Cars laden with sleeping bags, swags, deck chairs, Eskys, food stuffs, clothes, and of course booze. No it’s not another family Christmas holiday car trip in which you have to sit next to cousin Roy who sucks his trousers – it’s a night of awesome electronic dance music in a setting that we should see more often.

Harking back to the days of early paddock raves in England, Garden Path made use of a superb sound system, the magic of a generator and amazing state forest surrounds to provide a party for the people. With the price of entry nothing more than a night’s worth of personal hygiene and a bit over an hour’s worth of travel/fuel, a special weekend was on offer.

Not targeting the usual doof crowd, this party provided with two stages, featuring techno/house and dnb/dubstep respectively. As a free party, the usual inhibitors of security, dress codes, bar prices and for some, dignity, were forgotten. Think of a 200-person strong house party. Now imagine it without a house and with the very impressive Hijack sound system, hilarious visuals, superbly placed lasers, bonfires, fairy lights, a mass of trees, and you’ll start to get the right picture.

The crowd was mixed, some who looked like they were still in the clubs dressed to the nines and roving around in tight groups, some who looked barely legal and danced on speakers, some who hung out on ladders, some that sparkled, some that glowed and flamed, some in purple spandex, some more seasoned free partiers and some who looked liked they’d taken on more than they could handle, but most importantly friendly people up for a party.

Between the two stages a varied assortment of tunes were heard from some deep house, techno, live percussion and disco on the ‘Up’ stage whilst on the ‘Down’ stage there was fairly consistent variety of dnb, from happy face, to party and hardcore, as well as side dishes of dubstep, and early morning gabber. At times the positions of the stages and nature of the crowds seemed to resemble that of two tribes facing each other off as to who has it better, with a few notables disregarding the separation and continually doing laps between both.

The freedom of the party allowed for bush wanderers, car smokers, swag sleepers, epic drunks and a range of other shenanigans, all to a brilliant soundtrack. Throughout the night strong sets were delivered left and right and…there was no centre stage. There was sweet techno and house by Truba and Methodixx, some very powerful dub and partyin’ dnb by Double Robin, Highly Dubious and SFL. A slight walkabout means I can’t comment on the next couple of sets, but it really is a lovely forest!

After partying a fair chunk of the night this reviewer was about to call things quits when the sweet sounds of Trentemoller began floating through the trees. Drawn to the ‘Up’ stage, a number of others were all enthralled by Jeremy Nothman’s dawn set. Melodic, progressive and beautiful, it was the way Sunday morning always should be, especially followed by the groove of Sam Niall. Though equally as appealing, but slightly huger and a little bit crazy was Boot on the ‘down’ from 7:30am. Buttocks were signed, bacon cooked, feet moved and souls bent as the immense and grinding ‘bootstep’ filled the air.

It was a wonderful night and awesome day for all those who could still manage it. It also seemed mission accomplished as a number of typical clubbers cut their doof teeth. Best of all, the PLUR was present (as were some kickin’ bacon and egg rolls, along with assorted hot beverages, all in the name of fund-raising for the next event, hopefully).

A quality time all round. And remember, donate!