Star-studded Bluesfest a resounding success
FESTIVALS are hard work. The five-day Bluesfest in Byron Bay is an endurance test of body and spirit. But is it worth it? The answer is a resounding yes.
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FESTIVALS are hard work. A sensory overload of music and people.
A five-day festival like Bluesfest in Byron Bay, which is probably only rivalled by Queensland’s annual year-ender Woodford, is an endurance test of body and spirit.
Are the good times really worth the sore feet from trudging across dusty gravel or through sloshing mud between stages, the patience-sapping queues for toilets, food and drink and the human dodgem game of drunken zombies as they pinball around the site oblivious to the chaos in their wake?
At Bluesfest, the answer is resoundingly yes.
The Comforts
Food, food, glorious food. Festivals do food so much better than they did when they were rebirthed in Australia in the early 1990s. Back then, the ye olde Easter Show fare of dagwood dogs, chips, pies, burgers and the odd kebab were the slim pickings to soak up the beer.
The Bluesfest offers the United Nations of culinary choice from Himalayan fried flat breads to jambalaya and gumbo, food from the American south which one would expect to find at a festival which claims to showcase the musical soul of that part of the world.
One word of caution for those who have a hankering for that hipster staple, the taco. The tacos at Bluesfest are not your standard hand-sized, hunger-sating morsel. They are the size of a head.
This may also be the only festival which provides lots and lots and lots of seats. Picnic tables galore outside the food areas and rows and rows of seats inside the tents. How do they see through that mass of bodies standing upfront?
The Star Spotting
Byron’s newly-crowned ambassador Chris Hemsworth was spotted backstage, side of stage and between stages. If there is a musical gathering in Byron Bay, that’s where you will find the down-to-earth charmer and his wife Elsa Pataky and their fun-loving mates.
The unofficial Bluesfest ambassador Kasey Chambers, with gloriously pink hair, was also in attendance. Chambers goes every year whether or not she is on the bill, and lights up the party whether or not her hair is in neon. Her voracious appetite for music and people is infectious.
Another perennial gig pig Jimeoin was enjoying his Easter break at the festival while Bernard Fanning kept a smile on his dial even when confronted by well-oiled fans. I’ve always wondered how a rock star deals with the inevitable question: “Are you Bernard?” from an inebriated admirer. If you are the former frontman of Australia’s biggest rock band you simply answer yes and head out of the VIP into the anonymity offered by the crowd.
Other Bluesfest regulars included George Negas and former Treasurer Wayne Swan who sported a bright red cardy tied around his waist.
The Vibe
Bluesfest has more prams and walking sticks per capita than any festival I’ve had the pleasure to attend. That keeps the vibe chilled. Until this year.
The opening night was headlined by the remarkable Kendrick Lamar, a loud signal that promoter Peter Noble wants to draw a larger slice of the Falls and Splendour festival demographic.
They came in droves on Thursday night and while their enthusiastic presence certainly fired up the vibe, there were many seriously drunk kids just smashing their way to the front through the older folk who had decided to observe the rapper’s awesome set from the back of the Mojo tent. Manners, people!
That element of the crowd settled down on day two but Noble faces a tough juggling act programming artists to draw the festival kids and maintain the loyalty of his festival faithful. After all, when you grow out of Falls and Splendour and still want a festival experience, where do you go? Bluesfest.
Music industry types were intrigued to note the presence of Live Nation boss Michael Coppel at the show. Could the multinational concert promoter be buying into the Byron event?
The Music
This is arguably one of the strongest something-for-everyone bills since Bluesfest started booking more contemporary acts beyond well, the blues.
The Grammy-conquering Kendrick Lamar was not only a prescient choice ahead of his world domination at the awards and with recent sneak attack album Untitled Unmastered but he perfectly fits the Bluesfest mandate with his jazz-heavy hip hop.
Between his extraordinary flow — and that megawatt smile — and the supreme musicianship of the band, this was a great show for hip hop fans even as some of the Bluesfest regulars struggled to get it.
Before him, D’Angelo brought an old school soul revue show to Bluesfest — there was even choreographed guitar duelling reminiscent of Prince’s early days.
LA jazz sax sensation Kamasi Washington, who plays over Lamar’s recent records, was a big drawcard and delivered a beautifully-paced, mind-blowingly excellent set.
Fleetwood Mac enthusiasts packed the Crossroads tent to see the drummer at work with the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, his Maui-based bunch of mates. This was an entertaining blues romp with the charismatic skinsman undoubtedly pleased to be playing the kind of music which defined his band in the late 1960s before Rumours.
While Lamar owned the opening night, it was American art rockers The National who brought their singalong sound and fury to headline Friday. As my mate, former V host Danny Clayton tweeted during their gig, they “smacked me right in the feels muscle”.
Before The National was honorary Australian Dallas Green with his band City and Colour. They opened with the spectacularly ambitious 13-minute psychedelic epic Woman, surely the longest set-starter of the festival.
Other highlights included the Cold War Kids, who had everyone singing their breakthrough hit Hang Me Out To Dry, the father and son duo Tweedy who really know how to make a beautiful song sound heaven sent and the Tedeschi Trucks Band who delivered some of the best guitar riffing o the festival.
Originally published as Star-studded Bluesfest a resounding success
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