilet! Goose, MSTRKRFT and Digitalism all got the crowd pumped up, but it was Justice who really stood out. They started their set with their incredibly popular track D-A-N-C-E, which sounds ten-times better live, and proceeded to mix in tracks by Daft Punk and other popular groups, really adding that extra something to their performance. Waters of Nazareth was also a stand-out track for the group.
During their amazing show, however, some idiot boy decided it would be a great idea to climb up the scaffolding on the side of the stage and onto the lights above. This ridiculously stupid and selfish act caused Justice to interrupt their set as the crowd shouted in unison at the dumb-ass to get the hell down. He was not the only person who managed to get past security and climb onto the stage. At least two other men did the same thing but did not make it all the way to the top. The fact that these ridiculous people actually made it up there in the first place really shines the light on the mediocre performance of the security on duty.
That, however, is honestly the only glitch I experienced throughout the entire day. Parklife 2007 was most definitely a day I will never forget! Tags