Byron Bay
31 December 2019 – 02 January 2020
Reviewer : Caitlin Martin
Photographer : Joshua South
Falls Byron is a three day music festival over New Years at the North Byron Parklands in Yelgun, about a 20 minute bus ride from the centre of beautiful Byron Bay. The festival brings together artists from around the globe along with a strong contingent of popular Aussie bands, and punters trek from everywhere forking out a solid $450 for the event and camping.
The venue is amazing, Parklands is a picturesque 660-acre cultural arts and music events venue set amongst the forest, rolling green pastures and featuring several well spaced out stage tents with the main stage set in a huge natural amphitheatre. The falls capacity is 35,000 people for what is a well organised event offering a huge array of music, food and entertainment.
Given the ticket costs we were surprised by the expense of getting to the venue, with bus trips adding $60 per day per person on top of tickets, accommodation and flights or drive to Byron from wherever you live. Still, that didn’t stop a huge crowd of largely cashed up millennials trekking in for a spectacular New Year’s event in the heat and dust of this hot summer. With a stunning lineup on offer and an easy to use app to make your way around the event, the party began for the extra-keen on the Monday evening with DJ acts for those wanting to start the party early.
The morning of day one, and in stream the crowds dressed in fluro-themed regalia, punters happily strode around with plenty of early posing for selfies, taking in the array of entertainment – multiple bars to chill at and enjoy a good range of drinks, a beach laid out with mini pools for cooling down and beach volleyball nets for those willing to brace themselves in the heat and show off bikini clad bodies and enjoy the early part of the day.
A welcome to country ceremony was performed by the local Arakwal people, then the music kicked off. Early acts included local Byron punk outfit Mini Skirt who brought their loud, gritty grunge-punk to the forest stage to a small but enthusiastic crowd moshing happily away. Hobart band Swayze & the Ghosts brought more 80’s style rock with their gyrating frontman livening up the stage. Another highlight was Psychedelic Porn Crumpets with more rock, and as the day heats up a hose cools down the crowd surfing mob having a blast in the pit.
Aussie singer/songwriter Vera blue at the main stage in the valley created a cooler atmosphere with her moody, lyrical electronic style. Walking around the venue for a bite to eat and drink to cool down, the array of good quality foods was much appreciated and the drinks, while typically festival over-priced, included some delicious cocktails to sip in the humidity. An afternoon highlight was John Farnham, seeming almost incongruous in the mostly young crowd with his suit and tie and older style band, but he was a big hit, with everyone singing along to every song. I’m sure the final song, legendary ‘You’re the Voice’ was hear miles away as everyone belted it out with gusto.
After dark the Valley stage looked stunning and the forest surrounds appeared surreal with the coloured feature lights, and the last few hours of 2019 were ready to be enjoyed, celebrated by two Australian dance acts that were absolute crowd-pleasers. Pnau put on an awesome set – the valley lit up by a spectacular light show and thousands of people dancing their butts off non-stop. Feature singer Kira Divine was resplendent in fluro and the rendition of ‘Chamelion’ was their absolute set highlight. Peking Duk kept the vibe going and the feet dancing with the duo as excited to bring in the new year as the crowd was to soak up the festivities. The clock ticked over to midnight just one song in and the explosive electronic set continued enthusiastically until 1am. What a way to start a new year!
The bus transport was the one big negative of the festival. With council closing off the main road in Byron Bay for their local new year’s eve festivities, drivers struggled to get through town from the start of the day, and it only got worse in the night. We headed to the queue just after 1am and were still waiting there well after 3am. Such a disappointing way to end a great day. While the staff were excellent and tried their best, delivering water along the queue, it was definitely something to fix for next year. We got back to our Byron accommodation at 4am due to the traffic chaos, which should have been avoidable with some better planning.
Back we trekked on day two, with a slow start for many punters. Having seen a few victims of over-indulgence the night before, I should add the safety aspects of the event are ever-present and medical staff could be seen helping quickly, along with lots of signage reminding people to take care of themselves and friends. The other note was the cleanliness – the venue was spik & span, thanks to adequate staffing and a $2 deposit on keep cups to reduce rubbish waste.
Early highlights – and a great way to shake out a hangover – were high energy punk rockers from Melbourne, Amyl & the Sniffers, all tight jeans and punk attitude they stormed the stage and a mosh pit instantly formed for some early sweat forming fun. Over at the Galaxy stage B-Wise chilled his crowd out with some smooth R&B hip hop tunes, then young Aussie singer Cxloe in the JD bar with some dark synth-pop.
An afternoon highlight was the spectacular energy of British alt-rock, pop punk artist Yungblud who had a big crowd sweating it out in the heat on the Valley stage, resplendent in fuchsia lipstick and netball skirt, gyrating across the stage in an absolute blast of a performance. He was one of several artists to make some commentary on our current political situation and he revved the crowd into a frenzy with a string of hits and anthem-y singalongs.
Later highlights were Holy Holy, G-Flip, Crooked Colours and the evening was finished off with American singer/songwriter Halsey who entertained with her electro pop tunes – there is a bold rawness to her that resonates with the young crowd.
The final day brought more heat and more music, and despite the clear Byron air, there was a slight level of distraction for everyone with the awareness of the current bushfire emergency devastating so much of the country (the Victoria Falls event had to be cancelled for that reason). Highlights of the day were Indigenous hip-hop artist Baker Boy, Montaigne with her soaring idiosyncratic pop, singer/songwriter & drummer G-Flip, who surprisingly was in the Forest stage which was packed out with people pouring out onto the hills. Opening with a huge singalong of ‘About You’, she was a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Later Thundamentals with their joyful brand of Aussie hip-hop, and finally English dance/electronica duo Disclosure rounded out the whole event with more dancing to rhythmic techno sounds and dance beats.
For me, I struggled to enjoy the end of the festival, not due to the artists, but with family caught up in fire zones and stressing out over their safety it was just hard to really get in to that last day. Which reminds me to say – a huge shout-out to the many Falls artists who participated in fundraising events over the last couple of days, in addition to the touring schedule of the various Falls locations – a champion effort by all.
