I got to start my fezzie season early this year by heading out to Grapevine Gathering in the Hunter Valley. The event has only been happening for a couple of years, and well I can officially say that losing my Grapevine virginity was beyond riveting. It was honestly such a cracker of a day, mixing together beaut bands, wonderful sunny weather, and of course the most important thing of all: wine.
The bus queue in Newy was ginormous, which meant we got to the festival a little later than expected, but it gave me and my mate time to finish an extra cider so all was still well. When I eventually jumped off the bus at Roche Estate, I was overwhelmed with a variety of emotions. The main one being panic as I was dangerously close to pissing myself thanks to that damn last minute cider, but I was also feeling very excited to see some sweet live music! Once I’d finally emptied the tank at a toilet across the road, we waltzed our way into the beautifully vibrant venue. There were so many fun things to look at! We had huge bunches of grapes on either side of the stage, two giant goon sacks, a blow-up DJ church, some questionable punter outfits, and a whole lotta vines! There were also a record number of bars around, so that was definitely a plus.
The first act we caught was Brisbane singer JOY. Well this lovely lady truly did live up to her name, injecting musical happiness into everyone’s souls with her gorgeous songs. There were a lot of people milling around the festival by this point, but not many of them were in front of the stage (this was because of the scorching devil sun though, not because people didn’t like the music). She played chilled out tunes such as ‘About Us’ and ‘Smoke Too Much’, before handing over the stage to music producer Dom Dolla.
Dom’s music was obviously quite a change of pace from JOY.’s mellow melodies. He immediately transformed Roche Estate into a mean, green party machine by throwing on remixes of multiple current bangers. His song transitions were smooth and groovy, amping up the chill atmosphere and drawing people to the front. The air’s temperature was climbing by this point, and man were we all feelin’ it. I had to ditch the d-floor after about ten minutes because I was soaked in sweat, but the rest of the glistening crowd were total Weather Warriors, bopping a little harder as Dom dished out original songs like ‘Take It’ and ‘You’. He left the stage with a massive smile and an incredibly grateful (and exhausted) audience.
Young Franco was up next, continuing the day’s dancey vibes. He looked ridiculously happy behind those decks, swaying his lanky limbs about in the cutest way possible. The sun was getting evil now, baking the crowd into one giant delicious, glittery party pie. Apparently hotter weather gives males the perfect excuse to peacock around with their sweaty torsos on show, I mean shirts were honestly dropping at a quicker rate than the bar’s grog stock. I find it ironic that they take their clothes off to survive the heat, when actually it increases their chances of ruining their sculpted bods with mass amounts of sunburn? Speaking of, my poor womanly chest copped such a sun-beating it decided to turn a shade of red that can only be compared to the colour of a general waste bin lid. The winery did have lots of free sunscreen and a nice number of umbrellas set up though, so my scorched skin was relatively self-inflicted. Young Franco threw us all lots of bangers throughout his set, including ‘About This Thing’ and ‘Miss You’, before closing out with huge hit ‘Drop Your Love’.
It wasn’t long before T-Kay Maidza hopped on up, jumping around her floral-laden stage like a beautiful musical bunny. Her drummer was great to watch, whacking his head around almost as hard as he was whacking the kit. We were standing really close to the front for a while, but the temperature was turning us into a pair of sultanas so we took a breather to source some food. Venturing up to the food truck corner was a grape decision, with the chicken-loaded fries filling an incredibly empty void in my being (otherwise known as my stomach). T-Kay played all the right hits, such as ‘M.O.B.’ and ‘Simulation’, providing a fun backing playlist to our greasy dinner.
Melbourne band Miami Horror hit the field next. The sun had dipped a lot lower by this stage, and thank god for that, because it encouraged all us heat-sensitive suckers to join the main crowd again. I hadn’t listened to much of their stuff before, and Christ do I feel like a fool, because they are SO DAMN FUNKY. Everything about them was perfect to witness: their outfits, their stage movements, their facial expressions, their music! Wow so good. People were losing their minds over the tune ‘Sometimes’, and shook their burnt butts along to fun song ‘Holidays’. I was also a huge fan of the high-held bass and super colourful lighting. Miami Horror are horrifically impressive guys, put on a bold shirt and go see them ASAP.
Ok so it was getting dark now, and we had pushed our way into the thick of the crowd because it was time for one of my FAVE live acts to mount the stage. The lights dimmed, the kookaburra soundbites sang, and on walked the grooviest guys in Australia, my absolute loves, Client Liaison. I wish I could just paste in a drooling face emoji alongside a sparkly love heart and leave it at that, because that’s exactly how I felt throughout their entire performance. The whole stage was ablaze with 80’s inspired couture, from Monte and Harvey’s sublime vibrant suits to the giant water coolers on either side of the stage. They played belter after fricken belter, with songs like ‘Survival in the City’, ‘Feed the Rhythm’, ‘Where Do We Belong’, and ‘Off White Limousine’ rattling my body into a vicious boogying mess. Harvey rocked the keytar for most of the set, while Monte whipped out the didgeridoo for a glorious minute and a half. They finished up with ‘World of Our Love’, turning the entire festival into literally just that. Ugh so incredible.
The day was almost done, we had one act left to see, and boy, were they a grouse one. We managed to park ourselves next to a bin near the side of the stage, mainly to disguise our smelly armpits, but also to acquire a decent view of the next band. When The Wombats finally ran on, there was absolute pandemonium. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m still suffering from tinnitus after hearing such mind-spasming crowd screams. It was all worth it though, because The Wombats have been a favourite band of mine since their early A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation era. The Liverpool-based boys sound so awesome live, with Murph’s pommy voice ringing true in every tune! Every single person at Roche Estate was there to see the set, with songs such as ‘Give Me A Try’, ‘Techno Fan’, ‘Cheetah Tongue’ and ‘Moving to New York’ inspiring some relatively savage dance moves. My heartstrings were royally plucked as they played ultimate sing-along ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’, and the entrance of giant wombats was a highlight also. Murph gave a lovely speech stating that it was their last live song of the year before concluding with ‘Greek Tragedy’, and I’d like to think we made it an extra special one with our enthusiastic response!
Usually my review would end there, but I actually have an extra little anecdote to finish off my Grapevine experience. Ok well the bus lines leaving the festival were surprisingly super swift, so I was feeling very confident about getting home at a reasonable hour after hopping on a coach within record transport time. About twenty minutes into our trip, however, I realised we were revving at a standstill. What on earth was going on you ask? Well, turns out our driver had gone and bloody gotten us stuck in a ditch down some sketchy dirt road! So off we all jumped and walked back down to the main road where we sat like a pack of well-dressed hobos for a little while. All of a sudden, a bus with the words ‘Livin’ The Dream’ printed on its screen rises from the murky distance. Alas! Our knight in white panelling! We all got on the bus, convinced that we’d been saved, until someone noticed about twenty minutes into THAT trip that we were heading in a weird direction. Apparently our first driver told our new driver that we were going to bloody Sydney! SYDNEY! I mean can you imagine?!
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