Following last year’s hugely successful inaugural event (headlined by Mr. Brian Wilson), and a Sydney Festival with profits through the roof, they said they were going to make the 2009 Festival First Night absolutely massive by comparison. And thanks of course to an increased budget, it appears they were able to pull it off.
Taking over no less than 7 stages all the way from Wynyard to the Domain and Hyde Park, the crowds came out in force. And from 2pm to 11pm they claimed that “over 600 major local and international musicians, dancers and artists from around the globe (exploded) onto open-air stages across the CBD.”
And even more pertinent:
“Our theme for 2009 is Sydney Dances and we want you to help us transform the CBD into one mass dance floor! We have a short dance work, specially choreographed for Festival First Night, and we’ll be stopping the action on January 10 while everyone dances – The Sydney!”
Indeed, dancing was the theme – every band I saw brought people up to the stage to dance with them. France’s impressive Java brought so many they had to jump off the stage themselves in the hope that the swelling crowd would follow. Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings brought them on one at a time, so Sharon could serenade them with her beautiful voice. She often had to kick some of these guys off the stage; however, as it quickly occurred to her that they were pretentious Sydney wankers who needed a stern talking to. Another lovely Sydney welcome for Sharon! Keep up the good work, oh those of you who keep representing us! Meanwhile, Santogold was only allowed to grab 6 from the crowd, and brought up just that many, making sure they kept a safe distance from her bootylicious backup dancers in the process. And when you’re wearing that much gold, how could you not be bootylicious?
*Reviewer now shamed by using bootylicious 2… wait 3… times in this review*
And as for “The Sydney”, well if you were lucky enough to make it into the Fuzzy College Street Stage to see Santogold (rather than be ushered away by horses), then you would have seen the dance teachers of this ridiculously over-complicated and stupid dance booed off stage… with a few bottles thrown for good measure. As you can see, this was the stage the “young people” were at, so I would be interested to see how it went over at the other stages. Was a pretty hilarious moment at any rate. But let’s put our money into something a bit more realistic next year guys!
Arriving at the aforementioned stage during A-Trak, the Montreal DJ was definitely “letting it rip” for the young crowd, most of whom seemed to be enjoying public drinking at a concert for the first time. Until the police confiscated it from them, anyway! As A-Trak continued and the crowd grew, the quality of his tunes only got better and better. Soon enough, the police had blocked the street from any more entrants and it was time for Santogold to grace the stage (after “The Sydney” of course). This was an absolutely packed area, and when Santogold came out onto the stage, her face said it all. I truly believe it when she said she hadn’t done or seen anything like this before, and she had a genuine smile for the experience that was nothing short of infectious.
But with only a half hour set to look forward to, Santogold got her biggest tracks out of the way first – “You’ll Find a Way” followed by “L.E.S. Artistes” – both were outstanding live, and her back-up “bootylicious” dancers (damn it! that’s not even a real word!) added an extra level of entertainment to the mix. But this was Santogold’s show, and the girl otherwise known as Santi White was nothing but gorgeous to look at, and beautiful to listen to. Considering how commercial she has become (and very quickly, I might add), it was a set that gave me nothing but respect for her as an artist – and with a Janis Joplin cover thrown in the mix, she definitely has some fantastic influences to help her along the way. But it was “Unstoppable” which stole the show for me – had it stuck in my head the rest of the Festival!
Leaving College Street, I was greeted to a sign letting me know that
like College Street before it, The Domain had been shut off, with Grace
Jones fans out in full force (from all sources she was apparently incredible).
So, I chose to see another Jones instead: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.
With a far more relaxed (and older)
crowd present than was at Santogold, Sharon’s set was just that: relaxing.
This is the first time I’ve had the privilege of seeing the amazing
Soul singer live, and she didn’t disappoint – delivering an old-school
soul set making me feel like I was seeing Aretha Franklin in her hey-day.
And the 9-piece Dap Kings were quite an impressive bunch as well. With
amazing music, and fantastic interaction with the audience, it made
me momentarily feel like I was at Byron’s Bluesfest. A truly entertaining
set.
Just before the fireworks were set off, I caught the end of The Gypsy Kings and Queens at the Hyde Park Fountain – and with their excellent “roaring Balkan funky blends with flamenco guitar and accordion” they were a fantastic way to end an excellent evening of free music.
Now I know a lot of people had a lot of complaints about not getting to see Grace Jones or Santogold, and blaming the organisers for not letting enough people in, or not planning better for people who needed to go to the toilet… but considering the possibility that 10 times the amount of people COULD have theoretically shown up, I think they planned perfectly. Sure I didn’t get to see Grace Jones, but I got to see some amazing acts in her place. And I just managed to hold it in before getting to one of the many packed nightclubs in the city. If nothing else, this event definitely filled up the city for the first time in quite a while (outside of NYE, of course).
Nothing like a free event to bring people out to spend their money!
And on that note, bring on another Bootylicious Festival First Night in 2010!
Oh damn it, not again.
