All the people
So many people
And they all go hand in hand
Hand in hand through their parklife
Know what I mean?

Parklife, Blur (1994)

And indeed there were.

As it has been for a few years now, come Sunday afternoon, the scene was set: October long weekend in Sydney, come rain, hail or shine, lots of people, hand in hand, went wandering through yet another Parklife. With another sell-out crowd, a lineup that oozed potential, and on a weekend where Sydney’s clouds appeared to have as many leaks as the NSW State Cabinet, it was going to be a day full of exploring.

Like Burke and Wills, the weather stopped no-one, and while the clouds continued to look ominous, the festival-goers were out in force, and with it, what appeared to be a summer uniform with it. Singlets. Shorts. Thongs. Hell, even bikinis for some. Despite sub-20 degree temperatures. Go figure. Ultimately, some people go for the music, others for a good day with friends. Some just go to be seen, and others, just to see how much can be seen. But with the weather not dampening spirits too much, more than thirty-thousand keen punters hit Moore Park to get their Parklife on.

And as the skies teased us with a glimpse of blue, the Stafford Brothers did their thing with Timmy Trumpet. Yes, it might not be the purists’ cup of tea, but hey, it had the crowd at the Water Stage heaving en masse. After all, this was a festival, and it was time to get our festival shoes on and go exploring. We decided to check out what else was on offer, and made the hike across to the other main stages, and in addition to quickly remembering how bloody big Moore Park really is, we were also smacked with the reality of how long drink queues can be, and how ridiculously expensive said drinks can be for a parched traveller. A twenty-minute wait for a $10 pre-mixed spirit? Surely there can be a balance struck between responsible drinking and ridiculous pricing; (in fact, I reckon the We Love Sounds festival in June confirmed that it is possible).

Drink issues aside, Junior Boys plodded along, but possibly kept things a bit too mellow for a festival set, but when Aeroplane belted out one of the surprise sets of the day, and as we set up base under the safe confines of the tent above them, the Earth Stage was pumping, and things were looking up. Similarly, a short expedition away, but down a suspiciously tricky walk that threatened to send many arse-over-tit all day, the Air Stage had Busy-P throwing it up with a whacked up breaksy infused electro-house kind of sound, littered with tunes from Justice and Chemical Brothers which suited the time slot nicely. We hung around to see what MSTRKFT coughed up, and while it was a punchy festival set, it lacked the energy of their 2007 Parklife set. While their remix of Da Funk from Daft Punk and their own hugely popular Heartbreaker kept many happy, it was the random hurling of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen that sent some into shrieks of hysteria, others into a state of personal mamma mia. The arrival of Crystal Castles thereafter, together with the shrieks of aptly named vocalist Alice Glass confirmed that it was in fact time to continue our exploring.

A-Trak appeared to take a late shift in scheduling in his stride, and by the time Kaskade stepped up to the plate, things at the Water Stage were swimming along. Dropping a nice mix of festival favourites, big room tunes, including a heap of his own hands-in-the-air housey goodness like Be Still, It’s You, It’s Me and Angel on my Shoulder, and a nice light little show to go with it, we dropped our bags and hung around for a while. Despite getting wind of the fact that Erol Alkan was beginning to blow the Air Stage apart, Kaskade’s work combined with the imminent arrival of one of the festival drawcards Empire of the Sun made our decision to stay a relatively easy one. Unfortunately, when Kaskade stepped out, and the Aussie duo appeared, while they may have offered us what appeared to ‘looked’ nice, it was not a great deal more than that, and we decided that it was in fact Erol time. And as we made our way through the ever increasing mud, god damn did he look to have the place pumping. Heads Will Roll from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Afrojack remix of Cool from Spencer and Hill as well as his own oh so deliciously damn dirty edit of Waters of Nazareth from Justice, and this was shaping up as a serious contender for set of the day.

Tiga picked up what Alkan was putting down, and started off as stylishly as he seemingly always looks, but when the Canadian appeared to lose his mojo about thirty minutes in, we opted to grab another drink and then head out Detroit way to see the night out. While surprised that despite there being an hour to go, and with it hardly being a warm day, two bars had run dry. A parched explorer is not a happy one, but then there was Claude VonStroke: welcoming visitors with open arms and a massive shit-eating grin on his face, and doing it with absolute aplomb. What the tent perhaps lacked in bass he made up with bounce, and we smiled knowing that this was going to be the perfect way home. Throwing in his own Who’s Afraid of Detroit?, Chimps and The Whistler, while La Roux may have been turning the Water Stage a shade of crimson on the other side of the park, we stayed to soak up it up: CVS doing what he does oh so well.

And just as it started, it ended. All the people, so many people, hand in hand…. this time, homeward bound. Another Parklife over, and with it, the unofficial start of a long Sydney summer packed full of festival fun. For Parklife, there was plenty on offer for a fun day out. A remarkable festival day that will be long remembered for years to come it may not have been, but in a time of increasing festivals and competing lineups, such days are unfortunately few and far between.