Project Description

THE DROP FESTIVAL

@ King Edward Park, Newcastle

16/03/19

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Yasmin Thus

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The pouring rain couldn’t keep the punters away from the first stop of The Drop. Held at King Edward Park, near Newcastle’s all-famous Merewether Beach, thousands of keen festy-goers trotting up through the muddy gates, into what I would definitely call a swimming pool/waterfall. It was certainly a very difficult terrain, it being on a hill, and the stage being below (obviously would have been amazing if it was sunny), but it sure was hard to keep your footing in between sets and heading to the bar for a few drinks!

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Despite all the rain, the thunder and the lightning, I was still mega stoked to be there, and so were so many others. First up for the day we had Alex the Astronaut, and she had absolute no troubles in motivating the crowd to keep kicking as the rain at that point was just ridiculous!! Alex is pretty sweet, she gives us a little back story as to how far she’s come, which is amazing. She tells us when she had her first gig in the US, she literally paid people to come and watch her!! I can’t imagine why, her songwriting is so powerful, she’s so eloquent in the way she’s able to express herself. For her set, it was just her voice and her guitar, which I think its pretty damn rad! My fave from her set was “Happy Song”, where she gets the crowd to bounce along to the bridge “Ba Baaaa bid ba ba ba” (sounds better in my head when I sing it).

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Finally the rain slows down a bit for the day and we’ve got duo Hockey Dad. To me, they were the one’s for the day that I was most excited to see, having never seen them before! The boys opened their set with my favourite song of theirs “Homely Feeling”, which was just perfect. I think though the other highlights from their set were “Join the Club” and “Sweet Release”, just because they were able to amp the crowd up so much. There were arms and legs everywhere, covered in mud, but man it was cool just to see everyone so into the music.

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Next up were 80’s gods Client Liaison, and man they are the kings of smooth! As to be expected, there were dressed as stylish as ever, decked out with shoulder pads, flared pants and hugeeeee earrings! My fave for their set has got to be “Off White Limousine”, although its not the first time I’ve seen them play this song live, it honestly just gets better every time I see them!

The second last act for the evening were none other than Brissy festy legends Ball Park Music. I think its fair to say that you can count on these guys always being as what ever Aussie Festival you go to, they’re true veterans, and absolute legends to see live. If you’ve never seen them, I suggest you better get yourself to one of their shows ASAP!!! Its so hard to pick a favourite Ball Park song, because I just can’t say that one is better than the other. It’s always fun to see them play “Trippin the Light Fantastic”, as you can probably guess from the title of the song, there is a pretty damn cool light show that they have going in the background while they’re playing the song. Of course though you can’t go past them playing their all time classics “It’s Nice To Be Alive” and “She Only Loves Me When I’m There”.

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After all this, there is plenty more rain drenching and I’m soaked even through my poncho, but I don’t care because Angus and Julia Stone are coming onto the stage and are going to deliver an incredibly beautiful show. Its undeniable that this brother and sister are sooooo talented and just work so well together. Its nice to be able to have a bit more of chilled time after dancing around for most of the day. Highlight of their set for sure was seeing Julia do a trumpet solo, it absolutely blew me away. Other notable mentions included their classic “Big Jet Plane” and “Chateau”.

Overall I would give the day a solid 8/10.

 

Check out Wendy Robinson‘s gallery of The Drop Festival in Manly here

 

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