OUR FAVOURITE PARTS OF YOURS & OWLS FESTIVAL
It’s taken us a necessary few days to gather our thoughts (and recover) after the mammoth weekend that was Gong Christmas, commonly known to non-locals as Yours and Owls Festival
— an event that never fails to amaze us, the team love to push a few boundaries and to do a little extra for the punters and this year was no different. With a stacked line up of 78 performances over two days, the festival boasted four stages scattered on Wollongong’s Flagstaff Hill, a surprising site for a festival better known for its war memorial sites and iconic lighthouse. The site was small but mighty an amazing location central to the city, the stages were clearly placed intentionally to show off the insane location, with background views of the ocean, the harbour and the escarpment.
On top of all of this, Yours and Owls also managed to pull off an impressive first for NSW, being given a green light to begin pill testing on site of the festival. But this was not only the first pill-testing trial provided in a NSW festival, but also the first government-led operation in Australia. It’s a crazy thing to even attempt, but they did it and did it well. Early Saturday morning, our team was lucky enough to be invited to a short tour of the testing facilities and a Q&A with NSW Health Minister Ryan Park and Yours and Owls founder Ben Tillman speaking, among some other fancy media people. When we say that Yours and Owls’ pushes boundaries, this is what we mean. When the conference ended, as much as we would have liked to stay and ask a few questions, the sun was already scorching and we had to meet the rest of the Wanderer team to get ready for the weekend of festivities.
After having some pre festival beers with the team it was time to go and even though we were within walking distance of the festival, we decided we didn’t want to get any more sweaty than we already were and booked an Uber. The Uber driver had mentos aplenty and more importantly, strong air conditioning. With the temperature reaching over 30 degrees and 90% humidity, we were already feeling a little delirious which can make you do strange things like accidentally leaving your phone in the uber, which definitely did NOT happen to me…
After that slight mishap, we gathered ourselves to walk through the gates, immediately got a much needed vodka red bull to power us through and took off around the festival, getting our initial bearings, people watching and taking in the 360 degree scene of the ocean to the harbour to the escarpment available from every stage.
One of the acts we were all really keen on seeing was Pond. Frontman Nick Allbrook was as energetic as ever, jumping and swinging around the stage and bravely surfing the crowd. As I was taking photos, I noticed he was wearing the same shirt as the one on the cover of our sixth print issue. This got me thinking — does he always wear this same shirt when he performs? Does he wear it everyday? Is it some kind of lucky charm? Who is gonna ask him this? Unfortunately I never got the chance. Pond’s set was placed at that perfect dusky sunset time slot and I took a moment to look around at the crowd, singing and bouncing along. I saw mostly sun kissed faces and drunken eyes, but I also saw a feeling of nostalgia similar to the one I felt myself.
After the Pond set was complete as was I, they had played all the songs I wanted to hear and I was feeling extremely satisfied. However, as we headed out from the Mountain stage, the sea of people galavanting around seemed to have doubled as people were on their missions to secure their spot for the Goo Goo Dolls at the main stage. It was now our own mission to get through this sea (and to the VIP section). I charged up the handycam, and got a little sidetracked, getting myself a drink, going to the VIPeePee, and bumping into a few familiar faces. Unfortunately, I realised all too late that I completely missed another band that I was excited to see: C.O.F.F.I.N. which was a little heartbreaking. Luckily, I was able to catch Magdalena Bay’s performance instead which was stunning — vocalist Mica Tenenbaum prancing around the stage looked like a pretty purple string puppet, cycling through a variety of costumes and different head pieces throughout the set.
Sunday was my preferred day in terms of the line up, it had cooled off a bunch and we were all so ready for day 2. Sevilles opened up the Mountain stage beautifully, and we loved seeing lots of friends around to support. A quick change of pace though as the next act was local hardcore band L.O.W. who opened up the pit for the day with fans moshing, kicking up the grass and moving their arms as though they were swimming through water. Jumping over to the Harbour stage we got there right on time for The Belair Lip Bombs, who brought a cool, casual energy to their performance and drew a really nice crowd for it which was so cool to see. They played a bunch of new songs and have almost moved away from indie pop to a more alternative sound.
I jumped ship early on the Lip Bombs so I could catch a new favourite of mine, Armlock, who played their first festival set ever. The performance itself was incredible, and the windy conditions were also in their favour for dramatic effect for their slowcore emo set. We then went over to the Day of Dance stage to have a little fun and a boogie to some trancy house music in the most scenic location. We then caught Frankie Stew and Harvey Gunn, a UK-based Alt Hip Hop duo. It was amazing to watch as they continually thanked everyone for being there in between songs with their thick Brighton accents, making the crowd keen to bounce along with them as they rapped. After a little more running around, we caught the tail end of Miss Kannina’s powerful performance. Being dubbed the Cardi B of Australia, you could feel her energy radiating off her, all eyes were locked on her. Miss Kaninna demanded your attention, speaking strongly to the audience of important world issues and the harsh reality of her journey as an Indigenous woman in the Australian music scene. She is 100% going places and it felt like an honour to witness her perform so early in her career.
Later in the day at the same Ocean Stage, we saw post-punk band Shame, another act I hadn’t heard of before the festival but was told they were a must see. They definitely lived up to that expectation. As the crowd moshed to their anthemic sound, the bass player ran laps up and down the stage, swinging his bass around his body, and front man Charlie Steen balanced on speakers to jump from the stage to surf through the crowd. After their impressive set, I decided I deserved a break and invited some much needed pork belly boa buns into my life before getting ready for the much awaited headline act Fontaines DC.
Making sure I had enough film in my little point and shoot and enough charge on my handycam, I headed into the photographer’s pit. This festival was the first time I have been properly invited to take photos so I was obviously very nervous. But their hour set was easily my highlight of the weekend and I’m sure everyone else's highlight as well. At the barricade I saw die hard fans with Irish flags painted on their bodies and countless people who were literally looking up to their idols. Fontaines really channelled Brit Pop energy, playing everything you wanted to hear and closed with my favourite song ‘Starburster’, which left the whole crowd screaming, bouncing and covered in sweat.
Huge thanks to Yours and Owls for having us we had an absolute ball, more to come soon!
.