Holly and I took Louis to his first outdoor music festival, and his first time camping over New Year. Peats Ridge Festival is held to the North of Sydney in a valley near the Hawkesbury River and bills itself as something of a sustainable music festival. It's got mostly Australian artists, though this year they had the Shout Out Louds who I'd previously seen at Roskilde in 2006 (yes, follow that link - the photo is awesome).
We didn't know quite how it'd turn out, whether Louis would cope with dust, camping, noise and heat. Turns out we did fine.
Bands I really enjoyed, but expected to enjoy, were Shout Out Louds, Decoder Ring and PVT. Always awesome bands.
New discoveries:
- The Seabellies: very talented multi-instrumentalist band. Curious to hear their recorded output, if I can find somewhere to buy it that isn't iTunes.
- Fishing: very difficult to categorize, probably closest example is some of Hudson Mohawke's output (Polyfolk Blues in particular). Amazing live mashing up of their tracks.
- Jinja Safari: Holly saw these guys so I don't really know anything about them.
- Trentemøller: not terribly impressed with his recordings, but his set leading up to New Year's midnight was great.
But music was only part of the fun. We spent a lot of time trying to stay cool, with temperatures heading towards 30 and over in the day. We spent a fair amount of time cooling down in the little creek running through the site. We lazed around. Ate some yummy food. Drank some beers.
The really fun part was last night with a dress up night. Louis and I have these absolutely amazing costumes made by my awesome friend Linn Linn. Loads of fun.
All in all, a nice little festival. Good relaxed atmosphere, very kid-friendly. The "eco" label can be a little grating, especially when they stiff you an extra $1 "container deposit" on drinks and then make it difficult to actually get your dollar back. But I think I'd definitely go again. We had lots of fun.
Loads more photos are on my SmugMug.
In case you haven't had cute overload yet, here's a video of Louis dancing to Lolo Lovina: