So I must admit I walked away from this festival feeling a little dissatisfied. Solar festival could have been a dazzling light filled day as the name proposes. Instead it was dull. This was Solar’s first year at producing a festival, and we all know that it takes that first year with trial and error to create a festival that actually works. However I couldn’t believe that the first act would start even though no one had been allowed to enter the Mornington racecourse grounds. For fifteen minutes first act Juke Kartel had to perform to an empty grass as security and event staff looked baffled.

After the line went down, I was able to get in to catch the tail end of the beautiful Lisa Mitchell, on the Solar main stage. She really is such a great performer. After this I made my way down to the Band Stage where Phrase had just taken the stage, it definitely was easy to navigate around the Solar festival grounds as each stage was extremely close, which at times caused a sound cross over. Melbourne Hip Hop MC Phrase entered with a bang, as he screamed, “Solar, where you at, make some noise, I want a whole lot of love!” The crowd just did not respond, so he said “ I feel like we could be in Tasmania, I need to know we are in Mornington!” He really gave it his all, and some of the audience responded, but it was not till his most recent single Clockwork, which has been receiving a load of Triple J airplay that people actually got up and started dancing.

Phrase is a really a great hybrid of Rock and Hip Hop. His band are extremely tight and are all quite well known session musicians in their own right. Whilst performing the track Skylight, Phrase got a chance to introduce his band, he had Josh Jones on bass, Josh on guitar who blended rock into his hip-hop with roaring rock riffs. Then the DJ had a spin off to drummer Conrad, and here you could see the musicianship of the group, as the DJ really knew how to scratch. At times Phrase rhymed about political issues but he mostly kept it light, at one point in the set he got fellow musician Jade McRae on guest vocals, for one of his new songs off the album. People really got into this track, as they bounced around.

After Phrase I got a chance to go over to the dance tent where I caught a bit of the sets from Mike Hunt who mixed hip hop and Eric Powell who was mixing electro, it was here that people started moving over to this stage and started dancing. Miami Horror was my favourite DJ though as his mixing skills are really something to note. It was a really strange set up though, as the stage was placed in between the other two stages, where people walk through, I am not sure why there was not a tent where people could escape from the live stages if they wanted to?

After catching some of the DJ’s I went back to the main stage to catch Sydney boys Snob Scrilla, I had not heard anything about these guys, till someone in the audience said I should check them out. These guys were oozing confidence as soon as they got on stage singer screamed “If you don’t get up you can go watch the other bands, is it rude? Hell yes!” They began with an almost drum and bass beat but then delved deeply into hip-hop and rock. They used live drums, guitars, synths and vinyl to create the mix. The lead vocalist really wanted people to get into it, “Where ever your going fuck that shit, change your plans, its called dancing, its not a picnic.” At first I was a bit confused by this singer, I am not sure whether he was too over confident, but I realised that he actually had something going here as the crowd reacted and it went from a couple of people dancing to the whole lawn. After feeling a little more alive I went and caught a bit of *Walter Meego*’s set which was a deep house set, favourite track he played was a well-known LCD Sound System track.

I noticed a lot of people were scurrying back to the Band Stage so I made my way back and noticed that That One Guy was to take the stage, if you have not seen the Californian, I advise you to do so. He had the wild idea to create a one-man band, out of pipe. He uses midi all over the pipe to trigger sounds and beats and it really is a spectacle to watch. His song The But Machine is a hilarious number about butts; it has heavy and stomping tribal beats that really get you going. His track Weasel Pot Pie was also a highlight. He is charismatic and great to watch as he uses his hat and musical invention to create a spectacle full of fooling around. He really had the audience in the palm of his hand, he howled to the audience, and they howled back. We were all his for that forty minutes. The only distraction was the sound overlapping from the other stage, which in the end distracted me to go and check out DJ’s Acid Jacks and Ajax.

For the closing of the night I went to see Pnau and The Presets on the main stage. Both acts were really great to watch, it is just a shame with the sound quality and the stage set up, there was really no where to stand and the sound was muffled at some points. I was really excited to see Pnau’s Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes in their live glory as I had been told that they were spectacular to watch. Their sound was really incredible but they seemed quite distant and detached from the audience, Littlemore especially did not seem like he wanted to be there and did not seem convinced by the songs. When The Presets hit the stage, the crowd packed out even more so than before, they performed all their hits Are You The One, My People, and This Boy’s in Love, and it was a real delight to witness these boys in action again. They really are awesome to watch live, and I believe these boys have received well deserving success.

Solar Festival really had a stellar line up full of our wonderful Australian artists, I think the festival has some issues to solve before the next one, but the music really did make up for it on this occasion.