'She [was] half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar.' - Janet Fitch's 'White Oleander'.
And that I was! Except take away the flamenco guitar and maybe mix it with some deep house, or glitch hop. Throw in a couple of thousand peace-loving, soul-searching brothers and sisters amalgamating together to groove away in their element.
Image © Emelia Ebejer
Toss in 24 hours, around-the-clock music and creative activities across three, trippy stages surrounded by beautiful, lush forestry, lakes and running creeks. Lastly add some markets, yoga, live art, mud and insanity. And that is Rabbits Eat Lettuce (REL15).
After seven years of shaking down the trees in the jungle hinterlands surrounding Coffs Harbour, the Easter Long weekend of 2015 saw the Shambhala-esque electronic-dance festival REL15 migrate to the moist hills of Woodfordia... and my god it was incredible!
Click here for photos from REL15.
REL15 had one, major hiccup that resulted in minor uproar when acclaimed Isralean act Berg was a no-show to the event. For the most part, however, no one really cared. Like at all. And it certainly didn't seem to ruin anyone's time.
Despite this, and the non-existence of any printed timetables, Rabbits Eat Lettuce is quite simply, the quintessential, Australian dance festival. Where do I even start? I've already mentioned the jungle surrounds, and energetic sea of punters, but most importantly let's dig into the music – REL15 sported a stellar line-up casting over 100 acts from across the globe, featuring four days of cutting-edge EDM ranging from glitch hop, progressive, tribal dance, dub, deep house, trap hop, smooth disco, and techno.
Image © Emelia Ebejer
I must admit, I was only able to attend Saturday and Sunday of REL15, which was soul shattering knowing that I missed out on the likes of NZ glitch hop lord K+Lab and one of Britain's finest bass bad-ass, Zomboy. My campsite neighbours, and just about every other person I spoke to at the festival, shared the low down on Zomboy's Friday night performance and explained it as the loosest festival set they'd ever seen.
Image © Emelia Ebejer
I boosted up the Bruce Highway early Saturday morning, making it to Woodfordia just in time to catch ultimate Brisbane vibers Desmond Cheese mellow out the Lotus Temple in preparation for a huge evening ahead. These dudes are a-class, must see before you die types – their atmospheric, summer-breeze downbeats absolutely blew us away.
The Lotus Temple is indescribable. The intricacy of the design, the colours, the lose-yourself energy that emulates from the temple... and as the name may already suggest to you, it honestly is an illuminating replica of a lotus flower – a lotus flower with multi-coloured electric lights radiating through the forest around us.
Image © Emelia Ebejer
This stage saw Melbourne electro-synth duo Willow Beats smash out an emancipating set. The crowd lost their marbles over 'Merewif' with Kalyani Ellis's chilling yet floral vocals soaring through our hearts while Narayana Johnson's layered, dense, glitchy beats that melted the trees around us.
After peeling myself away from the Lotus Temple, I discovered the Rabbit Hole. By day, this stage is ebbing and flowing with punters who frolick through the underground rabbit holes made out of hay and mud and are lit up by small lanterns and fairy lights. You might also see tight-rope walkers practicing their art between the trees at the side of stage.
By night, the Rabbit Hole transforms into a pulsating dub, trance and trap-fuelled dungeon that explodes with laser lights and energy. Australian deep house and club legend DCup owned the Rabbit Hole pumping out good club hits such as 'I'm Corrupt'.
Shadow Effect - Image © Emelia Ebejer
Another Rabbit Hole highlight was Brighton bred drum & bass, ghetto funk mixing master JFB who took our bodies to space with his whooping bass, and brought tears of joy to the crowd's eye when he mixed in Rage Against Machine classics into Snoop Dogg hits.
Other notable mentions include Opiuo – not once throughout this entire set did I, or anyone around me, stop dancing. Same goes for Woodjer Want who pulled and kept a tight-knit crowd down at the muddy Fishbowl stage (a stage in which many punters seemed to avoid due the slippery slope of muddy death it backed onto).
Opiuo - Image © Emelia Ebejer
Also, Austrian blokes Wild Culture performed a wickedly and strangely upbeat set infiltrated with nu disco and deep, deep house. I never appreciated Wild Culture until I was blessed to see them in the flesh.
Overall, I cannot praise Rabbits Eat Lettuce enough. Even if you aren't overly familiar with the line-up, just go. Go and lose yourself in four days of shower-less [Ed note: powered showers were available on site], naked, dishevelled fun in the mud with a bunch of your friends and your friends-to-be.
Aeroplane - Image © Emelia Ebejer
REL15 was perfectly sized and well-controlled with only one or two cops in sight with security and organisers keeping an eye on us, but mostly minded their own business. The array of music, art, activities, and laughs were overwhelming in the most perfect, possible way.
Kudos to Rabbits Eat Lettuce, definitely one to watch out for in the coming years.
Click here for more photos from the event.
