Splendour In The Grass is arguably the country’s premier alternative music festival. Understandably, the line-up for 2009 was scarcely scattered with dance acts, which highlighted the continued strength of alternative genres. But it also highlighted the luxury that dance fans experienced in 2008.

Strict crowd control at the gates and Labrador’s eager to please their constables resulted in slowing the excitement after months of build-up. Not to be deterred, people embraced the costume themes with gorillas, chickens, dirty ducks, boiler suits, cops, snails and smurfs all making appearances. Although most concerning was the number of boys proudly donning sparkly coloured lycra jump suits. Eager not to miss one of the few dance acts, my weekend started with last year’s triple j Unearthed winners Art vs Science. In the Mix Up tent, Flippers, Hollywood and Parlez Vous Francais were all part of their solid electro beats representing a great start to the festival. Under the Supertop was Yves Klein Blue whom I felt were unfairly relegated to an early 1.50PM set. Polka and Silence is Distance rounded out their set where a big crowd were grooving to their indie tracks in support of their short but successful career.

Trekking back over to the Mix Up tent, I caught a glimpse of several DJs filling in before Miami Horror came on. With the new use of guitars and a new progressive sound their set was good, but seemingly lacked inspiration.

Back in the rock arena, You Am I played a typically energetic set, which climaxed with Berlin Chair. It was a welcome change of pace, but they were not doing anything beyond their standard repertoire. Loitering around the Supertop was a somewhat rewarding as following You Am I, Powderfinger made an unscheduled arrival. Playing a yet to be released track, the band recorded the crowd singing along for the new release in resounding fashion. Yacht Club DJ’s were a good change of pace and the crowd seemed to be able to enjoy the set with little effort. Back over to Mixup where Yuksek had a large array of synths, MIDI’s and a laptop, which were all the ingredients for a delicious set. He had skillful improvisation and utilised a vast combination of dirty French electro melodies.

Birds of Tokyo under the Supertop secured a solid crowd where Silhouettic, Stay and Wayside captured a great sound in a tight and appreciated set. Over in the GW McLennan Tent Little Birdy took the stage. The beauty and vibrant aura of singer Katy Steele was mesmerising and the band excelled in their evening slot. However, I was eager to return to Mixup in time for Architecture in Helsinki in order to reignite the day. Their live stage show created an impressive dynamic set, which had the crowd grooving throughout. Do The Whirlwind, City Calm Down and of course That Beep were impressive highlights of a set that instilled faith in the genre. I stayed in the tent to watch Cut Copy DJ’s but opted to miss the end as it was obvious they would have been much better received had the group played a live show.

A widely circled rumour on the Friday and eventually confirmed on the gate was that headliner Jane’s Addiction had cancelled due to illness. It was a credit to the organisers that such a popular replacement was found so quickly with The Living End selected to do the honours. The tent was packed solid and the boys powered through a set including Second Solution, All Torn Down and White Noise. Front man Chris Cheney stopped momentarily to declare ’...it’s really difficult when a band cancels and you have to get home grown talent in,’ before launching into the opening line of Prisoner of Society. It was a one-finger salute to those 200 dogmatic fans that requested refunds and it only compounded when Phil Jamieson from Grinspoon was introduced to sing Jane Says; it raised the roof.

Back over in the Mix Up tent, Midnight Juggernauts were entertaining the huge number of fans clearly craving ‘dance music’. Into the Galaxy, Shadows and Road to Recovery were highlights of the psychedelic electro rock set. Given the overlap in times between the two main stages, it was inevitable that the crowd would thin toward the end of the set, so the ‘Juggernauts were clever to play their hits before this occurred.

The Living End left big shoes for Bloc Party to fill on the main stage but of course all Kele and the boys needed to do was step in and tighten the laces. Having entertained an intimate crowd under the alias ‘The Silent Alarms’ at a secret gig at The Great Northern the night before, they were well acclimatised. Hunting For Witches, Waiting for the 7.18, Banquet, Two More Years, Flux, Helicopter and One More Chance decorated the set and the day under an overflowing tent. The band’s modest and charismatic persona is a credit and an example of their ability to avoid the fanfare. Indeed, they were a perfect pick to close out the first day of Splendour’s festivities.

Splendour’s second day always has a more relaxed and ‘Sunday session’ type atmosphere with apparently those abstaining from alcohol able to make it for the tick of noon. With the grounds still rubbish free due to Splendour’s ingenious booze for cans initiative, remaining people slowly trickled in over the following hours. For me that hour was 2PM for Bag Raiders in the Jager Cube. This venue always meant room was going to be tight, but the 100m long queue proved that the demand for dance music over the weekend outweighed supply. I didn’t want to waste the day in line, so after a lap of the grounds to soak it up, I moved onto Kram in the Supertop. Soon after I located a position, Kram vacated the drums in favour of front and centre with the mic, which pleased the modest rock-loving crowd. Being a Liverpool FC fan I was ecstatic to hear him end on an A Capella rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Canyons were rocking a slightly larger crowd in the first of their two sets of the day. Their folk inspired indie rock sound was refreshing, but I opted to check out the Tipi Forest instead. Ruff Diamond played a varied set of house/hard house and electro which resulted in dance fans of all genres enjoying their own green escape.

Holly Throsby meanwhile was preparing to begin in the GW McLennan Tent where a petite crowd were anticipating the opening note. It was a reminder that the competition for fans as always, was fierce. Back to the Mix Up tent I was anticipating a glimpse of the Friendly Fires. The waiting crowd was the biggest daylight crowd of the festival. This indicated that not only had most people stumbled through the gates, but most of those people wanted to see something electronically influenced. Their sound was powerful and somewhat addictive in a set consisting of Skeleton Boy, Jump in the Pool and their soon to be released Kiss of Life. Whilst the Hertfordshire boys were in the Mix Up tent, the White Lies played a firm set of English indie rock in the Supertop. The highlight in that genre for me was the following band Doves, often described as the British answer to the Foo Fighters. It was powerful composite rock with singer Jez Williams’ voice allowing for a delightful smooth sound reaching the ears. The tent was filling quickly with fans both mistaking Williams for Dave Grohl, and waiting for the unique Aussie sound of the following Grinspoon. Appropriately, Thin Lizzy’s Boys Are Back In Town could be heard as the Aussie rock group walked out reflecting the time since their last tour. Quickly breaking into Thrills, Kills and Sunday Pills, Lost Control and DCX3 were played alongside a timely Chemical Heart. With new tracks getting an airing too, the boys definitely showed they’re back. The building crowd meant there was little room to do more than remain for the start of headliner MGMT. Despite being told not to expect great things from the Brooklyn boys’ live shows, I was looking forward to hearing their psychedelic melodies. They started strongly, however as the set progressed, my new expectations were realised. Unfortunately the their three main cash cows Time to Pretend, Electric Feel and Kids provided little more than relief from an otherwise weary and monotonous set. Their debut album as MGMT is a worthwhile purchase but it astounded many fans who left (some after only a few minutes) how little justice the music is done live.

I was obviously eager to finish the festival on a high and wanted to pop my live Hilltop Hood cherry. Although being from Adelaide one could mistake me for being biased, Hip Hop is not my preferred genre. But I loved it. MC’s Suffa and Pressure utilised the stage well and excited he crowd with ease. Their massive set kept the crowd bouncing for the entire 60 minutes with typical tracks like Chase That Feeling, Nosebleed Section and What A Great Night. Over on the Supertop stage in contrast to the stage’s preceding act, The Flaming Lips satisfied an eclectic mix of fans. In typical ‘Lips form a captivating infrared silhouette of a woman on the back screen was used to reveal the band. After her initial sexual tease, she sat down, stretched out and opened her legs for the camera when it zoomed in on her own pulsating white-hot lips. The screen then parted for the band to enter through the lips to rapturous cheers. In signature form Wayne Coyne used his man-sized plastic bubble to transverses over the audience while mountains of confetti were blasted into the air. She Don’t Use Jelly, The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song and The Golden Path dominated a set that satisfied fans at all levels of ‘Lips familiarity.

The common feeling throughout the weekend was an underperforming line-up of electronic acts. However, the Splendour experience and line up continues to ensure that every year demand for tickets increasingly outweighs supply. Given this, we can be sure that the experience at Splendour for fans of all genres will be satisfied again in 2010. It’s fantastic to have on the festival calendar, one that offers excellent alternatives to ‘electronica’, which is saturated by the summer sun. 2008 was a luxury for Splendour dance punters but if you can’t wait 12 months for next year, it’s only eight weeks until a dance festival of your very own!