Photo Credit: Listen Out Facebook
By: Katarina Cvetko
Last weekend officially kicked off the festival season down under with Australia’s premier dance music event: Listen Out. The festival returned for its sixth year to Melbourne’s Catani Gardens for the first of four nationwide events and brought a range of local and international artists along for the ride. Here’s what I loved about it.
THE VENUE
Located in St Kilda’s Catani Gardens, just 20 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD, the venue acted as the perfect location for the festival. The festival took advantage of the easily accessible beachfront location with stages and vendors perfectly placed throughout the park.
THE PEOPLE
While I’m not the biggest fan of the Australian festival scene, whenever the opportunity arises to head down south to Melbourne, attendance is a no-brainer. The general crowd at this event was very friendly, chill and welcoming, and everyone attending was having a good time. Compared to other cities in Australia, Melbourne definitely has the best rave scene.
THE MUSIC
The festival featured three stages filled with the hottest local and International acts. Australia’s most talented musicians including Enschway and Flexmami shared the stages with some of the most iconic names in the scene such as Skrillex and A$AP Rocky. The predominantly deep house and techno names dominated the festival this year, turning this small beachfront event into one of the best.
FISHER
One of the most entertaining sets of the night was definitely Fisher. The Australian born pro surfer turned musician filled the entire 909 stage with his unique house and techno sound. Opening up the set with his iconic track ‘Ya Kidding’ filled with nothing but energy and good vibes, the Aussie artist was easily one of the most entertaining sets of the entire festival.
SKRILLEX
My favourite set of the night was without a doubt: Skrillex! The American DJ and producer finally made his long-awaited return down under for an hour of insane energy and nostalgic vibes. With a tracklist filled with his Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites classics to new and up and coming mixes and releases, the artist had the entire crowd singing along. The energy could be felt from the front rail all the way to the very back of the main stage and every single person was loving it!
Overall, the festival definitely lived up to its name as Australia’s premier dance music event. With the perfect combination of local and international artists in one perfect location, the 6th annual edition of Listen Out in Melbourne was definitely one for the books.