Walking into Belvoir Amphitheatre is always a pleasurable experience. Being a seasonal campaigner at the sweat-fest that is the Swan Valley on Boxing Day every year, the heat accompanying the day after Santa comes usually goes somewhat un-noticed by most of us. Stepping over the grassy hill to find the bowl alive with The Cuban Brothers forming a breakdance battle in the middle of the stage makes everyone forget about the fact that they’re melting. OK, that’s the last time I’m talking about how hot it was, I promise.

Apart from the Cubans doing their thing in the middle of the stage, a few punters got involved – some impressive…some not so impressive and should have probably slept in for two more hours. Next up on the main stage was Kid Kenobi with his ol’ faithful sidekick MC Shureshock. These guys busted out what was promised by Boomtick – a Breakfest reminiscing the last 10 years of breaks. Dropping the Nick Thayer remix of Feelin Kinda Strange by Drumattic Twins and Moguai’s Freaks, and the crowd knew what was coming to them for the rest of the day.

The top stage saw a massive crowd for Ben Mac vs. Mono Lisa who were also in the 10th Anniversary spirit and getting the shade-seeking punters crammed inside the tent – albeit I was there briefly, they were pumping out track after track crowd-pleasing tunes. Hearing so much about 2 Live Crew I headed back to the main stage – this was probably my biggest mistake. Maybe I don’t get it, maybe I wasn’t in the right mindset, but I really want my hour that 2 Live Crew stole from me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for political un-correctness when the vibe is there, but this set for me crashed and burned like Kramer at the Laugh Factory in 2006. Normally I’d be stoked with 10 semi-naked girls dancing on stage but something just didn’t feel right.

Back on the main stage, Rico Tubbs and Atomic Hooligan seemed be having a ball behind the decks and the now-almost-full Belvoir was responding. For some reason however, the sound levels were quite low at this year’s Breakfest and wasn’t particularly moving up the hill very well, unfortunately this didn’t change for the rest of the day until Plumps where it was only slightly increased.

Collecting a few drinks from the bar (which I might add was very accessible and a pleasure to visit) as I couldn’t see myself leaving the main stage for the next four sets, Cuban Brothers were back on to what they do best, choreographed dancing with semi-naked middle-aged men. Who could ask for more?

Beardyman was up next for his unique looping beat-boxing action. I was lucky enough to catch this guy a couple of years ago and was pretty pumped up about this set which did not disappoint. Although a 50 minute set seemed too long for a beat boxer, once the crowd figured out that he was creating whole tracks using just his vocal chords, no one really cared where the tunes were coming from. Even managed to get some dubstep in there…which was the start of what could be known as ‘Dubfest’.

The amphitheatre was basically at capacity for Freestylers, and everybody was ready to get their old school breaks on. Sadly most would be disappointed, with a 80-minute set consisting of 50 minutes of purely dubstep and the last half hour of drum & bass. Don’t get me wrong, Freestylers dropping Danny Byrd’s Ill Behaviour definitely fired myself, and the crowd up, but dubstep was really not what the 10th Anniversary Breakfest was about. Quickly ducking back up the top to catch Far Too Loud was a great decision, and the crowd has obviously felt similar to the Freestylers set and the top stage was heaving.

Boomtick had promised a ‘classic’ Plumps set with hints like “You’ll have an Eargasm” bandied about, which had me confused, but excited, as I haven’t heard Plumps play any breaks for a long, long time. And they really didn’t. Although this was a disappointment for some, Plump’s high energy closed Breakfest #10 well, and let’s not forget the dancing Stumpy, tearing the stage a new one.

Overall it was a cracking day, and defines what Boomtick do well with Breakfest – no epic lines for toilets/bars, not oversold, and heaps of great tunes in one of the best venues in Perth. The Cuban Brothers really made the day and were hilarious throughout. Negatives were only poor sound levels and 2 Live Crew…and also maybe too much dubstep for my liking. For mine, 7.5/10 – I will be back!