review: peats ridge festival, glenworth valley by danielle le toullec

Posted by Danni Le Toullec on January 3, 2011 0 comments

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For some folk, NYE is all about glamour, champagne, high heels and fireworks. For others, it’s about spending quality time with the fam. Then there are the exceptional few (thousand) that wouldn’t call it New Years without tents, gozleme, heat and multiple days spent bowing down to the sweet, sweet sound of live music.

Now for the latter, the family friendly Peats Ridge not only delivered, it came through with great tunes, acrobatics, art, and a muted carbon footprint. It even won the ‘Best Achievement in Sustainability’ award at the 2010 Australian Event Awards. Held in the picturesque Glenworth Valley on the Central Coast of New South Wales, it was the perfect setting for riverside camping, not to mention those delicious potato spiral-on-a-stick! There were countless workshops on offer each day, including pilates, yoga, poi twirling, hula hooping, juggling, West African dancing and drumming.

As for on-site venues selection: guests could wind down on cushions and rugs in the Chai Temple, ponder among suspended bird cages in the Boudoir De La Fox, enjoy the sounds of music bouncing off the mountains at the Bellbird stage, stomp the ground in the Dub Shack or pass your time in The Land of Hopeless Utopians – a massive 13.5m diameter geodesic dome that used solar power to create a 360 degree kaleidoscope projection.

Day One

ARIA Award winner of Best Female, Washington pulled a large crowd at the Bellbird main stage; although her vocals were somewhat swallowed up by the valley. The Jezabels didn’t suffer the same problems. ‘Hurt Me’, ‘Easy to Love’ and ‘Disco Biscuit Love’ rang out loud and clear. Having supported the likes of Tegan & Sara and Josh Pyke, they have proved that they are more than capable of holding their own. We scampered off into the creek to cool off and then moved on to the natural slushee stall for an icy guava beverage before seeing Swedish exports, Shout Out Louds. They played great folk anthems filled with catchy lyrics and a perfect ratio of the town bicycle, also known as the synthesizer, mixed with some good old fashioned acoustic guitar. Angus and Julia Stone played against a beautiful background of wire-suspended clouds and hot air balloons that, combined with Julia’s tranquil voice, gave their performance a whimsical quality. Their cover of Grease's “You’re The One That I Want” went down a treat.

Day Two

Folk-pop troupe Tin Sparrow played one of the earlier sets on Thursday. The band are fresh meat on the local music scene but have have developed a strong local following. The Lyrebird tent was packed. Fans swarmed for the free CD giveaway at the end. Jonathan Boulet and his band have come a long way since the last time I saw them at the Civic Hotel in 2009. As predicted they are living up to the hype.

Later that day, the dome was home to games of giant chess, followed by a yoga dance fusion calling themselves The Future Sound of Yoga. The session began innocently enough with some downward dog and tree poses; moments later pulsating beats filled The Land of Hopeless Utopians dome and limber bodies were joined by revelers passing by.

As the sun dropped, Sydney band Decoder Ring filled the valley surrounding the Bellbird stage with an other-worldly blend of pared-back instrumentals. Lying under a tree, taking it all in, it was apparent that the chilled nature of Peats Ridge had well and truly seeped in.

Day Three

After three days of perfect blue skies, New Years Eve was finally upon us and crowds were far from losing steam. Matt Corby played to an enraptured crowd early on the day, winning us all over with his vocal skills and unassuming personality. Fresh from Pyramid Rock Festival, Ernest Ellis took a stab at the Southern Cross tattoos of his previous audience. The jesting didn’t go down too well with the similarly tattooed counterparts that speckled through the crowd at Peats Ridge. Best to stick to that old rule, “if you have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all’. Kate Miller-Heidke whipped out her opera-trained vocals to great effect. Funny anecdotes sealed the deal. Jinja Safari were another highlight, described by one punter as “Lion King meets general fucking awesomeness”.

New Years Eve kicked off with the Fancy Dress Parade at Sunset, bringing the fairies, the pirates, the bumblebees, avatars and giraffes out to play. People were running around picking up bottles to hand in with their $1 refund tokens handed out with each drink purchase. A great incentive for people to be eco-friendly. 

Trentemøller brought their light show and pulsating beat to the Bellbird stage to bring in the New Year. Their music was perfect for the occasion, and hearing ‘Moan’ live was definitely a highlight of the festival. The only downfall of the performance was that they failed to do a countdown, so 2011 crept in mid-song and was only recognised by the sparklers that watch-wearing festivalites lit up. From there it was off to the Dub Shack for some delightful drum and bass; Victim whipped us all into frenzy with sweat literally pouring off the roof of the tent. The tent was consistently full for all three days of the festival and would have better suited a larger space.

As the music wrapped up around 3am, disappointed dancers cried out unsuccessfully for encores before running around chasing the final songs of each stage. The Chai Temple kept the music going a bit longer, with chilled beats and Persian carpets to cushion bruised feet. A drumming circle formed at the entrance of the festival as the mist started to hover above the grass. Under a sky that bulged with stars and the sounds of a tepee party in Camp ‘E’, we said goodbye to 2010 and welcomed 2011 with open arms despite being covered in dust, beer and god knows what else.

Were you there? What did you think of Peats Ridge? Don't let us do all the talking, tell us your thoughts via a comment or two.

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