Photos by Thom, KS Digital media
Written by Steven Foster
What a way to kick off the 2017 festival season (for those of us in Australia). With a sold out even, Listen Out Perth was the talking point over the weekend. Rain definitely didn’t stop the crowd from having a solid time. The event featured huge international headliners as well as incredible local Aussie artists.
I had the pleasure of attending the Perth leg of the tour at HBF Lakelands. It was the 2nd year the event has been held that the venue. The one-day festival included artists such as Duke Dumont, FUTURE and local legends PNAU, What So Not, Safia and Vallis Aps.
With Listen Out usually being the first major festival of the Australian season everyone always brings great vibes. I really enjoyed the setup with two main stages reasonably close yet far enough to not have noise clashes. Also what was good was the new third bass stage. It was a good little get away from the main stages if you wanted a little less crowd to chill out and rest those dancing wheels.
One thing that could have been improved would have been the entry to the event was way too small and couldn’t handle a large number of attendees, with the average wait time to enter was nearly 30-40 minutes which was nearly a whole set. Doubling the size of the entry would have made things run a lot smoother. Also apart from the music itself, there was nothing really to do. After recently coming back from Europe and seeing the way things are run there, it was a bit disappointing. Also, a few complaints from the locals was to be expected as the noise could be heard from all over town but in saying that, they were never going to please everyone.
Artists
SAFIA– Amazing! The one word I always use to describe Safia. Tune after tune after tune they had everyone at their set singing and dancing to every single song. They played a lot of songs off their recent album but also played a few oldies but goodies. They even debuted a new single that is yet to be released which teased the crowd of good things to come.
PNAU– In my opinion, this was definitely the best on ground performance. They had a HUGE live set and brought Kiira on vocals- what more could anyone ask for. The crowd was dancing non-stop for the whole set. When their 2016 MEGA summer hit “Chameleon” played, everyone was doing shoulder rides to get a better glimpse. Other songs such as “Wild strawberries”, “ Embrace” and “Changes” took the crowd down a fun memory lane.
DUKE DUMONT– After the likes of PNAU the crowd was already pumped and Duke Dumont delivered the goods. You forget how many tunes he has released over the years like “Real Life” and “ I Got You”. When he closed his set and didn’t play “ocean drive” everyone was left a little lost but after a few short moments it played and had everyone in all sorts.
FUTURE– Not bad! But not good. The crowd didn’t go off like the other artists. Having a time clash with Duke Dumont could have been a reason for smaller numbers, but his performance on stage did not meet expectations and was a very straightforward set. The most energy during the set was when “mask off” was played and the crowd was chanting “molly percocets”.
Food
Food options were a bit disappointing this year, only a couple of food vans. Whilst I didn’t have anything to eat, it was definitely lacking in that area.
Drinks
The drink options were actually really good this year. There were multiple bars and areas to purchase alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks with a good menu. Lines went pretty quick with no more than a 10-minute wait. Only negative were the prices were a can of Captain Morgan cost $13 and beer $9.
The Crowd
With the age bracket being closer to the early 20’s it was clear the poor weather wasn’t going affect anyone’s high spirits. Especially for acts such as PNAU where the crowd was wild.
To and From
Public travel was free with a Listen Out ticket but a lot of people did choose for the party bus option. Ubers and taxi’s jacked the prices up for fairs that normally cost between $10-$15 people were paying nearly $60 which was a bit ridiculous. If you were lucky to get a lift then you would have to walk about 5-10minutes to a quieter street to get picked up.
Overall I think Listen out was a huge success in 2017 and already excited to see what Listen out has in-store for us in 2018.
Summer is around the corner here in Australia and there’s a stack of festivals coming up and I can’t wait.