Golden Plains 2018, Reviewed by Teens

Golden Plains 2018 was good: No rain, no dickheads and a fair bit of good music, from local favourites like Waterfall Person and Wet Lips to reliable internationals like Grizzly Bear, Mogwai and Big Boi. Golden Plains has been around for a bit over a decade at this point, and a lot of its punters are used to going every year. But music festivals are a young person's game, so rather than getting, say, some old dude to review GP, we decided to get some actual real life teens to do it!

What do the next generation of festival goers think of Victoria's favourite music festival?

Name: Clem

Age: 16

Was this your first time at Golden Plains? No.

Who was your favourite act? Probably Lee Fields. I hadn’t really heard of him before, but he was really good. And Ata Kak was really dope.

Who was your least favourite act? Probably The Avalanches. They were really shit. I thought they were gonna be good and pretty fun, but I just didn’t like them at all. They were a bit dead. They were boring.

How do you think you could improve the festival? Maybe a different order of playing times. I thought Thundercat and Kaiit and Ata Kak should have been later on. The Preatures shouldn’t have been at 10.

What did you think of Batpiss? I’d probably rather drink Batpiss than listen to Batpiss.

Follow Clem on Instagram: @ragoozi

Name: Heide

Age: 16

Was this your first time at Golden Plains? Yeah.

Who was your favourite act? Probably King Krule or Kaiit. I think we’ve all been listening to King Krule since year eight or something, I think one of the main reasons we all came was to see him. Kaiit was just amazing. We were looking forward to her a lot.

Who was your least favourite act? Probably The Avalanches. I was really looking forward to them, but.. I don’t know what that chick’s name was, but she was just like, yelling at the crowd, and telling us that we were shit. She just kept saying ‘You’re all fucking tired’ or something. I was really looking forward to them and it was a bit of a let down.

How would you improve the festival? Probably the playing times. I guess it’s just preference, but putting the better people at better times, I guess. It goes really early into the morning, and I’m not a big fan of that.

Follow Heide on Instagram: @hdpeve

Name: Tomi

Age: 15

Was this your first time at Golden Plains? Yep.

Who was your favourite act? DJ Manchild. He just had great songs after great songs after great songs, and he was able to make it house-y and funky at the same time.

And who was your least favourite act? Batpiss. I think that whole style of rock is just not really my forte. It was too… it was a little bit impersonal. It was very dark and loud, and just didn’t really capture my attention.

What did you think of The Avalanches? They were so good. They were really great performers, they had a lot of energy. They were able to excite the crowd a lot by dancing around and talking and stuff.

Was this your first time at a camping festival? Yes, it was.

What did you think of the experience overall? I really liked it! I really enjoyed the companionship of it all, people were super friendly and careful around their neighbours and considerate about noise, and everyone was super generous.

What was the worst thing that happened at the festival? People in the crowd invading personal space, who wanted to be all over you and touch you. That wasn’t a high point.

Follow Tomi on Instagram: @t.omiko

Name: Indigo

Age: 16

Was this your first time at Golden Plains? It was.

Who was your favourite act? Probably Kaiit or King Krule, they were my two favourites. Kaiit just had such a good energy, and we had been fangirling over her for the past six months. She had amazing movement and stuff, and a good performance. King Krule was just the most surreal experience, because he’s just our favourite artist. He’s got such a unique sound, and he’s just great.

Who was your least favourite act? The Preatures, I was a bit let down. The music was okay, but the sound wasn’t very good. Just a strange performance.

What did you think of Grizzly Bear? Awesome. Really really good.

Did you know much of their music before? Nah, I didn’t. They were really good.

Follow Indigo on Instagram: @bunyipz

Name: Kolya

Age: 16

Was this your first time at Golden Plains? No, second.

Who was your favourite act? Probably Ata Kak. He just had a really good energy.

Who was your least favourite act? I dunno. The Preatures. Or… I don’t know if Waterfall Person was supposed to be a joke, but–– it was kinda weird. The singing wasn’t that good.

If you could improve the festival, how would you do it? It’s pretty good as is.

Follow Kolya on Instagram: @kolyakelly

Name: Lucca

Age: 16

Was this your first time at Golden Plains? Yep.

Who was your favourite act? Most definitely Lee Fields. I just really like a bit of soul music. I thought he was really cool, his stage presence was amazing.

Who was your least favourite act? Probably that DJ… MzRizk. I just wasn’t really feeling that. Weird crowd, I didn’t really enjoy it.

If you could improve the festival how would you do it? I’d probably make the Belgian waffles less than ten dollars. That’s a bit excessive.

Follow Lucca on Instagram: @yeaanahh

Name: Theo

Age: 16

Was this your first time at Golden Plains? It was.

Who was your favourite act? King Krule. He’s my favourite. He makes the best music.

Who was your least favourite act? I didn’t really dislike any of them that much. Our teacher said that Batpiss was gonna be really good, but they weren’t. They were pretty bad.

If you could improve the festival, how would you do it? Maybe make it longer, like a week.

A week long! Who would you put on the lineup if it was a week long? Cosmo Pyke. Loyle Carner. Everyone.

Follow Theo on Instagram: @theeo.theoo

––

Follow Noisey on Twitter.