30 November 2008

Foreshore from the wrong shore, 2008

| johnboy
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[First filed: November 29, 2008 @ 18:21]

This afternoon the southern shore of Lake Burley Griffin was filled with tentage, amplifiers, and lovers of repetitive electronic music.

On the northern shore the music was coming across loud and clear. Wedding car drivers stood around talking about their cars. Dog walkers stared in bewilderment at the source of all the racket, and ducks and swans were occasionally alarmed by rogue beach balls coming across the water.

The reverb off the concrete of Commonwealth Place sounded like quite something from a distance. Any attendees want to let us know what is was like there?

Here’s a snippet of the sound from the wrong shore if you want to have a listen.

Slideshow below:

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I swear I commented on this thread earlier today… eh, nevermind.

I really enjoyed the evening (didn’t get there until… um… 7ish? In time to see Dukes of Windsor, at any rate), I thought the crowd was generally very well behaved, and the sound was excellent (apart from the mentioned *very brief* dropout on the main stage.)

My experience with the bar queue was pretty good – the line disappeared when someone said “there’s no alcohol left”, and I got my soft drink pretty quickly. 😛

Stand out moment of the night: during the Presets encore, the rain started again, and they fired up the green lasers over the crowd – the beams hit individual drops, creating tiny flashes of green everywhere, like tiny brilliant fireflies. Tres cool.

I don’t wish to sound like some kind of ‘Marg from Ainslie’ but the windows in my house were vibrating. At least I had access to toilet and bar facilities without standing in line for hours, not to mention climate controlled listening areas.

Apparently over 12000 people through the gates!! … and 9000 people in the main stage fron Pnau onwards!

ant said :

Why is it, that whenever there’s an event like this, there’s never enough toilets? Is it because, people can’t know beforehand and so turn up, faithfully expecting there’ll be enough? Are toilets really expensive, and the organisers are cynically cheaping out on toilets?

It’s quite odd. Sporting events, music events, outdoor festivals… why are there never enough toilets?

Sh!t happens.

Enny, the noise factor of attending these sorts of events as a punter is one of the main things that keeps me away (and just listening to far-off sounds in almost-Upper Campbell instead).

One of the benefits of being an MC at other festivals is being able to pick the flat/dead spots by the side of the stage where the noise isn’t apt to make my ears bleed. Chronic tinnitus sucks like an Electrolux.

Why is it, that whenever there’s an event like this, there’s never enough toilets? Is it because, people can’t know beforehand and so turn up, faithfully expecting there’ll be enough? Are toilets really expensive, and the organisers are cynically cheaping out on toilets?

It’s quite odd. Sporting events, music events, outdoor festivals… why are there never enough toilets?

It could have done with a few more toilets and another bar, but overall it was pretty good. The toilets weren’t actually THAT gross, it just took aaaages to get in there, and though the bar line moved fairly quickly for the line size, it still took ages.

The sound was great, except for the few times it dropped out on the main stage (though I don’t know whose ‘fault’ that was). It also sucked the way that entry to the main stage was managed from Pnau onwards – the official entry was jammed and not moving so we went around to the exit . We were able to just walk in one lane of the exit while security was manhandling people in the other lane to keep out – it wasn’t even that packed in there. I’m also glad I had my earplugs because I am lame, but my fiances ears are still ringing.

I also REALLY liked the variety of food available (they had vegan veggie burgers!) – particularly after Winter Warehouse had hardly anything on offer. The Sun Smart crew was great and I would love for them to handout free suncream and lipbalm at all music festivals.

It was a really good day – glad to have it in Canberra!

deye said :

unless I am getting it mixed up with the previous years event.

which if I read further in the thread I would have found I wasn’t since it was the first.

The fence had nice big signs on it saying “closed for restoration after Foreshore blah blah blah” can’t remember the rest. At that time I was riding through the area on a regular basis and had to keep detouring. The block on the path was removed a bit earlier, but only because people were pushing the fencing aside and walking through.

realityskin said :

deye you liar, it took 3 days last year.

It was fenced off for weeks, unless I am getting it mixed up with the previous years event.

Pontius Pilate9:19 pm 30 Nov 08

Campbell residents get all the best free sounds in this town!

Lucky B@stards.

I’ll gladly swap suburbs with you any day if it’s that bad.

Foreshore this year was excellent. The crowd, music, and beautiful location was top notch compared to other music festivals. It is a really special event for the Canberra (dance) music scene.

It attracted over 10,000 people; both local and interstate.

Last year (Foreshore’s first year) was a bit more messy because there was very heavy rain on the day which combined with lots of feet damaged the grass. This year there wasn’t bad rain and the organisers made a lot of effort to protect the grass by covering portions.

The Presets playing My People at Foreshore ’08
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=2olRXGO1Urk
Jaytech playing Pepe’s Garden at Foreshore ’08
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=45WAllw9toM

Foreshore was awesome, as mentioned before, Pnau & Presets rocked out, and i gotta admit Dukes of Windsor were pretty cool too!

Thankfully we had VIP passes so no line up for toilets or bar really, … and the rain at the end of the night was awesome!

Big thanks to Lexington Music and Friction for putting on a great event once again

i have sent some pics of the event itself to images@the-riotact.com

i went to foreshore, and had a great time due to great company and some bloody awesome sets (pnau and presets being the absolute standouts), the brief downpour of rain didn’t even get me down (i took a jacket unlike most of the young foolish kiddies) – my positive overall experience being despite the fact the facilities were absolutely pitiful compared to last year’s event.

i spent a good 2 hours of my 8 hours there standing in obscenely long lines to the bars (2 visits) and toilets (2 visits) – this was the experience of everyone i know who went as well and it is absolutely unacceptable. there was clearly a much greater number of people there this year – compared to last year – and yet not at all a commiserate increase in bar and toilet facilities – a black mark on an otherwise great day/night.

Anyone catch a mention in the media or statements from police about a large group of men that had congregated on commonwealth ave bridge in the early hours of the morning to shake cars as they tried to drive over it?

yea i used to walk down that part of the lake each night and i cant remember it taking long to clean up. the grass did look pretty crap for a while after but i wouldnt think thats worthy of any tears.

deye you liar, it took 3 days last year.

Seriously? That long? That’s a bit average. I was leaving the house at about 9pm and the sound was superb. Sounded a bit ‘New Order’-ish. Wish I could have just hung out on the balcony and listened!

They must have been changing over bands five minutes later, because coming across Kings Avenue Bridge with the window down I couldn’t hear a thing.

Don’t know what time they’re pulling stumps, but if they’re still there, they’ll be getting wet — it’s persisting down in Manuka.

The one thing that really bugs me about Foreshore is it usually takes them a month or two to clean up all the shit (literally) and reopen the paths around there.

Yeah, it’s coming in loud and clear in this part of not-quite Upper Campbell.

OK, I think we might have Campbell covered now…

looked like a pretty good line up this year. if i still lived in canberra i would have gone.

Quite audible from upper Campbell too (in case you were concerned about us)

When the wind blows true I can hear the sound fairly clearly in not-quite-upper Campbell.

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