The market for R&B festivals in Australia is tricky, but the demand is clearly at a level that seemed unreachable a few years ago. It felt unlikely we’d ever get a modern R&B festival with a solid all-round lineup, especially since Soul Fest folded and Made in the 90s is set on that vintage niche.
Enter Whatslively with Souled Out, stopping in the usual Australian cities with a weighty line-up that’s actually worth the money. Bryson Tiller and Summer Walker were the main drawcards, but there was also PartyNextDoor, Tinashe, Lucky Daye, Majid Jordan and a bevy of local talent.
My biggest takeaway is just how popular R&B is once again. The festival, at Parramatta Park, was sold out and packed. Given the very young demographic, it seemed most were rocking up a bit past 4 PM after school.
I guess it then made sense to have this on a weekday. The usual festival crowd are all at work, whereas this started later in the afternoon so people could finish school or clock of work early. Still, it felt like a weekend.
R&B performances are always hit or miss. They put more focus on the vocalists because they can’t get away with anything, especially since modern R&B is fairly minimalistic. And so if even one of the top performers was off the mark, the whole thing could have been soured.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. The locals held it down nicely in the early part of the afternoon but things really picked up once Tinashe hit the stage. I’ve always been a big fan of her work, and feel she’s one of the more underrated performers in the industry right now. She proved that her new material is every bit as good as hits like “2 On” and “All Hands on Deck”, which were the last two songs.
Things were faily consistent throughout the day. Vocal work was on point, most acts had live bands with them and actually seemed like they were putting effort into their performances. R&B festivals are notoriously wishy-washy because of this, and not every act brings it’s A-game.
But from Lucky Daye right through to Summer Walker, everything was great. The natural amphitheater worked well – sitting on the hill listening to live R&B on a balmy weeknight is bliss – and both Tiller and Walker knocked it out of the park for their co-headline sets. The latter especially, with Summer Walker closing out the festival with the biggest production of the day.
Not bad, Whatslively. Not bad at all.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Souled Out Festival still has legs in Gold Coast, Melbourne, Auckland and Perth. For all details head to Whatslively.
