Parklife is the definitive start-of-summer festival but no one’s told the Melbourne weather that.
Under gloomy skies and chilly drizzle, the festival is having a hard time getting started. Some of the smaller stages are almost deserted, the DJs playing for the raindrops. Gone are the usual skimpy summer shorts and sunglasses, everywhere brightly coloured rain-capes and plastic hoods. Yup, this is Melbourne alright.
Where the Treehouse DJs are optimistically thumping out a heavy dance track with the chorus “Let’s Get Fucked Up!” they have a single dancer and he looks like he’s already taken their suggestion. Up at the Atoll stage though, Flume has come on and he’s got the right mix of ambience and beats to wake people up. Soon, hands are waving in the rain.
If the damp crowd needed any more incentive to shake off the rainy day blues and party, they get it from hip hop double act Hermitude. “You people like bass, right?” they ask. “Because we’re going to give it to you.” And they do, along with a cracker of a performance that whips up the dancing in the Music Bowl to an early frenzy.
Throughout the day the rain comes and goes but the music is non-stop. The Parklife grounds are spaced so as soon as you reach the edge of one stage’s audio sphere, you’re entering the next one’s. Wandering the grounds counting the people in animal suits – I spot one crocodile, one raccoon, two unicorns, a cow, a panda, at least one Pikachu and a girl dressed as what looks like Pedobear - you always seem to be listening to someone.
While at the Bowl the Rizzle Kicks follow Hermitude’s example of heavy beats and shouty stage banter, the trancier club floor material is down at the Kakadu stage. Ship-shaped Madam Sing’s Junk is where to find the really serious dance tracks, and consequently some of the more entertaining move-busting from the audience, while at the Red Bull Special Events Stage – tucked behind the Music Bowl and with the stage itself stuck like an afterthought on top of an energy drink stand – a constant turnover of DJs keeps an upbeat and playful vibe throughout the day.
For musos wielding actual instruments, the place to be is Atoll. New York based St Lucia, while he might record alone, is accompanied for his live set by a full band with guitars, drums, saxophone and occasional tambourine, his sound so summery you could forget the weather entirely. Charli XCX sings club anthems while jumping around like a one woman dance factory and, should you need instruction on how to be a front man, you could do worse than to study the strut of Tom Burke, lead singer of lively UK outfit Citizens!
Late afternoon in the Bowl is when it gets really serious though, with the arrival of Plan B. The British hip hopper’s voice captures a sense of jaded urban grit, his band playing like their music’s a bucking horse they can hardly control, lurching and slam dancing their way through a wild set.
Jacques Lu Cont follows and, while he’s not as French as he sounds – his real name’s Stuart if you look him up – he is an undisputable wizard of mixing. His remix of The Killers’ Mr Brightside, a track he has virtually made his own, is a haunting highlight in a phenomenal set.
After him comes a storm of smoke and flashing light with the members of Nero in the middle of it somewhere. Now when I said some of the earlier acts were heavy on bass, that’s because I hadn’t heard Nero yet. Their bassline’s like a steamroller.
Back at the other stages, it’s less overpowering. Labrinth’s got a jaunty dance beat going, while Tame Impala’s crowd are pumping their umbrellas up and down in time. The Perth five-piece look as drenched as we are but are at full mastery of their garage psychodelia sound.
Next, time for electropop courtesy of Passion Pit. They play beautifully but the crowd’s getting a bit messy now it’s dark and some of their softer songs get a little lost. Wisely, they save their big singles, 'Sleepyhead' and 'Little Secrets', til last, uniting the audience for a triumphant finish.
By now every stage is begging for you to dance to its beat. Most excitement is building around the Bowl, though, for The Presets, returning this year after a long touring break. Whatever hype you’ve heard about their live act, it’s all justified. Those guys are incredible. They never even seem to stop to take a breath, delivering a constant stream of music, one powerhouse track flowing into the next. There is a button in your head marked DANCE and the Presets have their finger on it. They wrap the night and just as well because nothing could top their act.
As we all head for the gates, the sky dumps one last bucketing on us all, as if to wash us away. We whoop and welcome the rain with open arms. No mere weather can bring anyone’s spirits down now.
