Project Description
NYE IN THE PARK
Victoria Park Sydney
(31 December 2017)
Live Review
Reviewer – Benjamin Smith
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New Year’s Eve is generally an event which has me running for the nearest place to hide from the madding crowds, such is the history of my experiences with the night’s festivities. This year however, the inclusion of two names on a party’s line up warranted a rethink.
New Year’s in the Park, first run this year, is a caper put together by Hot Dub Time Machine and his management co Falcona. Featuring Hot Dub himself and a bunch of other acts NYITP took over Victoria Park, the sprawling expanse that takes up most of the block that corners Broadway and City Rd. 2many DJs, Purple Sneaker DJs, Furnace and the Fundamentals and about 18 other acts who sit at various points on the electro/pop/funk/dance spectrum made for a full day of entertainment on the lighter side of the ledger.
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Photo – Brayden Smith
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Photo – Brayden Smith
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Photo – Brayden Smith
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For me though, it was the addition of Krafty Kuts and Chali 2na, two giants of the old skool who would individually be enough to pack the park out a dozen times over, that made a ticket a must-have. The combination of 2na’s super smooth flow and Krafty’s party grooves and world class turntablism meant that everything coming before or after was completely dwarfed.
The other standout of the day was probably Furnace and the Fundamentals who played a set lasting about two hours over the afternoon-into-evening slot. Essentially playing pop standards, they turned out to be an inspired choice. They took disparate clusters of nonplussed bystanders and turned them into a crowd of jumping and hollering partiers. It was quite a thing to see. Furnace, ringleader of the Fundamental circus has a kind of indefatigable energy that would have kept him going for a set double or triple the length if the organisers had let him. Inclusion of the culturally questionable faux-African musings from the Lion King aside, Furnace and his band did what the Falcona folk paid them to do in spades; they got people of the grass and on to the dance floor, shaking their asses til midnight.
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Photo – Brayden Smith
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Photo – Brayden Smith
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Photo – Brayden Smith
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It should be said that in terms of the event’s elements coming together successfully, the organisers nailed it. Food was great and not eye-wateringly overpriced, queues to get to the bar were manageable, security were present without being intrusive, the park was kept clean (including the more than adequate number of toilets) and whoever was managing RSA was on point because I saw very few people looking dangerously fucked up. Hot Dub took us through to midnight with a mash up of the last 20 years in music and was joined a few times by Furnace and his mob. The fireworks display was pretty impressive too; a generous nod to the fact that the harbour show was going to be obscured by the treeline.
This was a party for people who just wanted everything to be fun, and NYITP turned out to be exactly that. Its New Years with no pressure. Its good grooves and a crowd that proved the people like me who say NYE is a nightmare completely wrong.
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