A Summadayze veteran from way back, the decision to try out Better Days this year was governed by two things: 1) The thought that the crowd might be a little older and more put together than some of the debatably legal munters that frequent SD, and 2) I went to Carousel earlier this year for a function, and was impressed by the newly renovated venue. Combined, I thought the place and patronage would make for a more civilised New Year’s affair. I was misguided.

To be fair, everyone was reasonably well behaved, as far as I could see. Tops stayed on, there were no paramedics, nor fisticuffs, and no fence-jumping that I was aware of. But when you pay $90 for artists that you could see in a club for less than a third of that, you expect a bit more from the venue and organization of the event.

The portaloos might have come as a surprise to the (literally) well-heeled who attended. A fifteen minute wait, on average, is something that you’d expect from a larger festival, but not here. Worse still were the dry areas, which comprised the majority of the event. Given that the headliners, Fred Falke and Cassius, both appeared on the main outdoor stage, it seemed ridiculous that we couldn’t take our drinks beyond the inside area. They didn’t have a liquor license, granted, but at an over-18 event of that nature, you expect to be able to drink where you like, especially in front of the artists that you paid to see.

Not that the music was particularly overwhelming either. I spent most of the day at the outside stage, and have to say that John Course’s set was the unexpected musical highlight. We arrived for the end of Tara McDonald’s live vocal set, where the UK dance diva performed some of her biggest hits including the re-release of Armand Van Helden’s My My My, and Axwell’s Feel the Vibe. To be honest, McDonald was sounding a little croakier than usual – a big NYE perhaps.

Headliner Fred Falke then took to the decks with his trademark nu-French touch sound, dishing up crowd-pleasers from his mix of The Gossip’s Heavy Cross to the dreamy Alan Braxe collaboration, Rubicon. A synthy version of K$sha’s Tik Tok was a bit like a finger up the anus – unwelcome at first, but after the initial shock, everyone got into it.

Next up was John Course, demonstrating why he’s still Australian house royalty after all these years. A mashed up version of Mstrkrft’s Heartbreaker kicked things off nicely before John served up treats like Wi-Fi’s Be Without You and new favourites including Javi Mula’s Come On.

Grant Smillie and Zoe Badwi kept things humming along nicely, with Badwi faring better vocally than Tara McDonald. Smillie was on his own for the last part of the set, and finished off with a flurry of uplifting house classics including Axwell’s remix of Hard Fi’s Hard to Beat, Soulsearcher’s Can’t Get Enough, and a techy Kings of Tomorrow’s Finally.

I can’t comment too much on the inside area, as I only spent long enough there to drink up and head back out to the main stage. What I did hear whilst there wasn’t enough to entice me to hang around anyway – mostly chilled out, uninspired beats well suited to the posers swaying by the pool.

Cassius, the act most of us were waiting for, were a good finish to the day. Snippets of their inimitable earlier tracks including Feeling for You, The Sound of Violence and 1999 got everyone rocking, though not all of them were played in full, or were interspersed with grating bleepy electro interludes. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, guys – play the original! Their newer stuff fails to capture my imagination, but all in all it was a fun set, made all the more memorable by the downpour that occurred halfway through. Girls squealed, canny guys made beelines for chicks wearing white and the rest of us were having too much fun to seek shelter. Perhaps the best thing the organisers did all day was to throw free ponchos to the crowd from the stage. Bloody good ponchos too, we were wet already by that stage but they provided good insulation nonetheless. It was a nice touch, a free-love for all moment, and almost made up for the drinks and toilet shortcomings. Almost.

We still managed to have a good time, but that was more due to cracking company and occasional flashes of great music rather than a consistently well-executed day. Mind you, if the line-up appeals next year, I wouldn’t rule out a return visit…the gripes are usually outweighed by happy memories with the passage of time.