We partnered with hotel brand Ibis to start a music reviewer program which will gave one lucky winner the opportunity to review Stereosonic Festival in Brisbane earlier this month. The winner, Michelle Gianotti, looks back at her experience:
The second weekend of Stereosonic’s epic 2014 stopped in at none other than Brisbane’s RNA Showgrounds. The hype leading into the festival was of epic proportion and every stage managed to exceed expectations.
As the gates opened, Home Grown talent AJC welcomed punters with a perfect set to start the day. The Your Shot 2014 Wildcard winner brought the party to the locals stage and fronted a huge turnout. Setting the bar high, AJC closed his set which had punters ready to dance the day away.
Another local hero, Nick Galea brought fans from all over to the Armada stage to deliver an infectious set of big room progressive house and trance. Debuting a number of upcoming tracks, Galea finished his set to a full crowd and went out on a high.
After grabbing a quick feed it was time to head over to the main stage to catch the end of Nervo. The Australian sisters sure know how to party on home soil. Following on was Australian chart toppers Peking Duk. The duo played a set that could please any dance music lover including big highlights from the tracks “High”, “Mufasa” and the iconic “Sandstorm” from Darude.
After an overthetop Peking Duk set, we headed back to the Armada stage to Australian favourite Marlo. The master at work filled the tent with fans raising their hands to the sounds of “Visions,” “Haunted” and “Barracuda.”
Time for dinner! You can’t attend a festival without taking advantage of the festival food. Dagwood dogs, hot chips and nachos hit the spot, ensuring we had enough to make the end of the night.
Australia’s #1 DJ Will Sparks certainly stepped it up a notch for his main stage set at the primetime slot of 6.30pm. The Melbourne bounce mastermind was welcomed by one of the biggest crowds of the day. Sparks treated fans to a range of hit tracks including “This is what the bounce is,” “Ah Yeah,” “Bourne” and new psytrance track “Psycho.” Following Sparks, dance floor anthem favourite, Calvin Harris took to the stage impressing punters from all corners of the RNA Showgrounds. Delivering a set filled with big room house and his iconic chart topping singles, Harris proved why he is ranked among the best in the business.
As 9pm came around, fans shifted over to the HARD stage to see what party king Diplo was to bring to the table. Throwing down a big mix of trap, moombahton and electro the superstar DJ ran into some trouble with the lighting and sound department as the at one point the sound and visuals completely cut out and visuals remained nonexistant.
We decided to leave Diplo and close the night with rising trance star Andrew Rayel. The Dutch producer smashed out number of hit tracks including “One in a Million,” “Dark Warrior” and “How Do I Know.”
Stereosonic has proven once again, to be Australia’s premier electronic music festival and with a production and lineup that continues to grow, the future looks great for electronic dance music nationwide. Many thanks to ibis and the AU review for giving me the chance to check out these awesome artists.
Stay tuned for more opportunities to be a part of this special program…
