Yesterday the sun came out in Sydney, without a cloud in sight, and the revellers came out in force, selling out the 2012 Laneway Festival in the mid afternoon.
Bands M83 (pictured above), Feist, The Drums, Cults and Active Child received among the largest crowds (and singalongs thanks to their triple j hits) of the day, while the sun ensured a fair few festival goers would leave with a good red glow.
There were your usual festival complaints: food lines were rather long at the peak of the day, which may have come down to the limited number of stalls, and though some have complained about the bathroom lines, there were always other options with shorter queues if you spotted a long one. The festival has already apologised for the food queues and promised they will be reduced in 2013. Cider ran out at all but one of the bars reasonably early in the day, but there were plenty of other choices on offer, and they never ran out of the most important liquid: water.
Sound problems generally came down to the fact that volume was too low, but if you were close enough to the stage (e.g. had gotten there early enough to scope out a spot), then this wasn’t an issue, and ultimately helped prevent too much stage bleed. We only noticed this during artists like Laura Marling and Feist, who had softer tracks (and a crowd who talked through much of it, at least further back).
The day ran on time almost without fail: though some bands finished notably before their set time was due to finish. The Drums and SBTRKT were the biggest delays we saw during the day, with The Drums appearing 15 minutes late and having their set cut short as a result, while SBTRKT‘s anticipated live performance started more than 20 minutes late. Given the 10pm curfew, many were concerned this would result in a 15 minute set – however they pushed the set past curfew and the set continued after we left at 10pm.
The shuttles back to Town Hall and Central after the festival were a much needed addition to the public transport infrastructure of the festival this year, and seem to have flowed without a problem by all accounts.
The full review will be online later today and stay tuned for the photos too!
