There are many reasons why the Peats Ridge Festival is one of the best ways to spend the New Year period. The festival is situated in the beautiful privately owned Glenworth Valley, just north of Sydney and the organisers bring together a wide array of excellent musicians, covering everything from indie rock to experimental electronica, with everything from established international stars to bands more used to playing the back rooms of pubs.

The ultimate aim is to make the festival sustainable, and this year the organisers were able to boast that the festival was run on 100% renewable energy, was serviced completely by composting toilets and that all grey water was sustainably managed. These factors combine to attract a crowd who are generally friendly, happy and sensible, and a dreadlocks and tie-died shirt quotient that is significantly higher than in normal life. However, the most compelling reason to spend New Years at Peats Ridge is that it is the ultimate antidote to the anticlimactic NYE. With three days and nights of music, by the time the 31st rolls around, the feeling that it must be a big night has well and truly dissipated, and the night is all the more enjoyable for it. Because it goes for three days, Peats Ridge is the kind of shindig where playing croquet or lying in the river is as much part of the experience as hearing lots of music. In this review I haven’t tried to review every act on every stage – my aim is to give you a taste of what you might experience should you choose to attend the festival.

Firstly, a note on Peats Ridge’s effort to become a sustainable festival. For the punter, what this means is that you need to sort your rubbish (no big hassle) and that the toilets are composting, rather than port-a-loos. Having attended the festival last year, I’ve seen how well the composting toilets can work. If you follow the simple rule written in each of the toilets: “One scoop [of sawdust] for poop, none for wee”, the toilets don’t smell. The friendly and informative bloke at the 08/09 festival cheerfully told us that it was all about keeping the carbon/nitrogen balance in check – which was easy in ‘08/09 due to the presence of a bucket of sawdust and scoop in every cubicle. This year however, there were no scoops and often no sawdust, meaning that the “odour free” toilets were often anything but. The toilets certainly do work, and hopefully this problem can be sorted out for next year. While on the subject of problems, let me quickly discuss the container deposit system run by the bars. Presumably in order to stop people redeeming money for cans that they had snuck in to the festival grounds, the bars issued a ticket with every can, which had to be handed in along with the empty container to get your deposit back. Apart from environmental issues associated with printing out thousands of these tickets, the system didn’t really work, and also meant that kids couldn’t collect cans. Further complicating things, the redemption station (of which there was only one) kept running out of cash – not a problem, but if it’s not possible to refund the deposit, surely the bars can stop charging it?

Having addressed these two minor problems, let me move on to what makes this festival so awesome – the music. Since having to cancel the festival in 2007 due to excessive rain, a great deal of work has been done to improve the drainage of the festival site. However, the amount of rain that fell on the 28th meant that when we were allowed to enter the festival area, gumboots were by far the most practical footwear.

Our wanderings took us first to the Underworld Stage, where Kill Two Birds were banging out some folksy/psychedelic sounds at volumes loud enough to be heard in Sydney, and while the music was enjoyable enough, we decided something a touch quieter was in order. “Quieter” was definitely not how anyone would describe the Dub Shack, presented this year by Sydney bass music heavyweights Void, Foreigndub and Sub Continental Dub. Never ones to do things by half measures, they were running Hijack sound – and Hijack does not do “quiet”. It does epic, head-caving bass very, very nicely, but quiet? Not so much.

Geoff Turnbull in the Lyre Bird stage may well have heard of the concept of “quieter”, but clearly wanted no part of it. His music was a mix of beats and blues that brought The Grid to mind. He finished his set with some frenzied percussion, even playing his guitar with his drumsticks, producing a very cool sound. Our quest for quiet was finally successful in the Chai Temple, where Jalu were playing some fairly unremarkable “rootsroots” (their description). Perhaps the most interesting thing about Jalu was the fact that their drummer was only 14, but the surrounds of the Chai Temple made it a relaxing place to hang out, and if the mood took you, get some chai (who would have thought?).

Throughout the festival we derived some amusement from the band descriptions in the program. Alps, a very serious young man, produced “textured pop music with elements of shoegaze, folk and drone”, using a guitar, keys and approximately 47 different effects pedals. His music was atmospheric and reasonably enjoyable, but it all became a bit too serious, so we moved on.

Oakley “OG” Grennell from New Zealand played a mix of reggae and hip-hop, with his reggae tracks being considerably better than his hip-hop. For whatever reason, Kiwi rappers never seem to have made the switch to rapping in their own accent, instead affecting an American accent. Grennell was no exception, and neither was MC Charmed 1 who joined him. Also joined by The Nomad on decks, the same three people were also onstage a few hours later for a Nomad set. This was the highlight of the night for me, with the trio serving up a little bit of dub, a little bit of d’n’b and a little bit of hip-hop. The set ended with a clever mash-up of Kanye’s Gold Digger and the Nomad’s own Powered by the Sun. Top shelf stuff.

Similarly impressive was the Tongue. While indisputably an excellent battle rapper and freestyler, he’s now showing some of the charisma of label-mates Ozi Batla and Urthboy, and is much more assured in his solo show. Joined by DJ Scoobz and MC Don Joyride, the most impressive part of the show was still the Tongue’s freestyle. While not usually a freestyler, Don Joyride also had a go, and despite claiming that his attempt “was shit”, it wasn’t as bad as all that. After a brief look at Dappled Cities, resplendent in fitted gold suits obtained from China for $10, we called it a night.

The next day, after a late breakfast and a few games of croquet, we made it to the main stage in time to hear Declan Kelly open his set with the sounds of an amplified bullroarer. While it’s true that the sound of a bullroarer can indeed be quite relaxing, when played through a main stage sized sound rig, it’s turns out that it’s just incredibly annoying. Luckily, the same could not be said for Kelly’s music. Playing a mix of soul and reggae, it was a perfect set to listen to while lounging in the sun. That said, Kelly and his band, The Rising Sun, also played last year’s festival, and I found that they worked quite a bit better in a more intimate setting than on the main stage.

The same could be said for Deep Street Soul. The Melbournian four-piece funksters were my find of the festival last year, and have since released an album on Adrian Gibson’s London-based Freestyle Records – no mean feat. The set they played was, without a doubt, excellent. My only complaint was that they could have been better appreciated on one of the smaller stages. Regardless, they had many people up and dancing and grinning like loons, so I certainly can’t complain too loudly!

The Bird were definitely more than up to the task of playing the main stage. Made up of Bobby Singh on tabla, Simon Durrington on elctronic bizzo’s and Ben Walsh in charge of whacking stuff, they played an amazing set of live d’n’b. Previous to seeing this performance I would have argued that New Zealand’s Shapeshifter are the best exponents of live d’n’b going around, but now I’m not so sure. Walsh is clearly the leader, but all three are excellent musicians, with a rapport and understanding borne of a decade or so performing together. All three members also played sets with other bands, Singh and Walsh with Circle of Rhythm and Durrington with Red Bantoo. A clash with Deep Street Soul meant I was unable to see Red Bantoo, but having seen them play previously, I can highly recommend this group from Byron Bay.

The “seven samurai’s of funk”, Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro, were also very at home in front of a large crowd. Something of a surprise package for most, their raw funk, sharp suits and endearing confession that they “don’t speak English” had the crowd in the palms of their hands. This was their first tour outside of Japan, but with any luck they’ll be back soon. A mad dash was called for at the conclusion of their set in order to catch as much as possible of Ozi Battla’s (of The Herd) side project, Astronomy Class. Ozi Battla is, without a doubt, one of the most charismatic MC’s going around. Playing a mix of old and new stuff, Astronomy Class were an undeniable highlight of the festival. It was a shame to miss the first half of their set, but such is the way of things at festivals.

The next day brought rain. Lots and lots of rain, resulting in the festival area becoming very, very muddy. Luckily, the mud was embraced by all, with more than a few individuals covered from head to toe. We chose to eschew these shenanigans and escape the precipitation by checking out Benjalu. These guys turned out an appealing mix of blues, rock and folk, and while I suspect most people had only entered the tent to escape the rain, very few left disappointed. In the Dub Shack, Prize was clearly relishing the chance to play on the massive system, turning out a delicious mix of dubstep and assorted wonkiness, to varying degrees of delight and confusion of those in attendance. I was, needless to say, delighted.

Guitarist Jeff Lang played two slots on the main stage, one with just drums and one with drums and a bass player. His set without bass sounded busy, but ultimately sounded empty. Adding bass into the mix resulted in a much more satisfying display. The pop/rock of Toronto’s Ember Swift blended Chinese and western elements, and while bordering on pretentious, was enjoyable enough. Meanwhile, Triple J’s Unearthed winners Bearhug were playing some straight up rock music. While not terrible, this young five-piece completely lacked anything resembling stage presence, something they will undoubtedly have to improve if they want to make it big.

The New Year was ushered in by Blue King Brown, who were preceded by an underwhelming Lamb. With a sound blending soul and reggae with a strong social conscience, Blue King Brown was a perfect choice for the Peats Ridge crowd. However, their generic shout out to the land’s traditional owners came across as mere lip service without finding out who they actually were (the Darkinjung people, should you be interested). Apart from the inexplicably early fireworks, the new year came, people cheered and the partying continued. Once again Peats Ridge delivered a memorable NYE experience, with none of the drama or problems you get in Sydney. So if you’re looking for somewhere to bring in 2011, give Peats Ridge a go. I’ll see you there.