Field Day, a festival that has become synonymous with our beautiful city. Over the last 9 years it has become an institution that has seen NYD rather than NYE become the most looked forward to for many.

With this reviewer spending his first NYE in Sydney in a number of years I felt it was time to experience this glorious day for myself. In previous years Field Day use to sell out in a matter of minutes but it seems the festival bubble has grown so rapidly in this city over the last couple of years that it is on the verge of bursting. With a New Years that saw Sydneysiders spoilt for choice with a plethora of the world’s absolute best DJ’s spread across many parties and many of them not selling out, it appears Sydneysiders are growing increasingly harder to please.

Field Day’s line-up this year was met with a yawn from some, claiming it to be not as good as previous years, however I could only disagree. I personally quite liked the diversity across the bill this year; Sebastian Leger who appeases both commercial and underground dance music fans, dub step heavyweights Skream and Benga, the head caving synths of The Proxy, electro rave god Fake Blood, mash up kings 2 Many DJ’s, breaks legend Krafty Kuts and French filter house Fred Falke – I felt there was really something for everyone this year.

I arrived at 2.30 without any hassles and walked right into Sebastian Leger playing that sound that has become so uniquely his, the deep, bouncy, intelligent house. But I wanted to have a look around and ventured around to do a bit of sightseeing.

Cassius were dropping many tracks off the recent MoS annual in a bid to get the day pumping early, I heard Pon De Floor for the first time of about 6, easily one of the biggest tracks of the year, before scooting over to see a bit of a DJ I last saw blow the roof of the metro earlier last year -*Sinden*. Now playing as predominantly a dub-step Dj I was disappointed to not hear him drop little dub step whatsoever, I think it could’ve possibly been attributed to the early time slot. He finished off with Duck Sauce’s Anyway, a personal favourite of mine.

I ventured over to see “surprise” act Roger Sanchez when, most fittingly, the heavens opened as he took the stage (perhaps an act of the man who some claim is a god). As the rain poured down the crowd lost it, opening with Let the bass kick in’ however instead of being in Miami we were told “I’m Roger Sanchez Bitch”. Sanchez played a typical set, you can’t become one of the world’s most popular Dj’s if you don’t play popular songs so it was a real crowd pleasing, albeit it not to my personal taste.

I wanted to catch The Proxy so off I went, despite the time slot for such an heavy act being little bit too early, I was excited to see a the man behind one of biggest anthem of recent years Raven (watching people ‘sing’ this song is always hilarious). I felt the volume wasn’t anywhere near loud enough and as a result there was a lack of vibe throughout the set but, as always, Raven got a great response.

Back at the left field stage Jack Beats were calling and played what was one of the best sets of the day. With a sound that would be classified as fidget house with their signature wobbly bass lines, their remix of Drop the bass was a prime example and had the small stage heaving.
Next up was the act that I was personally most keen to see Skream and Benga. Dub step has been slowly creeping into sets over the last 12 months but only for a sneaky song or two. It is a sound that people either love or hate and I have seen it clear many a floor, people seem to struggle to actually dance to this music. Regardless, this set was one of my favourites of the day. Although I didn’t recognise many of the songs (as my knowledge of the genre isn’t too extensive) there was a fantastic remix of La Roux’s Going In For The Kill. It was great to see an entire set of dub step and to see it ‘work’ too however The Presets were almost about to start so I had to shoot off.

Having not seen The Presets for a good year or so I wanted to see how their show had progressed, if at all. I arrived just to catch the end of the Aston Shuffle close with Bag Raiders Shooting Stars, one of the best Australian produced songs of the year and everyone was singing along.
The Presets arrived and despite playing all their hits I couldn’t help but feel that their set lacked a less energy then previous outings. They played a almost unrecognisable version of Down Down Down before bringing it home with 2 of their biggest songs Kicking and Screaming and personal favourite ‘My People’.

After seeing Fake Blood play one of the sets of the year at Fuzzy’s Killer Party in Easter last year I was very excited to catch him. I thought Fake Blood’s set was the set of the day, dropping predominantly his own productions that have led to the coining of yet another sub genre ‘electro rave’. In what was the heaviest set of the day it included his remixes of South Rakkas Crew’s Mad Again and his own track I Think I Like It. He closed with his biggest song Mars the signature elevator ding triggered an eruption amongst the masses.

2 Many DJ’s appeared and kicked off proceedings of a mash up of Warp 2.0 with Hey Boy, Hey Girl before leaving the stage a few songs later rather unexpectedly, whether this was planned or not the crowd was not too impressed but they reappeared a few minutes later and looked to soothe the crowds frustration with an AC/DC classic, Dirty Deeds.

I decided to go check out Krafty Kuts who was playing some decent party breaks to a smaller size crowd which included a remix of Dizzee Rascal’s Dance Wiv Me.

We headed back to catch the final part of 2 Many DJ’s who dropped many anthems of 2009 including Riverside and Raven (yet again) but being New Year’s Day and later in the evening it was it was what most people wanted – songs that they know and can sing along to.

I left my first Field Day feeling like I got exactly what I wanted; a fun day out, great company, a couple of brilliant sets and many others that were enjoyable if nothing too challenging. With a crowd that featured fake tan and more guys ‘forgetting’ to wear a shirt then guys who did, there was surprisingly a distinctly laid back vibe with people either still recovering from the night before or on holidays with no work to worry about on Monday.

It will be interesting to see how the festival bubble in this country fares over the next 12 months. I think we are beginning to see the over saturation of the market with a slew of new festivals popping up every week but, as with any market, only the strong will survive and I suspect Field Day will be one festival that will be around well into the next decade.