After weeks of wintery weather during what is supposed to be spring, Parklife patrons woke to a sun-drenched day, perfect for a music festival. By two o’clock, the entrance gates at Wellington Square were completely overflowing with excited festival-goers. There were people everywhere, surrounding the gates, and spilling onto the road.

Those who were trying to make their way inside to catch the first acts of the day were anxious, but the proximity of the Air Stage to the entry, meant that all who were still waiting on the outside were easily able to enjoy the Art vs Science set from the other side of the gates. The crowd’s enthusiasm grew as they leaked through the gates one-by-one, and those on the inside and the outside chanted all together, “Use your flippers to get down!”

While the Voltaire Twins played at two o’clock instead of seven due to some re-scheduling, which disappointed those who missed out on seeing the local band woo the crowd with their ultra fine synth-pop, another local band, Tim and Jean also played the first time slot of the day. Tim and Jean played to a relatively small, but dedicated crowd who were dancing excitably to the triple j Unearthed finalists. They played an impressive set, and when members of the crowd found out that the members of this band were only 15 and 18 years old, they were utterly surprised.

The afternoon sun lived up to expectations, and while those less prepared began developing their first sunburn for the festival season, lines were forming at the bars and porta-a-loos. Parklife was now in full swing!

In a rush to see as many sets as possible, people dashed between tents to see parts of each act. At three o’clock the challenge to catch a bit of everything became increasingly difficult as more and more great bands and DJs were starting to play the same time slots. Boys! Boys! Boys! played on the water stage to a surprisingly large crowd, which was of course a delightful thing to see. The band and their audience were dancing, cheerfully jumping up and down in the sunshine. These guys know how to get an audience involved, and had everyone clapping along to their intoxicatingly happy sounding songs.

Bertie Blackman played to a tent absolutely packed full of people. Dressed for comfort in black track-pants, a diamante encrusted black t-shirt, and one fingerless leather glove, Bertie belted out an impressively energetic set. She gave off much more of a “rock” vibe than expected by those who might have only heard a few of her tracks on the radio, and definitely seemed to win (more) fans because of it. A definite highlight was when she and her band busted out a cover of Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight. The echoey acoustics that could be experienced from the back of the tent were solved when the crowd moved forward, as close as they could to the stage.

The Host of the festival and Chief of Ed Banger Records, Busy P enticed a massive crowd to play to at his set. His suave French accent seduced some members of the crowd as he encouraged the female portion of his audience to, well, give him some ‘inspiration’. As excitable girls lifted up their shirts and displayed their, uh, assets towards Busy P, the Frenchman simply uttered, “This is why I love Australia”.

After being arrested within hours of entering Australia, Lady Sovereign drew a crowd so large that it spilled out of the back and the sides of the Fire stage area. As she took the stage wearing a turned-up baseball cap and sunglasses, people were literally crawling in and out under the sides of the tent! Pushed up against one another the crowd jumped up and down to Lady Sov’s hits such as Love Me or Hate Me and the more recent single So Human, which heavily features a sample of The Cure’s Close To Me.

While hundreds of people walked passed each other bragging and raving about how amazing Sampology and Metronomy were, the struggle through crowds to see as much as possible continued. Anyone lucky enough to experience the Aeroplane DJ set was treated to a spectacular mix. It was a set that can really only be described as “smooth”, and charmed everyone there with a plentiful collection of tracks ranging from Sebastien Tellier’s Kilometer to their own remix of Now Til ’69. The crowd was literally delighted with what felt like one of the best sets of day.

For this year’s Parklife there was a lot of hype surrounding acts that were playing their first-ever Australian shows. One of these was La Roux who performed with her band in full ‘80s style attire, and her trademark upright fringe (somewhat reminiscent of the “hair gel scene” from There’s Something About Mary). La Roux definitely had the biggest crowd at this particular time slot, and the hundreds that were packed next to each other to enjoy her first Perth performance seemed happy to be there, all singing along to the pitch-perfect renditions of her hits that have become so popular this year. Yes, most of La Roux’s songs sounded very similar, but they all inspired the same joyous mood amongst the well-behaved crowd.

After a dash to the other side of Wellington Square to claim a space for Erol Alkan, the very popular Crystal Castles were playing their last track Alice Practice. Confusion arose amongst the back part of the crowd (who couldn’t actually see the stage) when the start of the track began to play again, but was quickly silenced. Later, in conversation, rumours were circulating that Alice had been electrocuted by one of the amplifiers on stage.

There can’t have been too much of a safety risk on the Air Stage, because immediately after Crystal Castles finished, Erol Alkan took to the decks to absolutely blow the crowd away with his infamous brand of electro-goodness. It was 7.30 and the skies were officially dark (which made the intense strobe lights all the more effective) and the fanatical crowd was thankful to be witnessing such a great set. It was such perfect scheduling, the Erol Alkan set felt like an after party for what had already been experienced in the daylight, but at the same time a kick-start to keep punters excited for the last part of the festival.

Time was running out, and most of the crowd clambered towards the Water Stage to witness Luke Steele’s first ever performance as Empire of The Sun. While most of us seem to still be a bit unsure about whether Nick Littlemore is still a member of the band, that was little more than a passing thought, as the audience just wanted to see what props Luke would pull out of his tricks bag. His show was everything you would expect it to be, colourful, bright and flawless. He donned his feathered crown of a headpiece and a similar costume as worn in his video clips. Love him or not, Luke Steele has managed to wow everybody in a way that only he could.

The day was almost over and while A-Trak, Tiga and Claude Von Stroke still had dedicated audiences, the Fire Stage seemed like the place to be as The Rapture finished the night in a wonderfully chaotic manner. By this point, people were going crazy, and partied as hard as they could for the last hour of Parklife 2009. There were some curious fans, as this was the first gig we had seen from The Rapture since Mattie Safer left the band. But they pulled out all stops and still pleased their fans endlessly with an energetic and hectic set.

As the crowd spilled back out on to the streets of Perth, it seemed as though Parklife 2009 had been a big success.