I have never been to a festival so I just broke my festival cherry. I promised you I was safe. I used sunscreen and had sunglasses. I was prepared both physically and emotionally for the roller coaster ride that is Future Music Festival. People that know me will say that I'm not the type to go to Future and they're absolutely right. My ears have been sexually penetrated by indie music for so long that I have forgotten what it was like to shake my booty. Well now I remember.
Let's get to it:
Future Music Festival is an annual EDM festival held in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. I went to the one in Melbourne on the 10th of March, 2014.
My friends and I had VIP tickets. It started at noon and we all arrived nearly halfway through Martin Garrix's set. So we shimmied our way in to the mosh pit and surprisingly, I knew most of his songs. Who knew, right? I guess in between my Kodaline and High Highs I've managed to mix in a little EDM. Martin was great (look at me calling him on a first-name basis like we're best buds) and it was a great start to the day. I got really pumped mainly because everyone else were pumped. It's mob mentality, really. Also I may or may not have been slightly high so everything was pretty beautiful. But you know who was really beautiful? Martin himself. I would do unspeakable things to that 17 year-old.
I knew I wanted to stick to the lineup in the FutureMusic Stage. The schedule was: 12.00 Stafford Brothers & Timmy Trumpet, 1.00 Martin Garrix, 2.00 R3hab, 3.00 Dada Life, 4.00 Pharrell Williams, 4.30 Kaskade, 5.40 Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, 6.40 Eric Prydz, 7.40 Hardwell, and 9.00 Deadmau5. I knew not of many artists that came that day, but the bulk of the familiar DJs were all in this stage, hence why I stayed.
R3hab was next, and honestly I didn't know who he was until he started playing his set. I knew nearly every song of his and yet I never matched the songs to the artist. At this point I was sweating my uterine walls off from jumping and pumping and my right arm felt like it was about to fall out of its socket. So my friends and I went out of the mosh pit after R3hab's set and got some ice cream before laying down under the shade in the VIP section. I cursed myself for not wearing something more revealing in this weather as most of the girls were walking around with only a bra on. My crop top felt stiflingly hot.
Before Pharrell's performance, the line to get into the mosh pit was insane, so we stayed just outside of it. Pharrell sounded great live, and halfway through he took off his shirt and I was able to smell the sudden increase of estrogen. He then invited around two dozen girls from the mosh pit to go up on stage, saying, "I want some Australian blood up on this stage!" and I felt discriminated against. His performance lasted only 30 minutes (also a common problem for sexually active males, aha!) but was pretty good nonetheless. No theatrics. Just him and his god-awful hat which I'm sure he uses to smuggle 8 pounds of crack through customs. Smart thinking.
Afterwards was Kaskade's set (which I missed in order to refill my constantly depleting water bottle and then had trouble getting back in the mosh pit), and an hour later was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis'. He started the whole Sydney vs. Melbourne competition and wanted us to prove ourselves during 'Can't Hold Us'. Their performance was an hour long, but had nothing special enough to note here. They were very good, but Martin Garrix still stood at first place.
Eric Prydz followed Macklemore, and this time I was too tired to stand up and I went and bought an overpriced Lipton Ice Tea from the bar. Then I rested under the shade with my friend. Yes, singular. Pro tip: you will lose all of your friends in festivals, so have a buddy system. After energizing ourselves, we headed over to watch Rudimental in another stage but at the same time we wanted to see Hardwell perform for the penultimate performance of the night. So my friend and I headed back to the VIP section and stood at the bleachers.
At this point, I wasn't too psyched about Hardwell. I've heard some of his songs before, but I wasn't a big fan. Holy cowballs was I wrong. I was unknowingly a huge Hardwell fan. I recognized most of his songs and I was in my own little world for an hour straight. He was the most memorable performance of the night and this short paragraph cannot even begin to explain the fun I had listening to his set. He was incredible and I am now in love with him. I will be Mrs. Hardwell in the near future.
By Deadmau5, the sun had already gone down and the cool dark night was beginning to reveal itself to the sweaty crowd. Soon enough, the ambiance changed from fun to woohoooooooooooooooo. Sadly, I was not a fan of Deadmau5 even though I have actually tried to like him for the sake of the festival. I did not. My friends and I agreed on skipping Deadmau5 so we stuck around for his first few songs before heading out to dodge the cattle of people after the show.
As an EDM festival virgin, I'm giving Future a solid 8.5/10. I have no frame of reference and I'm afraid of giving it too high a score. But coming from an indie-listener, I was thoroughly impressed. I will definitely go to more festivals from now on. Thank you Future.
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