Soundwave‘s standing as Australia’s premier rock and metal festival reached new heights yesterday as more than 65,000 punters lapped up yesterday’s Melbourne leg at Flemington Racecourse.
Everything was bigger – the venue, the layout, the production, the line-up, and obviously, the amount of fans, who voted with their wallets to make Soundwave the most popular festival of Summer 2012/13 by a country mile.
A shining example of the new stratosphere that Soundwave has entered into was the incredible set by headliners Metallica. Backed by blazing lights, catwalks, walls of LED screens and fireworks, the metal legends showed with a two-hour masterclass why they are still at the top of their game after more than three decades.
Fellow ‘Big 4’ acts Anthrax and Slayer made some almighty noise earlier in the day, while Stone Sour also proved to be a super popular drawcard at the beginning of the afternoon. You just had to ask the fans lining up at the entrance to Stage 1B – who were refused entry by security throughout their set due to the circle being too packed.
Underneath the big tent at Stage 3, Dragonforce and Killswitch Engage both made their presence felt with some solid performances, which also led to massive dust clouds. AJ Maddah might want to put down some matting there if he uses the same spot in 2014.
And, for something a bit different, Cypress Hill provided some funky old-school vibes at the other end of the park, just as the sun was going down, with plenty of fans groovin’ along to their West Coast hip-hop and stoner-friendly tunes.
Organiser AJ Maddah has said on several occasions that Soundwave is designed to be a festival of international quality – and yesterday, it felt every bit the part. Maddah reckons that he still hasn’t created his “perfect” festival. If yesterday was anything to go by, the thought of doing something a few steps up from that is incredibly salivating.
In the meantime, you can relive some of the memories from Soundwave Melbourne yesterday with our photo gallery from Andrew Briscoe below.
Soundwave 2013 – Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne 1/03/2013
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