Totem / OneLove are arguably the most
disappointing festival organisers in Australia. I'll come back to this
statement at the end. 

It was with some apprehension that
I arrived at Moore Park for the Sydney instalment of the self-proclaimed
"greatest electronic music festival" Creamfields. After
a surprisingly smooth entrance into the venue, my crew and I made our
way to the Main Stage at the 'Showring Circus Tent' for the party stylings
of electro-hop group LMFAO. I was impressed by the energy and
atmosphere the duo brought to the performance from start to finish.
The crowd did not stop shouting, jumping, dancing and generally partying
throughout their set which included all their favourites from 'LaLaLa'
to 'Shots' and the ubiquitous 'I'm In Miami Bitch'. The crowd thinned
considerably for the next act TV Rock who are staples of the mainstream
Australian club scene. We ambled our way to the front as the duo launched
into a remix of the grotesquely overplayed 'Sweet Dreams' by the Eurythmics
and I immediately lost interest. We stayed around for a few more stock-standard
and forgettable songs and left to check out the other stages. 

Over at Outrage in ' Byron Kennedy
Hall' Canberrian DJs The Aston Shuffle were doing their best to
get the crowd pumping. They were by and large succeeding with the venue
packed, so much so that me and my associates could not stand the oppressive
heat and the foul stench of stale sweat hanging heavy in the air. I
guess that's what happens when you have a windowless venue with no air
conditioning. We never returned. 

Continuing our exploration to Cream
in the 'Hordern Pavillion' we were greeted by much more crowd-friendly
conditions. It's amazing what industrial strength air-con can do for
a venue. Combined with stunning lighting and massive reflective objects
dangling from above this created the place-to-be for the house / trance
/ dance fans at the festival. Over the course of the day we managed
to sample here Amber Savage vs Nik Fish, Scott Richardson and Sean
Tyas. Whilst none of these were my cup-of-tea musically, they all
seemed to have the throbbing crowd in raptures and the light displays
were amazing. 

I pause here to also give a massive
wrap to the toilets in Hordern. They were a big part of why we kept
returning because the wait at all the Port-a-loos was deplorable. Word
of advice for Totem / OneLove, please separate out temporary toilet
facilities into 'Male' / 'Female' and provide portable urinal stations.
No offence to the ladies, but unisex toilets are extremely inefficient.  

We returned to the Main Stage for the
remainder of the evening where once again a procession of DJs just blurred
into one. Ferry Corsten's brand of progressive trance, whilst undoubtedly skillful,
just isn't what I want to listen to when I'm outside on a relatively
sunny day. Dirty South and Green Velvet were nothing more
than background noise. Although to be fair, I was fairly disengaged
as my excitement and anticipation built for the main act. However, I
must give great credit where it is due to Tommie Sunshine, a late
replacement for Steve Angello, who delivered the best set of the
day and a fitting support to the main act. I look forward to Tommie
getting much higher billing at festivals in the future on the back of
his performance. 

However, for myself and many others
(in fact every person I knew who was going) the only reason to fork
out $100+ for this was The Bloody Beetroots (Death Crew 77 version).
Forgoing the fantastic MSTRKRFT (who always put on a memorable
performance and again did not disappoint from what I heard) we waited
at the Main Stage for the Italian kings of "losing ones shit".
Having built a big fanbase in Australia (more than anywhere else including
their homeland) I was not surprised to see the crowd swell to mammoth
proportions as the clock struck 9:25. 

And then...nothing. Minutes ticked
by...the crowd roared...nothing. The utterly annoying emcee hyped the
crowd up over and over again...each time as the audience shouted itself
into a frenzy it culminated in...nothing. 10 minutes ticked by. 20 minutes
ticked by. 30 minutes ticked by. NOTHING. Each time the crowd was assured
the Beetroots were only "moments away". It got to the point
that whenever the emcee tried encouraging the crowd with the eponymous
refrain from 'Warp 1.9' "One, Two..." the crowd screamed in
reply "FUCK YOU!"  

The only saving grace for me was the
song selection whilst we waited, from Insomnia by Faithless to Two Months
Off by Underworld, it was the best I heard all day...and sadly from
a CD player. Finally at 10:00pm the Beetroots hit the stage...WHAM...BAM...all
was forgiven! The crowd roared...the Beetroots roared...and off they
launched into a thunderous performance. Warming up with some instrumentals
before running through some pumping songs such as "House N. 84'
from their debut album Roborama and their heart pumping remix of Vitalic's
'Second Lives' the crowd did not stop jumping and thrashing about. Finally
they got to the track everyone was waiting for...1...2...WOOP WOOP...the
crowd was hectic as they punched their way through Warp 1977 and all
was good in the world. 

But then...the trouble began. The clock
pushed towards 10:30pm...and suddenly the techies on stage were making
cut-throat gestures...the Beetroots seemed uncertain...stopping the
performance to a chorus of boos before launching again into a modified
rendition of Cornelius. This only increased the frenzy of the techies
and officials on the side of the stage. As lights started to dim and
sound started to diminish the music abruptly stopped and the Bloody
Beetroots stormed off the stage, kicking over one of the speakers in
disgust. A shocked and devastated crowd did not even have the heart
to boo or scream in response. Instead, everyone soberly walked away
into the cold and disappointing night. 

Are there any excuses for this?

The Bloody Beetroots played till 4am
at a warehouse party in Canberra and would say "we always come
on late". Totem / OneLove know noise restrictions
come into effect at the Moore Park precinct at 10:30pm and would say
"we can't control artists who show up late".

But the punter is right in saying "I
paid $100 with the expectation that the main act would play for one
hour as scheduled...this wasn't delivered...I don't care why...it's
a cheat...it's a rort...I feel robbed." 

Totem / OneLove, the buck stops with you. The effort that goes into staging an
event like this can't be comprehended by the average punter. But it
is a commercial venture. We are consumers and are entitled to question
the quality of the end-product delivered. After this and the debacle
of Stereosonic where they "ran out of "free water" and
brought in the police to lock down a venue three hours before the Bloody
Beetroots were due to play, I will happily stand by my opening statement. 

As I said in my as yet unanswered email
to Totem / OneLove: "I think it's a pity that an otherwise well
run event was spoiled at what should have been the high-point."

------------------------

Editorial Footnote:
After the event, Bloody Beetroots brought to light what went down.

"We arrived from Camberra (sic) to find Protools Profile Platform without the authorizations for Bob’s Bass and Guitar plugins. As soon as we faced this huge issue, we tried to download them and we had not finished while the concert was already going on. Drumstick got broken as well, but we changed it with a spare one. The show was about to be cancelled so I said fuck off and i went up on stage, after 40 mins they turned off the music saying we were over time limit! I was so fuckin’ pissed off so i destroyed a side monitor. Fuck the machine, shit happens!!!"

- Bob Rifo, Bloody Beetroots (Death Crew 77) on www.deathcrew77.com

I think the issue here isn't that the band were delayed. This shit happens, indeed. The ultimate problem with so many festivals is that there is no avenue for the organisers or artists to keep to crowd updated on what was going on. Fans could have stood there until the festival ended without any idea of what was going on - we've all been through that before, too often.

But all this said, it sounds like the other days of the festival ran smoothly - and as we all know, BB gave Sydney a free show later that week to apologise for the problems!