The Summer Dreaming festivals at Glenworth valley were some of my earliest exposure to psytrance so it was with great anticipation that I made my way down to Bondi Beach for the latest edition of the festival.
The Bondi Pavilion is a top notch party venue incorporating indoor and outdoor arenas all within a walled compound. I arrived around lunchtime to find a smallish crowd scattered across the various areas. The outside courtyard was showing some wear and tear after three parties in as many days giving it a dustbowl like quality which was not helped by the strong wind that blew the dust into everything and everywhere. It did however give the festival that true bush doof feel.
The décor of the two rooms was outstanding. The outdoor stage was flanked by two large statues and surrounded by plant life giving it a jungle feel. The tent stage looked like a cross between a spaceship and a futuristic fashion store, with elaborately decorated mannequins along with silver ducting and a giant truss surrounding the performance area. Throughout the complex where numerous coloured pennants which gave a real festival atmosphere to the entire place. The sound systems as expected were big, loud and crisp.
The tunes at this early point of the day were a nice progressive sound, thumping bass but still on a slow build with breakdowns into some weird and wonderful Arab and eastern sounds. At this time the tent was the more populated of the areas mainly due to the strong winds. Ozzy was in control of the sounds and the crowd was building towards the performance of the Sydney live act Big Boys Toys.
Starting off with a sample from ‘Last night a DJ saved my life’ he soon moved into more psycho sounds over a good psy thump. Outside things were still moving along slowly but as the crowd built the tunes built with them. By 3pm the courtyard was a packed stomping mass with the sounds provided by Luke Psywalker & Sun Control Species. In contrast to earlier in the day it was now the tent that had emptied.
Adding to the carnival like atmosphere were jugglers, stilt walking dancers and once darkness had fallen a troupe of fire twirlers. As well as this, their were numerous market stalls selling everything from clothes to henna tattoos to the ever present Mr Whippy van.
As the afternoon wore on Space Cat took over in the courtyard and played a wave like set going from full on slammin’ tunes many of which seem to incorporate awesome heavy metal style guitar samples then calming it back down but forever building and building. Around 5pm as I ventured back towards the tent I caught the end of what sounded like the Ghostbusters theme which brought a smile to many faces in the crowd including my own.
Next in the tent was the Aussie psytrance stalwart Space Tribe who played a perfectly judged set. Building and building and building then holding it back for a few bars then dropping a massive full on sound. The lights were getting their first run of the day and added greatly to the power of the set. As the sun went down there was a kind of lull as the tunes made the transition from light to dark. The courtyard was precided over by Domestic while in the tent Space Tribe had gone dark and dirty to end his set.
The closing set for the night in the tent was from Japans Tsuyoshi Suzuki. He started with a bang dropping the Prodigy track Voodoo People to huge cheers from the crowd. He continued on the full on peak time style to a full tent stompin their hearts out. Outside Absolum was still building up the vibe with rolling base lines and the awesome addition of strobes and moving lights.
Summer Dreaming again provided a showcase of the best in local and international psytrance. The only downer being the no show of Bansi from GMS after he had missed some flights. But in the end he wasn’t missed as the rest of the performers played flawless sets for the large, happy and eclectic crowd in attendance. Psytrance at Bondi was a great idea and we all hope that it is repeated soon.
