This year was my first Homebake, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. Arriving early in the day, I was surprised at how big the queue was already to get inside; most festivals just aren’t that busy so early. But I see this as a good thing - people were there to support even the smallest Australian acts, not just the bigger ones later in the day. Homebake also had very high security, in comparison to all the festivals I have been to in the past. For one, the girl in front of me got busted for a fake ID at the gate.

The heat was unbearable, and the cost of water was expensive, always advertised as ‘ice cold water’ which always translated to ‘luke warm’ water. My friends and I ended up becoming so flustered by the situation that we stole a huge hunk of ice from the man with the ‘V’ stand and rubbed it all over our bodies in order to cool down.

I was also thoroughly disappointed in the quality of the food at the festival. I know that festival food hasn’t exactly got the best reputation but I have nonetheless noticed an increase in the variety and quality in past years. Though while I did find there was a large variety available, unfortunately the quality was sub par.

Despite all of these things, the quality of the music and performances at this festival exceeded my expectations. The musical performances impressed both my friends and myself so much so, that we completely forgot about the festivals shortcomings.

Bluejuice managed to scrape together quite a large crowd considering how early in the day it was, but this was well-deserved, with an energetic performance to match. Jake Stone even got up onto the speakers, dancing and sing his merry little heart out, appropriately topless. The audience really got into it too, especially when they played their huge hit “Vitriol”.

This was shortly followed by End of Fashion, easily my highlight of the day, despite them playing in the blistering heat. They satisfied the crowd with an amazing set list including “Oh Yeah”, “Fussy” and “She’s love”, while a member of the crowd handed out free End of Fashion buttons. Each song they performed stood out as unique and they didn’t just blend into one another, which can easily happen in the traditional rock band performance.

I humoured my friend by agreeing to watch a bit of Gabrielle Cilmi. Despite raking in multiple ARIA awards, she still has a lot to learn when it comes to live performance and stage presence. The extent of her performance consisted of the walk back and forth across the stage. I felt she connected with the audience very little throughout the entire set. Though to be fair, she is a newcomer and has very few hits under her belt at this point. Even during her ‘Sweet about me’ when she held the microphone to the audience to sing the chorus, there was surprisingly little response. Furthermore, here’s hoping she gets someone else to choose her wardrobe next time, as it appears they were out of clean clothes and had to wrap her legs in foil as an attempt at a pants substitute.

Pnau had an absolutely awesome, highly theatrical opening with wild strawberries, rising everyone to their feet, dancing shoes included. Here, Nick Littlemore, attached to a harness, swung across the stage, while wild strawberries danced across the screens and some costumed strawberries danced on stage. After that, all the songs began to mesh into one, resulting in a dance/rave like atmosphere. Everyone was enjoying it and dancing like nobody was watching. Considering it was a festival, I was impressed by the amount of effort they put into the production of the performance.

My friends who saw You am I had nothing but good things to say about their performance, calling it their pick of the day. It was the bands last performance for their album tour, so they went all out to make it a special performance, with the inclusion of a percussion and strings section. They also brought Kasey Chambers out to “Heavy Heart” with them.

Meanwhile, Sneaky Sound System were absolutely packed! I found it exceedingly difficult to get a good spot amongst the crowd, who sung along without fail to almost every track. Personally, I’m not that big a fan of the band, but despite this I found myself dancing and singing along to every word and having a great time too. The crowd were truly bonding, dancing and communicating with one another. I myself normally only talk when spoken to by randoms at festivals, but during this performance I actually went out of my way to communicate and experience the band with people I'd never met before.

Cut Copy followed, and played the generic set list that their many followers were looking forward to. I enjoyed listening to them, but found myself more thoroughly intrigued in the visuals on the back screen of the performance. The visuals were amazing; a lot went into the production of it. And being a fan of art and all things weird I was in love.

One act I could not bring myself to enjoy however was Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Their music left me uninspired and wondering how they could get a spot in the Homebake line-up when I can think of so many other, more deserving Australian bands.

All acts of the day were watched through sober eyes, as the few bars present at the festival had extremely long queues. Made me wonder why they bothered making it 18+. By the time you got to the start of the line you were completely sober again! A friend at the event with me made a comment that “it was the only festival I have been to where I haven’t seen anyone throw up!” And how right she was. At first I was morally outraged that nobody was able to get enough drinks at the festival, but upon reflection maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing. People were actually there enjoying the music, and as my friend put it “there were no douche bags” as a result. Though I beg that no one take this as sign to remove bars from festivals.

At the end of the day I had an absolutely great time despite my extreme sobriety, and all else mentioned. It's a wonderful testament to true music fans, how much crap we are willing to put up with at a festival, in order to hear some amazing live music. It’s like Pez says: "Yeah, I know we all complain about the pain when it ends, but next year we’ll save up and do the same shit again”.