Absolutely and amazingly awesome. Perth is a home away from home and I’ve always considered Perth as a city as much in love with live music as Melbourne.
Future Music 2012 was my second festival in Perth, and man do they do it right. You get your usual crowds (not as overwhelming as in Melbourne) and the majority of those crowds are there for the music and the music alone. Complete strangers standing next to you are so excited they eagerly want to talk music, gigs in general and the acts they’ve already seen that day. The weather is always perfect, the vibe is relaxed – no one rushes, no one pushes, it’s like everyone there wants everyone else to have a good time. The last two years Future in Perth has been so well organised, it’s easy to get around and easy to find the essentials – bars and toilets.
Among the stand outs for me this year were The Rapture and The Wombats. It seemed almost the entire crowd made their way over to The Wombats set. The atmosphere at their set was electric and they put in a decent hour at the very least. I was super excited to see Skrillex, they’re weird, kooky, one of the best of the late avo sets.
Last but not least Swedish House Mafia put on an amazing show, these guys can always get a crowd absolutely pumping. They got the whole crowd on the floor at one stage ready to jump up on que, it was really quite amazing that every single last person did just that. It reminded me of Summerdayze 2011 in Melbourne when David Guetta asked the crowd to hold up their lit mobile phones in that killer accent, “I see sounsands and sounsands of fons’. Love it.
Music festivals in Melbourne are equally amazing, really what’s better than seeing your favorite bands in one place in your beautiful home city? There are, though, certain festivals where I’ve seen changes in the last few years which have not quite yet devoured our Western friends. I’m talking the orange tan dripping down the legs of some festival goers who compel me to offer them tissues to help get themselves cleaned up. Fifteen year old fence jumpers who get spear tackled by security (although they have always been around, little scamps), and topless muscles showing off the sick tattoos they got over winter which have just healed and need airing, whilst yelling, as I heard one, for the “Swiss dudes who make sick as music bro”, apparently referring to Switzerland House Mafia?
But as I say, it’s definitely not all festivals, and generally not the ones where you have to travel over boarders and camp at. I’ve always believed that we’re free to express ourselves however we want, the freedom and excitement felt at a music festival is one of those places to do it, so go for it! (just get the band names right at very least if you’re going to fork out a fair few fun tickets. Oh and if you must with the bottled tan, don’t wear white and understand it’s not meant to go on your face!).
Western Australia, thank you for a wonderful festival experience, as always.
