Laneway Festival 2012, however, was a disappointment.
The end of Laneway Festival saw me stuck in the middle of a stoned out crowd that had run from Washed Out’s set to the stage for SBTRKT. We waited an hour an a half (including 30 minutes of their 45 minute set) as roadies handled computer and set difficulties without a single explanation or a line to say they were even having problems to the people waiting. I paid my $150 festival ticket to see their perfomance, as they were one of the only headliners with a separate but completely sold-out sideshow.
Eventually I gave in, realising I couldn’t hold my friends up for a set that would only last 10 minutes before a noise curfew would see them leaving the stage. Ran to M83’s set, to literally hear the dying last note of Midnight City waning into the air before they launched into a long instrumental piece to wind up. The two things that I wanted to see and dance and fall in love with were the exact two things that I missed out on, and made my friends miss.
Laneway Festival’s continuous lack of organisation and information to its attendees and declining quality in acts vs raising ticket prices is only going to see it fall by the wayside like Big Day Out and nearly every other Australian festival.
People are beginning to wake up that a day of subpar production, expensive food and drinks (a bottle of water costs $4, a bottle of Coca Cola or any other soft drink costs the same? How does that remotely make sense?,) limited set times and non existent shelter aren’t always worth what you’re shelling out for. A sideshow provides twice the set time and tickets are normally only a third of what a festival is, and the majority of that money is going to the local venue and to the artists as well. The incentive to go to festivals is dying less and less, and I really can’t see how festivals in this country in general will be able to keep afloat without some serious changes. People, and I, are fed up. No one has that kind of money anymore.
The lineup that we ended up seeing involved The Drums, Active Child, Givers, Toro Y Moi, M83, Twin Shadow, Cults and Laura Marling. The Drums and Toro Y Moi were the standouts for the night, I am incredibly saddened that I missed The Drums' sideshow (Toro's was amazing!)
I brought a disposable camera with me, so that's why it's taken a while for these photos to come about after development. Some turned out great, the others were way too dark; I now know that they're great for daytime festivals and for portraits with flash at night, but not without. Pretty good for a $5 camera, regardless.
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