{Festivals Promising Snow and Grass Deliver Rain and Mud.... but Great Music}

I've been out of action for a while and I apologise, for some reason the call of the couch and reality TV has been very, very strong for the last month. So alas no blogging.... I did however manage to escape the comfy cuddling grasp of the sofa to enjoy more than one Music Festival over the last few weeks.

First up was Winter Fest at the Eaton's Hill Tavern. A Festival promising great music, real snow, igloos and snowboarding demonstrations. I'm a life time South Sider so this was my first visit to the venue that has been booking some big name musical acts of late (thanks to their new bookings agent, an ex Powderfinger member). When I left the Southside the weather was just glorious but as always the North Side let me down and it poured rain! Thankfully all the music at this 'Festival' (and I use the term loosely) was based inside in the Grand Ballroom which is a fantastic space (it's like a larger and more modern Tivoli).

There wasn't much not to like about this event - the ticket prices were low, the music was pretty good, they delivered on the Snowboarding despite the rain and drumroll.... they were serving full strength alcohol! My highlights were a band whom my love for is no secret The Trouble With Templeton (I even scored a pre set smile from Tom Calder as he walked past...) and the lovely long haired lads from Kingswood.

The Trouble With Templeton.

A day to recover, a day to pack and I was off to Volunteer at Splendour in the Grass! I met so many lovely people and the music was fantastic - Alt J were the stand out for me. I take my hat off to the sound and lighting techs - I couldn't fault their work at all and kudos goes to Lorde who stepped in last minute to replace Frank Ocean and delivered a delicious set!

Some fine looking ladies...

The distance between things, the poorly managed mud, the tent stage size vs crowd size, mid strength alcohol and seriously shitty phone reception were all let downs.... It's their first year at this new site so I hope it's only onwards and upwards from here. I'm looking forward to seeing how the stage set up changes as they continue to increase the number of tickets sold by 15% yearly.

As always the best bit was the annual festival catch ups with old friends! As I sit here experiencing the lows of the post Splendour blues after the soaring highs of the festival I take solace in the thought that I won't have to wait another 12 months to get my Festival on in Byron.... Falls is on it's way, yay!! Only 5 months to go!

Happy speedily fading blues... only one sleep till the weekend,

KT