Stereosonic Melbourne ’09 was, well, an experience to say the least. Before even entering the gates the enforcement of the ‘tops on policy’ was made very noticeable, a true kudos for festival pioneers. Unfortunately, this was one of only few organizational wins for the festival. Appalling line ups for bathrooms, ATMs and food became apparent within the first moments of stepping in the gates, alongside an absolutely abysmal drinks system. Designated festival stalls running out of drinking water is a ridiculous failure.

But, luckily, this was a music festival, not an organization convention!

First up for the day was Australia’s own Tommy Trash. One of the brightest acts on Australia’s electro house scene, Tommy presented an extremely impressive set comprising highly of his own remixes of Tom Novy, Green Velvet and Armand Van Helden. It’s not easy to captivate a dance crowd before the clock strikes 2pm, but there wasn’t a still limb in sight on the main stage.

Things only got trashier on the main stage as Canadian electropop group Dragonette hit the stage. Fronted by Martina Sorbara, the group served up a somewhat uninspired set, lackluster in movement and crowd involvement. The crowd busted some moves and got down when they finally dropped their well received 2009 release ‘Fixin’ to Thrill’, but in all, the one woman show was a severe disappointment, even to the diehard fans around us.

Following this, I trekked over to the Global Understage to see what Melbourne duo Dancefloor Terrorism had to offer up. After heavy listening to the two’s layered and expertly crafted ‘HDFT’ mix for the previous months, they had fast become my most anticipated act of the day. Unfortunately, not one of the tracks nor samples from the mix had made it to the live set. The duo played a fairly regulated set that although was mixed extremely well and had the limited crowd pounding the floor, it came as a disappointment when knowing what they were capable of.

Up next, straight from New York City was electronic producer, DJ and the Trouble and Bass label runner, Drop The Lime, aka, Luca Venezia. Drop the Lime played the most energetic and electrifying set of the day, implementing live vocals and original compositions and amazing mixing of his own remixes creating a heart pounding euphoria that had the entire crowd jump-jump-jumping from start to finish.

The moment the NYC master had finished, the crowd became unstable, the unofficial headliners The Bloody Beetroots were set to hit the stage, and it became clearly apparent that things were about to get hectic. The crowd, knowing the troubles that had occurred during the Sydney set by the Beetroots became restless, shoving and swearing in order to ensure they had a decent spot.

Personally, never being a fan of the duo, I would have happily watched from the outskirts of the Outrage stage, but with my entire group urging to be front and centre, this was not a choice. The duo appeared from the side of the stage with their trademark masks and the crowd lost it, before one track had been played things started to look messy. Girls being crushed, guys deciding the ‘tops on’ policy no longer was applicable to them, and the moment ‘Warp’ kicked in, it all became a little too much. To me, The Bloody Beetroots symbolize a lot that is unappealing in the electronic music scene, especially Australian fans. Fans throwing bottles and bodies without regard for others safety meant a swift exit for this reviewer. After leaving to the grandstand to watch a somewhat uninspired set from ‘The Dutch Master’ Fedde Le Grand, I returned to the Outrage stage to meet back up with my group, and can you guess what track was playing? The Beetroots, although already opening their set with, had dropped Warp once again. The crowds hysteric reaction only reinforcing my views on the Stereosonic punters, finding well constructed and precisely mixed sets non-preferable over tacky, mindless electro.

The following two hours were an omen to the necessity of organization at music festivals. For it to take this long for a group to use bathroom facilities, not only get drink cards but buy drinks and then to purchase food, it really underpinned the drastic need for improvement, not just for the personal enjoyment of the crowd, but for safety.

Swedish DJ, remixer, record producer and record label owner Axwell was next to hit the main stage. Recently being crowned at #14 in the top DJ’s of the land, Axwell produced a somewhat repetitive set in which his renown electro-house hooks were frequent but soon fell short of exciting, as his failed interactions with the crowd showed. The stage also seemed to suffer from sound problems during his set, with volume and frequencies often sinking unexpectedly.

As Axwell’s set winded down the crowd had obviously become weary and frustrated with the events of the day, leaving a lot of burden on the shoulders of the headliner, Deadmau5. Unfortunately, whilst it could be argued that the mau5 did deliver, he didn’t bring what the crowd was after. Deadmau5 being a questionable choice for a headliner, not only being in Australia a mere 6 months earlier, but for a festival renowned for its heavy bass and flowing electro, a headliner playing a signature set of progressive and minimal with no distinct hooks or vibes left the crowd dissatisfied and disheartened, with many leaving the gates early in his set.

Stereosonic has had a lot to answer for this year, outraged and frustrated punters have let their voices be heard on all social mediums. The festival was burdened with technical and infrastructural glitches, unfortunately stealing the limelight from the actual music itself.

On a follow up note, here's the press release that Stereosonic put out regarding the Melbourne event and the festival in general:

Stereosonic has just completed its 2nd national year with record crowds to now make one of the largest electronic music festivals in Australia.

With a fairly smooth tour, the events took place over 2 weekends to Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Amazing performances were witnessed by some of the best “now” acts in the business including Deadmau5, Marco Carola, Axwell, Miss Kittin & The Hacker, Drop The Lime, The Crookers, Laurent Garnier, Zombie Nation and not forgetting the sheer mayhem of The Bloody Beetroots.

So much so, The Bloody Beetroots were moved to mainstage in Adelaide and Brisbane throwing audiences into a frenzy, and the promoters into “watchful eye” mode as security and staff worked hard to keep the crowds in order Thanks to the crowds and the security for keeping it under control!

The tops on policy seemed to work well nationally with the best looking crowd for a festival! Not only were there hardly any tops off, but the crowd seemed to respect each other with not one instance of violence in any of the shows and the crowds generally very well behaved.

Like all festivals, there was a few hiccups like hot weather and a late start in Sydney, with some keen fans missing out on the Beetroots in the Royal Hall of Industries.

Perth went off without a hitch. Adelaide also ran very smooth with Brisbane a warm, muggy day and a bit of a delay to get in due to 90% of the event arriving literally at the same time!

In Melbourne, underage fence-jumpers again continued to cause havoc on the festival circuit with a 1200-strong facebook group being shut down and action currently being taken against the 3 students who ran and created it. With on-the-day intelligence at hand, the main entrance was then split between the train station and the front entry causing hassle on the day with 2 ID checkpoints due to Liquor Licensing conditions. With such a process, the drink card station was under the hammer and delays were up to an hour as like Brisbane, 85% of the event arrived within 45 minutes, which was tough to process.

We sincerely wish to apologise for this and will continue to work with Police and other Festival organisers in Melbourne to rectify this issue and retain normal festival conditions.

All in all a great 2 weeks and great performances from staff, local acts, our overseas guests and a great turnout and behaviour all round by the Australian public.