Meredith, Wadawarrung Country. After 31 years on the Nolan family farm, one of Australia’s longest-running music festivals and certainly Victoria’s most beloved is a place where anything can happen.
Stars are born on the singular, compact stage thanks to tapped-in, risk-taking bookers. Small, local artists you’ve never heard of can make a thousands-strong crowd heave, scream, gasp and cry. Blockbuster international acts annually lose their minds at the energy emanating from the Supernatural Amphitheatre, where friendships are cemented and sparks fly. People even get married here almost every year.
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This year’s Meredith Music Festival was, in a word, arousing – emotionally, politically, intellectually, sexually, transcendentally.
Caroline Polachek, aka the world’s hottest person and the second headliner on the bill, put the crowd under a spell. Yorta-Yorta and Kalkadoon artist Miss Kaninna got everyone talking, hugging and cheering as she prefaced her cover of Bob Marley’s One Love with a blazing speech about the ongoing effects of colonisation and genocide around the world. Hundreds of feet pounded the damp ground so hard during Florida electronic and rap duo They Hate Change’s afternoon set that it was churned into a bog. Palestinian flags waved in the crowd non-stop throughout Melbourne DJ and producer Moktar’s late-night set, which ended with two words: Free Palestine. Jaws were on the floor during British icon Blawan’s scratchy, experimental, thumping techno hour that shutdown night one. And the crowd got horny and corny at power-couple Eris Drew and Octo Octa’s closing night sunrise set.
Despite day one’s 100km/h summer winds and day two’s unrelenting rain, everyone was buzzing, and VICE Australia’s Aleksandra Bliszczyk was there to capture all the sexy, steamy, slutty and sultry moments, faces and bodies.
Thank you Aunty, you hot bitch.
Aleksandra Bliszczyk is the Deputy Editor of VICE Australia. Follow her on Instagram.
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