Sugar Mountain Festival makes impressive debut at new venue

SUGAR Mountain Festival, a cutting-edge music and arts gathering, made an impressive debut at its new home at the Victorian College of the Arts.

SUGAR Mountain Festival, a cutting-edge music and arts gathering, made an impressive debut at its new home, within the walls, crevices and laneways of the Victorian College of the Arts at the weekend.

Formerly held at the Forum Theatre since 2011, a partnership with Michael Gudinski’s Mushroom Group saw Sugar Mountain expand, and move to the streets, this year.

Indeed, New York rapper Nas, who performed his 1994 hip hop opus Illmatic at the festival, took note of his surroundings, a stage on a street surrounded by brick buildings on either side, and high-rises and city lights behind him.

“This is the streets, man,” Nas told the capacity crowd on Saturday night. “This is where hip hop is from … the streets and the people.”

Tastefully curated, Sugar Mountain at VCA is indie-alternative, not hipster, and a welcome addition to the niche summer festival calendar.

Kim Gordon, of Sonic Youth, played a side stage with her new project Body/Head, alt-dance act Midnight Juggernauts performed at indoors, and experimental rockers Swans unleashed churning, droning noise in the great outdoors.

Other spaces housed art exhibitions, video installations and oddities like a circle of bass drums playing themselves.

Backstage, Michael Gudinski credited son Matt’s work on Sugar Mountain, and said they would continue to build the brand.

Organisers say the festival reached its cap of 5000 punters.

Gudinski watched Nas, then he and wife, Sue, made a beeline for yet another gig — The Vamps at Festival Hall.

Originally published as Sugar Mountain Festival makes impressive debut at new venue