Saturday 1st December was the first day of summer, and it saw Hardware and Onelove team up to present the inaugural Stereosonic Festival. With seven stages, the event showcased an array of international and local sounds, from house and electro to techno and indie, the event was set to be huge!

Embarking on a jam packed train at Southern Cross station I made my way to the newly refurbished Royal Melbourne Showgrounds. Arriving at the venue at around 2pm I was confronted by a large crowd of punters trying make their way into the grounds. Surprisingly, I seamlessly and quickly made my way through the admission gates and ventured on a full circled lap around the entire venue. Upon first thoughts, I noticed a few new buildings and a significantly smaller grandstand in the main oval, a result of the Showground’s $140 million upgrade. The crowd was extremely colourful, majority of the punters dressed head to toe in multicoloured garments, and generally up for a good time.

Having to wait over 25 minutes in line to purchase drink cards and subsequently my first drink, I finally made my way to the main stage where I sat in the shade of the grandstand and listened to Grant Smilie and Ivan Gough go head to head. Tracks such as Da Hool’s Meet Her at the Love Parade and melody samples of Toca’s Fragma were obvious crowd pleasers and ensured buy-in from what appeared to be a younger crowd – but generally I felt that the set was uninspiring and very predictable.

Up next was Trentmoller, with live band, who created a moody mix of deep electro and minimal, and for me, it set the day in motion. However, I must admit that the overall vibe in the main crowd was still a little lacking. Trentmoller’s music had a slightly darker tip than others on the day, the set may have been better suited later in the day and thus gained the recognition it deserved.

Next up was Meat Katie, and the crowd was digging his blend of driving tech house that strayed far away from his once-branded breaks. For an artist of his stature I felt that he deserved a much better stage, as the reverberation off the concrete walls in this room was horrible. Maybe that area would have been better utilised as an extra bar or first aid area.

Over at the Hardware stage, Steve Rachmad was dishing out some excellent techno sounds. Initially, his crowd was fairly small and slowly grew as the set progressed, he seemed be enjoying himself and was really getting into the music, which is always good to see. Back at the main stage, Booka Shade was playing to a large crowd. The main arena was now in full effect, and overall great music that finished off with signature track Mandarin Girl . This was the first time I had seen the act perform and I was generally impressed with the set.

Back at the Hardware stage Stacey Pullen was attracting more punters with his blend of techno and tech house: the word ‘impeccable’ pretty much sums up my thoughts. Although I must say, it would have been nice to see a few more people watching him. Catching a glimpse of Armand van Helden, I heard renditions of crowd pleasers from artists like House of Pain, Rage Against the Machine and Blur. I didn’t expect much from his set and this particular example didn’t do anything for me.

Kevin Saunderson finished the night off for me. By this stage of the evening the vibe at the Hardware stage was fantastic, with every body in the crowd moving. His set didn’t have the consistent hard edge that I have heard previously in his sets, however I still thought he was excellent – was great to hear some new tunes plus old favourite Devilfish Man Alive . At first I was unsure as to the positioning of the Hardware stage, it looked as though it had just been slapped down where ever there was space and not much thought had gone into it. But during the later sets the crowd at the Hardware stage definitely expanded well out and this was in full effect by the time Saunderson wound up.

All in all, I had a great day at Stereosonic: the sun was shining, the crowd was well behaved and the music was generally very good. The usual big-event headaches occurred – too many lines for toilets and drinks, not to mention only a single place in the whole event to buy drink cards. Later in the day the wait for drinks increased due to cans of Smirnoff running out, and bar staff having to pour the contents of a Smirnoff glass bottle into empty water bottles – not only was time worn, I hate to think how much water was actually wasted during this process! A few other simillar organisational were offset by little touches like free water available all day from the drinking taps that were provided.

So a big thanks goes out to all those involved: Stereosonic hosted a diverse range of music from some quality international acts, it definitely has a lot of potential for years to come and was a great way to begin summer!