Splendour in the Grass 2010. It’s a festival we’re all still talking about here at AU HQ – and so we thought we’d let a few more contributors (reviewers and photographers) share their experiences with you …
Johnny Au:
As a complete novice to camping at festivals I approached Splendour with a fair amount of trepidation. But those fears were unfounded because I simply had one of the best festival experiences in my life! The organisers at Woodford has to be congratulated on putting a very well organised festival. The camping grounds was clean and the facilities were working well. The variety of food available for sale was excellent also. Yes the music was brilliant but a poor camping experience could have ruined it. I’m glad it didn’t, in fact it took it to another level. Bravo Splendour, take a bow!
Nik Thorup … on The Drums:
Taking the stage at 2 pm Saturday, were the New York four piece The Drums. These guys may be the most hyped band since their New York neighbours The Strokes. “Lets Go Surfing” was a huge blog hit late last year, and their debut album released in June is as catchy as it is heartbreaking.
I made my way to the ampitheater for Band of Skulls’ 1pm set, and quickly got a place on the barrier armed with two Coopers Mild Ales**. The Drums entered the scorching hot stage one at a time, with enigmatic frontman Caleb coming out last. I was surprised at first, with the absence of any bass guitar on the stage. What has been most appealing about The Drums to me is their Smiths-esque interplay between high and low guitar notes. One of guitarists plays mostly the top two strings of his guitar in a very bass-like fashion while the other plays as normal. Problem solved.
Over the next 45 minutes or so, The Drums covered a majority of their new record as well as throwing in old(ish) hits like “Submarine” and “Saddest Summer”. Caleb managed to keep a ‘so awkward its cool’ demeanour throughout the whole set. Prancing around dramatically, he was hands-down the best showman of the weekend. I know a lot of Florence & The Machine fans who may disagree, but I just found her gigantic stage fan cheesy.
Introducing the opening track from their new LP ‘Best Friend’, Caleb declared ‘this song is about my dead best friend’. For a split-second, it was pretty heavy. Then the band kicked into gear and it was all fun and games again. This weird interplay between heartbreak and fun is what I love so much about The Drums. There’s something strange and unsettling about dancing to a song about someone’s friend dying. Maybe The Drums are just trying to make people dance their way out of the shitty times.
Before they closed with their two most popular songs, the anthematic ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ and ‘Down By the Water’, I was already completely satisfied. Did I mention it was only 2:30 on the second day of the festival?
** Alcoholic/Cheapskate rant: I love Coopers. But this Splendour trick was just an unethical ripoff. A friendly stranger came up to me and pointed out that a Coopers Mild Ale (Cost: 3 Tickets/$6) contained 1.0 standard drinks. You could get a Coopers Light, which contained 0.1 less standard drinks, for a whole $2 less. Don’t fall for this one next year! Some of the bars ran out of Coopers Light by the second day, but if you said that you insisted on having Light and paying only two tickets, they usually gave you a discount.
Sigourney Berndt:
The Good Bits
On the whole Spelndour In The Grass was an entirely amazing experience. One of the biggest successes was definately the toilets. Being a girl at a festival can often mean a very precarious balancing of water intake so you don’t spend your whole day in a queue. I’ve waited up to half an hour to use a toilet at other major festivals, I don’t think I waited ten minutes at Splendour. This was absolutely mind blowing.
Florence and The Machine was an absolutely epic performance. It really felt as though everyone at Splendour had crowded into the amphitheatre to watch this act, and they were rewarded justly. Words cannot describe how impressive Florence and the Machine were. The radio does not do justice to this woman’s voice or her ability to hold a note so perfectly. This was definitely the most powerful act of the festival.
Other gems included the absolutely adorable Laura Marling, who could not help but smile as the entire tent audibly sang along to her hit song “Ghosts.” Kate Nash was a mind blowing performance, too, as she fought to have the stage lights off and the lights on the audience up. Her set proved that she is not content simply to sing pop songs and definitely has something to say to anyone who’ll listen.
Mumford and Sons were the darlings of the festival, appearing on stage with The Temper Trap, Marcus Mumford playing with Laura Marling, and during their own set getting a posse of festival acts on stage for a hoe down type performance. This must be the nicest band on the block. Anyone in the ampitheatre during “Little Lion Man” can testify the love that surrounds this band, who played songs both old and new and delighted the audience with every word.
The Bad Bits
Maybe I just wasn’t committed enough, but I ended up passing on a lot of bands playing on the mainstage simply because it was such a trek to get to it. And maybe I’m just a bit cheap, but I was fairly unimpressed by having to pay ten dollars to get a programme, although in their defense, programmes and maps were displayed throughout the site, meaning the purchase of a programme was a luxury and not a necessity.
Cassandra Hannagan:
Having never been to Splendour before I wasn’t entirely sure what I was in for… I’d heard the stories.. I’d seen the photos, but never actually taken the plunge… So it was to be Woodford where I lost my splendour v plates… and lose them I did..
The EIGHT HOURS it took us to get from Caboolture to inside the festival where grinding to say the least… and although we’d nearly lost the will to live by the time we had to erect our tent in the dark.. the promise of 3 full festy days ahead were enough to keep us going.. and the bottle of vodka we’d smuggled in…
The first day kicked off nicely… seeing Jinja Safari make their big debut was fun… having been to the Woodford Folky.. I kind of knew the lay of the land.. however it was still quite suprising and ultimately exhausting traversing all those hills… and the stages were quite the distance apart… saying that though, having permanent toilets instead of portaloos were very luxurious and clean… kind of took away that festival toilet experience…
There were so many bands I saw and shot over the three days that I’m just going to have to give you the stand outs…. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club … as tight as they are on their album and nothing short of rock demi-gods … We Are Scientists … with their poppy stylings and good humour.. also the way the sun was hitting the stage when they played certainly made for nice light… LCD Soundsystem.. so much energy..and such great tunes … Miike Snow.. quite a surprise there but very enjoyable … Foals … freaking awesome!
Clare Bowditch … lovely as always … The Pixies .. could do with a diet but awesome none the less… Band of Skulls were pretty good… The Drums … very surprising with their fruity antics on stage… not complaining though cos they made for very good shots…. Have to say I found Sally Seltmann probably the least enjoyable as she really could have used a bit more expression in her face… her music was cute though… and Kate Nash with her piano that had “a cunt is a useful thing” written in large letters across the front… was a tad painful… out of all the things I missed it has to be Richard Ashcroft throwing his maracas and trying to fight a photographer that hurts the most… but certainly made for good gossip at the bar that night..
All in all have to say that Splendour 2010 was the most full on amazing thing I’ve done to date… and now that my body has recovered I look back at that glorious weekend and cross my fingers I get there again next year…
