Floral headpieces and loud button-ups painted the grounds of the Sydney College of Arts in Rozelle for St Jerome's Laneway Festival. It was the type of highly likeable festival atmosphere that it is all too rare nowadays, and even with the event selling out, those who wanted their space could easily seek out a private patch of grass where they could still enjoy the abundance of music on offer.
For the most part, punters were in good humour and all very respectful to the great range of artists playing.
My first venture was to the spacious Courtyard stage where rising act Mt Warning gave the early birds a healthy dose of indie rock and well-crafted visuals; it definitely helps the band set themselves apart with one of the members being an experienced film-maker. Next up was a drastic change in style as the hipster-R&B sound of Autre Ne Veut had the large crowd in rapture; a much better showcase of his unquestionable talent then some of his recorded material.
Early highlight Run The Jewels had Killer Mike and El-P attacking the Future Classic Stage without absolute ferocity. A nice mix of both their group and solo track gave us all a reason to praise every second of this action-packed set. Killer Kill busted out 'Big Beast' while El-P spit hard on 'Tougher Colder Killer,' each acting as hype man for the other until they would come back together again for their much-loved Run The Jewels material. The chemistry between these two is ridiculously effective, and also quite touching as El-P turned to Killer Mike and said 'You make me smile man” before giving him a huge hug; Killer Mike returned the favour by making the crowd chant “Greatest producer El-P.”
On the side-by-side Park Stage and Garden Stage, Vance Joy and Frightened Rabbit owned the mid-afternoon with mellow and mid-tempo indie anthems for the thousands of punters sitting on the hill. The former gave Laneway one of it's defining moments by closing up with 'Riptide'; Vance stood looking entertained while pretty much the whole venue shouted the lyrics back at him [it probably would have sounded better if we just let him to do his thing].
Daughter made sure no one left the area, placing themselves as the expected highlight of the entire day with gorgeous love ballads and screeching atmospheric rock. Despite the melancholy, the band captured us and held us tightly in their grasp until the very end, where most shifted over right to get a good view of Haim.
The LA trio drew the biggest crowd of the day and we were all rewarded with super-charged translations of their popular album. A cover of Fleetwood Mac's'Oh Well' was the single best moment of Laneway; the girls taking the classic song and re-vamping it with their undeniable charm.
Elsewhere, Danny Brown saw EVERYONE dance and made all the social photographers happy with his ridiculously energetic set. The whole thing was one big party as he rallied through everything from 'Kush Coma' to 'Dip' with an aggressive flow, bouncing his idiosyncratic vocals around the stage and melting into a backdrop of 808-heavy beats.
An equally mesmerising but not-as-consistent set from Chvrches kept the day's quality at sky high before the heavily anticipated appearance from Lorde kept all her fans happy. While 'Royals' has now suffered the dreaded over-saturation of pop anthems [as evidenced by the overall lack of interest in it], the grammy-winning wunderkind put on an irresistible and fame-justifying performance with gems like 'Team' and a very hypnotic cover of Son Lux's'Easy.'
Earl Sweatshirt made sure not everyone was at Lorde, with an impressive showcase of his stunning debut album, serving as the icing on the cake for the day's excellent hip-hop line up. That wasn't all for the Future Classic stage though, the very capable mixing hands of Jamie XX and Four Tet who both served up everything from disco and deep house to experimental and oddly-shaped electronica, ending Laneway with one big, memorable dance party.
Special mention must go to the superior food stands; some scattered lounges with umbrellas to rescue punters from the energy-draining sun; and even a stall which let you hire portable phone chargers (Discgo Charger); all additions which made the day run even smoother than previous years.
The curators of this line-up must be commended for filling every corner of the festival with quality; there was not one act that let the team down, while we all contributed to the tremendously feel-good atmosphere. The grounds of the festival did make for a few awkward bottlenecks here and there [especially at the Future Classic stage], but this was a small weakness for a festival that was loaded with strength. 2014 will be remembered as the year when the once small-scale boutique gathering of hipsters entered the top echelon of Aussie music festivals.