Maybe it’s just a coming of age thing or maybe it’s actually happened that way, but were there always this many festivals across the Australian summer? Arguably starting with Parklife back in October, it just seems to be festival after festival, not that I’m complaining though. And the people in Perth who used to always complain about getting left behind by many touring acts have been pretty much put to bed. Recent lineups like the Ministry of Sound Annual festival, which Melbourne or Brisbane weren’t included in, have showed that good ol’ Dullsville may be finally starting to break the shackles of the grey haired party pooper patrol that runs our fair city.

Lest I digress, we arrive at one of the longest serving Australian festivals with the Melbourne show celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The reason for my entangled introduction was that as per recent timetabling, Summadayze had been scheduled the day after the well known Busselton music festival Southbound. Southbound was a scorchingly hot and long day, comprising much of the festival fun we have come to expect in recent years culminating in a perfect headlining set by UK dance statesmen Groove Armada. Superb music, perfect song choice and amazing visuals, including awesome green laser show, made for a magnificent way to end the festival. Then it was back home for a few hours kip and then a slow crawl back north to Perth, a quick shower and off to The Supreme Court Gardens and the Esplanade for the weekend’s second event. A culmination of the forces of Mellen and Future Entertainment meant the past few years’ lineup was bursting at the seams and this year was no exception. Punters were really spoilt for choice in 2008 with an act to satisfy your every electronic urge. From hip-hop to house and breaks to indie, this years’ lineup had it all.

Compromising of 5 stages throughout the two side-by-side parks and with Barrack Street closed off between them, it made for smooth transitions between stages and a minimum of hassle associated with a large crowd. Of a reportedly 15,000 strong crowd it would have been interesting to know how many were backing up from Southbound, but by the atmosphere of the crowd, if many had gone they weren’t showing it as the mood was jovial, upbeat and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Arriving at a later time than envisaged due to slow traffic on the way back north, the first act that was blaring as you came through the entrance were NZ dub-rootsters Salmonella Dub. Being frequent visitors across the Tasman, Sal Dub are no strangers to Aussie crowds and with a new album to play with, the Kaikoura 6-piece sounded confident and bass heavy, just the way we like it. Dropping new tracks like latest album title track Heal Me and Triple J favourite Love Sunshine and Happiness, the modest crowd was treated to one of the finest electronic bands ever to come form the land of the long white cloud.

After that a party was in need of starting so it was over to the Famous tent to check out the better looking third of Faithless in Sister Bliss. After having a baby in 2006 it is great to see the queen of chill-hop on the wheels of steel and looking so good. Dressed in a red flowing tunic top and with her familiar short blonde locks, Bliss was playing to a pretty much full tent and it was going to be interesting whether she could DJ as well as she could produce. She played a variety of housey tunes that had a 90s feel to them and well as sampling well, throwing in the intro vocals to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Dropping Martijn Van Velden and Mark ‘half of Stanton Warriors’ Yardley’s killer Splittr track
All Alone towards the end of the set, she really had the crowd going and there wasn’t a person in the tent not enjoying themselves.

It was then time to head over the main stage, via the mist tent (a fantastic idea for any summer festival) for a quick cool down, to check out the lads of the self proclaimed ‘Swedish House Mafia’. After hearing some high praises of their set at Field Day, it was going to be interesting to see how the childhood friends put together a set. Anthemic seemed to be the order of the day, flowing through electro classics all round and Underworld’s Born Slippy was lapped up by the sizey crowd. The atmosphere at the main stage was party party PARTY! And with plenty of room to boogie there were future Johnny Travoltas around everywhere. Note to future big name DJs: to emphasize where the party is happening at a festival, get as many attractive girls with little clothing on quickly to the stage for some afternoon sunshine pole-dancing (without the pole).

It was a shame to leave the Swede’s party but another one was calling, although this one had a slightly more old-skool feel to it, a block party if you will, filled with some real B-boys by the name of De La Soul. Though when we arrived at Beat Generation stage we were greeted by the information that De La would be running an hour late and their set had been moved back. Disappointed by the news, the decision was made to get the sugar levels back up with some dinner and a drink. On return from the hot dog van, dancey 80s synth-pop purveyors Cut Copy had just started on the Live Stage and sounded much better than the poor mix we heard at Daft Punk. Though the boys may have preferred a bad mix if they liked playing in front of the 25,000 they played to at Daft Punk, rather than the rather modest gathering they had today. No one could accuse the Melbourne boys of being lazy as this was the fifth time they had crossed the nullabor in the past 12 months and their live show is really beginning to show it. Opening with newest single So Haunted, the trio, who play with an extra guitarist live, ran through some of the better-known tracks from their 2004 debut Bright Like Neon Love. Their tunes That Was Just A Dream, Going Nowhere and Time Stands Still all sounded fantastic, whilst Saturday and Future had both been given thorough reworkings into impressive live versions. Two new tracks from their upcoming second album were thrown down including Love Is In The Crowd and next single Lights And Music which starts with a sweet bassline, has some dirty squelches and almost sounds a little bit like Edwyn Collins 1994 classic A Girl Like You.

As has been the norm for recent multistage festivals, timetable clashes were inevitable and the De La rescheduling had made things even more difficult. On the way to the Main Stage, we heard the unmistakable sounds of trance emanating from the Electric Playground and popped in to have a look. German DJ duo Cosmic Gate have become one of the bigger names in trance recently, doing remixes from everyone from Tiesto to Ferry Corsten. The boys had a dark and sinister atmosphere in the tent working well and the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves dropping more subtle and uplifting trance than they are known for including an appropriately dirty remix of Ali Love’s K Hole.

It was then quickly over to the main stage to check out headliner and DJ Mag’s number 10 DJ David Guetta. But when we arrived we found the ‘Godfather of electroclash’ Felix Da Housecat still spinning tracks and it was quickly ascertained that he had been running late as well, maybe he was on De La Soul’s greyhound also. Dropping all kinds of house, Da Cat moved through cheesy disco, fidget and lots of electro and had the crowd loving it. It seems he took up the mood of the Swedes before him and was playing anything to keep the crowd dancing including a great remix of The Killers Mr Brightside, at which a friend made the good point that there aren’t enough Killers remixes out there as they always seem to go down well with crowds.

Back at the Beat Generation stage, De La Soul had finally arrived and were roaring into their set with all the confidence that 20 years in the industry brings. Pumping out the title track from 2004’s The Grind Date to a rapturous crowd, they also moved through classics like Oooh and All Good, it was clear the boys have lost none of their charisma and charm, interacting well with the crowd and each other, as their flow was perfect. When front-rower Sani was asked what today was, she unfortunately wasn’t able to finish the line with “Saturday” but it didn’t matter as the MCs took everything in their stride and launched into the crowd favourite. After Me Myself and I they did a sped up version of their ‘party over here, party over there’ routine but with the limited time for the set they couldn’t give it the time that it usually gets in their solo shows. Finishing with Ring Ring Ring, an impromptu ode to deceased Godfather of Soul James Brown and a humorous version of Like A Virgin, Pos jokingly asked the crowd to buy a t-shirt that they were selling at the front right of stage, although this was lost on two friends who quickly went to buy a shirt, proving De La had lost none of their trademark charm.

Headlining on the Live Stage were London’s favourite nu-ravers New Young Pony. The five-piece have been going from strength to strength releasing their debut album Fantastic Playroom to ‘rave’ reviews (pun intended) and their live shows have also received thoroughly positive reviews. Opening with first album track Get Lucky, the group sounded confident and assured; probably from the year and half of touring they are finishing tonight. The sound is perfect and front woman Tahita Bulmer prowls the stage, dripping sex appeal wherever she goes. “Don’t worry we’ve got plenty more songs about sex”, she assured the crowd who I’m sure were pleased about that fact. Though what a small crowd it was. That is perhaps a problem with having 5 stages is that it doesn’t create the atmosphere that is sometimes needed, with NYPC, Guetta, People Under the Stairs, Kissy Sell Out and Christopher Lawrence all playing between 9 and 10 it was always going interesting to see how the crowd panned out. Running through most of Fantastic Playroom, the ‘Ponies’ sounded fantastic and added little parts to each song to make it more of a live show, something they did very well. The young and fluro crowd were loving every minute especially when fan favourites The Get Go and first single Ice Cream hit the stacks. Finishing with a cover of Technotronic’s 80s smash Pump Up The Jam, which was particularly enjoyable especially to the older members of the audience and then recent single The Bomb, NYPC said thanks and must’ve been somewhat relieved that they didn’t have to play any of those songs again, for a while anyway. They played a tight and high-energy set, which was a credit to them as it must’ve been tough to keep your oomph up with such a small crowd on such a large stage.

All in all another highly enjoyable Perth music festival that was well organised, has a smorgasbord of acts and a perfect location. It would be interesting to perhaps though see what sort of a crowd they could get if they didn’t have to compete with southbound on the same weekend and someone like NYPC could have had the crowd they thoroughly deserved.