Shores is quickly becoming an Adelaide institution. In the eastern states New Years Day has for some time been most people’s party priority, and with the turn out for the 2008 Shores festival Adelaide has now joined them.

Arriving at The Shores Complex around 1:30, I was greeted by a monstrous line wrapping around into the car park on what was another 40-odd degree scorcher. This year the headliner was none other than New York’s De La Soul, meaning a more diverse array of fans had rushed to snap up the tickets. I’m not sure on final numbers or if it was an official sellout, but several thousand people were in attendance and stayed to party all day long. Back in the line people were in good spirits despite its length, and smiles all around came when security decided on a different tact and the line flew through.

Wandering through the café area and restaurant the seats were at a premium, all snapped up as people chilled to some chunky house music. Heading outside into the sun for the first time it was excellent to see three huge marquees set up to protect from the sun as well as plentiful beer tents, toilets and even a mist area if things became too hot for you. As I waded through the crowd to meet some friends Troy J Been stepped behind the decks, scheduled for an hour he played some nice funk and groove to start. The hour set though became more like 20 minutes as the stage hands began to set up for De La, and Kanye West’s album was played to entertain.

As Maseo appeared behind the decks the crowd surged and space became standing room only. Maseo introduced first Pos then Trugoy and the crowd which was now shoulder to shoulder for the entire outdoors area erupted. De La well and truly ripped it, sure you could nit pick little things like the mix on Pos’s mic was out pretty much all set and his vocals a little quiet, or that they got a little wordy in their interludes late, but to me none of it mattered. De La live is a must see act for all hip hop heads, they demand crowd interaction and refuse to continue with a track until the crowd gets live enough. Get Live is exactly what they did, in particular for the more commercially well known numbers, All Good, Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays and Ring Ring Ring. From a personal point of view it was nice to hear stuff from their most recent album, the slept on Grind Date. At 3pm under a blazing sun they had a couple of thousand people, some of which had most definitely not come to see them, bouncing as one for more than an hour. Quality performers.

Needing to escape some of the sun I briefly headed indoors, stopping almost immediately in the newly opened drum n’ bass room to watch Supermarket Live. This is the baby of former Adelaide ITM editor dagman and features broken beats tending towards liquid DnB, matched to eye catching visuals. It seemed to grab the attention of most passing and although the festival atmosphere meant not many – myself included – watched the entire set, I’m sure they were impressed with what they saw and heard. Passing next through the main room this was the area for those with excess energy, tech sounds blaring from the speakers, the room completely black and everyone grooving like it was 5am. This scenario repeated every time I made my way through throughout the day.

Returning outside I caught the latter stages of DJ Dyems, spinning some classic hip-hop, from J5, to Scarface feat. Nas, right through to Cypress Hill he had it all covered and people grooving along.

Taking over for the next set was Adelaide’s multi talented man Delta, here on the DJ tip rather than rocking the mic. Starting his set with some classic hip hop – I’m talking every track an absolute classic – from the Black Sheep through to Big L, he then worked the crowd through to some soul, funk and almost disco sounds with massive horns drawing big crowd approval. A very tidy set. Assuming their positions on stage through the latter tracks were The Swiss, an act that has made big noises through Adelaide this year. This trio is going places, big places, the drummer is phenomenal whilst the keyboardist and bass player too more than hold their own. Their own Disco flavoured grooves have won the approval of many in Europe and the US and most definitely had the approval of what had become another big crowd.

The outdoor arena was where hip hop lived this year at The Shores, and as a much needed cool breeze reinvigorated the crowd Madcap took control of the turntables. Spinning a set a little to commercial for my tastes, think Kanye, Gorillaz and even some De La the crowd loved it dancing with renewed vigor. I headed inside to see the dance floor of the drum n’ bass room being carved up to the harder edged sounds, before returning outside to catch the work of Japeye. A resident at Rocket he played what I would term a ‘Rocket set’, funky bass rolling through into the odd hip hop jam, it drew the last effort out of my tiring legs.

Closing out the day on the outdoor stage was Adelaide’s favourite party/wedding band New White Sneakers. They have great energy, but for me too many covers see them slipping from the ‘party’ to ‘wedding’ category. My opinion matters little though as they had a huge dance floor going and people hanging eagerly off every word sung.

As they wound up my day was done, I passed through a pretty full main room where the sounds had only gotten harder and a rocking DnB room as I took my weary body and headed for the car. It was a really well put together day, no hiccups of any note and it is easy to see why it has quickly become an institution, bring on 2009.