Project Description
SYDNEY CITY LIMITS
@ Centennial Park
(Live Review)
24/02/18
Reviewed by Nina Longfellow
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Last Saturday, thousands of people flooded Centennial Park for the first ever Sydney City Limits. Boasting an all-star lineup, the festival featured some of Australia’s local legends and a variety of global stars. Sydney City Limits is setting itself up to be one of Sydney’s hottest summer events, a multi-genre festival for people of all ages.
It was clear the festival lineup had been well curated and thought through, with Sydney City Limits showcasing a diverse range of Australian and international artists. Hoards of people flooded the gates at midday, greeted by Bad//Dreems, Ziggy Ramo and Pist Idiots.
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Mallrat at Sydney City Limits – by Amy Halpin
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Mallrat pulled a large crowd early in the day, with fans dancing along to her tracks in the baking midday sun. The Brisbane superstar was closely followed by the incredible Stella Donnelly. Equipped with only her guitar, she haunted us with her chilling track “Boys Will be Boys”, sending shivers down each and every spine.
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Tkay Maidza at Sydney City Limits – by Amy Halpin
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Although Young Thug pulled out of the festival due to visa issues, fans weren’t disappointed by his replacement Tkay Maidza. She bounced around and rocked out on stage, unfazed by the heat. Norwegian singer Sigrid captured the audience with her unique vocals and bubbly personality. She got the party going with her mix of indie pop and dance, coming through with her hit single “Don’t Kill My Vibe” as well as a heart wrenching acoustic version of “Dynamite”.
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Sigrid at Sydney City Limits – by Amy Halpin
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Even though Allday fought numerous technical difficulties during his set, he really delivered. After a couple of songs he was joined by Mallrat; “Make some noise for the future of Australian music right there”.
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Dune Rats at Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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A big drawcard of the festival was Dune Rats. Their set was absolutely wild, with numerous crowd surfers, circle pits and even a death wall. No one left the mosh pit unscathed. One brave fan even climbed up on stage and was immediately met with security and police. Dune Rats were good sports, yelling “Don’t worry boys, he’s our tambourine player”. It was truly a glorious moment.
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Dave Le’aupepe of Gang of Youths at Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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Afterwards, Gang of Youths drew the biggest audience of the day. When the band opened with “What Can I Do If The Fire Goes Out”, fans immediately climbed on one another’s shoulders and danced along. Lead singer Dave Le’aupepe struggled with some technical difficulties. However, this didn’t stop him commanding the audience, shaking his hips and wandering from one stage to another. Closing on “Say Yes To Life”, the crowd’s adrenaline was pumping, ready to be greeted by Australia’s sweetheart Vance Joy. As well as playing the usual hits (“Riptide” and “Georgia”), he treated fans to tracks from his new record, Nation of Two. His latest singles “Lay It On Me” and “We’re Going Home” were memorable moments of his set. Vance Joy’s unique mashup-cover of Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” and Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” was also a highlight.
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Vance Joy at Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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Sydney City Limits had some substantial challenges to overcome while hosting the festival in Centennial Park. Many technical difficulties and noise issues presented themselves frequently throughout the day. Halfway through Future’s opener “Drago”, the rapper experienced such extreme microphone problems he left the stage and didn’t return for fifteen minutes. And even when he did come back onstage the sound quality was so terrible, his vocals were completely distorted. These issues really put a dampener on his set. Similarly, local legends Ocean Alley were also plagued with technical problems. Their new songs such as “The Comedown” simply couldn’t hold up to the poor sound quality. That being said, the crowd really enjoyed “Mellow Yellow”, which earned a big sing-along.
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Future at Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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By 7pm, nearly most stalls had run out of food and tap beer, while queues for the bathroom were outrageously long. When my cousin dislocated his wrist in the mosh and made his way to the first aid tent, he was refused strapping tape and any medical attention: “We don’t do that here”. It’s understandable that the medics may have had greater things to be worrying about, however it was a little upsetting to watch him tough it out for the rest of the night in pain.
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Beck at Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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The evening presented itself with the greatest problem of them all: timetable clashes. Beck was up against Grace Jones, while Tash Sultana, Justice, and Phoenix were scheduled in the headlining time slot.
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Grace Jones at Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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Grace Jones emerged nearly naked onstage for “Nightclubbing”, striking a pose and pulling a mask over her face. The style icon was covered in intricate white body art and made a costume change for almost every song (including putting on a strap-on dick for “My Jamaican Guy”). Her set was wild, incorporating stripper poles, dancers, bubbles and a spectacular light show.
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Tash Sultana at Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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Multi-instrumentalist Tash Sultana blew everyone away at the big top tent. She hypnotized fans with her talent, playing guitar, drums, trumpet, keyboard, synth, mandolin and even panpipe. She could have easily played the main stage.
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Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay of Justice at Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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Beck captured the crowd with his mix of harmonic country and harder rock sound, cranking out hits like “Loser” and “Up All Night” early in his set. Justice came straight out afterwards, with an impressive set list and stunning light show. The French duo delivered an hour-and-a-half set of nonstop bangers including “Safe and Sound”, “Genesis” and finally “D.A.N.C.E.”. People in the VIP section were even dancing on tables. It was the perfect way to close the main stage.
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Thomas Mars and Deck D’arcy from Phoenix at Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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French disco rockers Phoenix ended the night on an incredible high. They played a variety of tracks from their last three albums including highlights “Lisztomania”, “J-Boy” and “Lasso”. Between the extraordinary visuals, the band conducting the crowd to sing happy birthday to their tour manager and lead singer Thomas Mars crowd surfing in “1901”, Phoenix was absolutely phenomenal.
Although leaving incredibly sunburnt, dehydrated and covered in dust, I left extremely happy. Sydney City Limits was a success in its first year and we can expect it to return even bigger in 2019.
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Sydney City Limits – By Amy Halpin
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Check out Amy Halpin’s photo gallery of Sydney City Limits here!
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