A Lockout At Laneway
DARREN LEVIN reports from Sunday’s St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, which saw chaotic scenes in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD. Photos by KRISTY MILLIKEN
Sunday afternoon at the Melbourne leg of the Saint Jerome’s Laneway Festival began, predictably enough, with a wild goose chase. No online venue maps meant my search for the ever-elusive entrance began on the wrong end of Little Lonsdale Street, snaked its way through Melbourne Central, crossed through Myer (at a security guard’s suggestion), and ended up at Little Lonsdale street, pretty close to where I began.
Was this a not-so subtle ploy to get more foot traffic through Melbourne’s retail hub? Either way, I was flustered by the time I strapped on my red “VIP” wristband.
“What does this give me access to?” I asked.
“It makes you look special,” said the girl at the door. “There’s also a VIP bar but I don’t know where it is.”
Holding a festival across six stages in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD was always going to be a difficult proposition. And so, at about 7pm on a steaming Sunday evening, the festival hit critical mass.
An apparent licensing issue forced the closure of the Little Lonsdale Street stage, leaving hundreds who were there to see Architecture in Helsinki, stranded outside the gates. From our ivory tower/VIP bar (I eventually found it), we watched as orange-clad security guards played chasey with people attempting to “break in” to a festival they paid $100 for. Meanwhile an aggrieved ticketholder held up a makeshift sign petitioning for a refund. Things got so bad, the cops even showed up, this time without the sniffer dogs that were stationed outside the Lounge Stage for most of the day.
Inside, Architecture played on to a crowd that only stretched about three quarters deep – the masses gathered outside would’ve comfortably fit in. But, as I experienced during The Drones earlier, it wasn’t enough to merely get inside. Standing about halfway up the street, I could barely hear the faint strains of ‘The Minotaur’, one of the band’s most aggressive – and best – tracks.
Next door at the State Library of Victoria, the real festival was taking place. And ironically it was all for free. People drank takeaway six-packs and ate picnic lunches on the lawn, taking in Laneway’s glut of local talent including Fabulous Diamonds, Kes Band, Pikelet and Crayon Fields.
Under a towering statue of Sir Edmund Barton, who had his head cocked to the right seemingly in disdain, Kes Band flummoxed tourists and passers-by with a set of strange, beautiful noise. The band, led by the hunchbacked Karl Scullin (aka Kes), trimmed down to a three-piece for the show, but were no less dynamic. Opener ‘Owner Has Control’ was particularly immense, drowning out the firecrackers from Chinese New Year celebrations nearby.
Later, Crayon Fields frontman Geoff O’Connor complained about an ice-cream adorned banner strewn across the top of the SLV. “It’s so hot, and I don’t need to see summer everywhere,” he said. Perhaps his heat-conducting all-black outfit wasn’t the smartest wardrobe selection? Crayon Fields’ set was nonetheless peppered with summery cuts including new single ‘Mirror Ball’, as well as more upbeat tracks from their debut LP Animal Bells. The band was joined by a two-piece string section, who added gorgeous cello and violin flourishes to a cover of Harry Nilsson’s ‘Everybody’s Talking At Me’.
Away from the SLV stage though, things were not so cheery. Tight security and huge queues made accessing The Lounge stage, which featured Pivot, My Disco and Mountains in the Sky, akin to robbing a bank. Others complained about poor sound, most likely caused by oppressive CBD sound restrictions and strange outdoor acoustics.
On Lonsdale Street’s main stage, which was surprisingly easy to access, Glenn Richards from Augie March joked about the band not being hip enough to play at the festival. And perhaps they weren’t. While the festival’s expansion has widely been blamed for the carnage of late Sunday evening, the relatively small crowd gathered for Augie March suggested that the situation may well have been resolved by better timetabling. Girl Talk, The Drones and AiH on the main stage, the Hold Steady, Augie March and Stereolab on the (comparatively smaller) Little Lonsdale Street stage.
Still, the logistics of running a festival across six venues in a CBD already swarming with tennis fanatics and Chinese New Year revelers cannot be underestimated. But hey, at least the beers were cheap.
UPDATE: Organisers Blame Reckless Fans
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Amazing photos, Kris. Captured it just right.
yeah great photos - love the skipping one.
sucked in coolsies
Did anyone here go to this? What's the verdict? I'm willing to be proven wrong, but it just looks and sounds ghastly.
goldbuttons, you changed your avatar, I didn’t recognise you!
By all reports, it was a complete clusterfuck.
Not surprisingly.
See Lameway, Linewait thread that's been bumping all day, Dumar.
yeah, I'm trialling a more morbid side.
ooooh - watches with anticipation
Bumping all day? Haven't seen that one Inactivist. But I think my mind's already made up.
Have any of the festival organisers said ''boo'' yet?
Least they could do is bloody well apologise????
Too many VIP passes.
not a word poprocks96.
i suspect there will be some kind of press release later today?
Well I scrolled down to say great photos... So yeh... Nice Photos!
Oh yes, people in trouble love putting out press releases once the journos have gone home!!!! Hopefully then they forget about it and it no longer is considered news.
Man up Jerome! And Chuggy. And whoever else.
Venue capacity was a big prob at the Sydney one last year wasn't it?
there was a queue to get into the basement two years ago, and you couldn't take any drinks inside, including water bottles.
not sure what it was like last year.
exactly right poprocks... leave it as late in the day as possible.
we never go home.
do you sit there anxiously hitting refresh?
Should be the M+N motto!
Fixed.
Anyone got anything yet? Have people been calling Jerome all day? I would if I had his number.
it's hard to write a statement which covers your arse for something like this, i imagine. admit too much culpability and you're looking at a big payout.
FUCK YOU LAMEWAY FESTIVAL
The Age is STILL waiting for a response from festival organisers.
I was so stupid that I went there.
what I posted earlier on The Age:
http://blogs.theage.com.au/yoursay/archives/2009/02/st_jeromes_fest.html?page=fullpage#comments
It was $100 worth of RANT:
1)Went to see the My Disco at The Lounge stage at 5:30. I can't get in. ''Full House'' the security said.
2)Went to Little Lonsdale St to see Cut Off Your Hands. We went 20mins before the show started. It was overly crowded and dangerous.
3) Couldn't see Girl Talk, same as other 3000 festival goers
4) It is NOT a smoke free festival. People are still smoking. SOME security guards were trying to stop people. (Will email a picture of someone smoking on backstage when Stereolab was playing)
5) On the booklet they gave out, Four Tet is playing at 13:30 but it should be 18:30.
6) There were two free stages and you can stand on lonsdale st outside the short gate to watch everything on Lonsdale st stage for free.
7) The staff insisted that my partner can't carry her water bottle in. A security guard opened it and smelled it. I emptied it. Another staff member insist that we can't take it
in.
I asked what I can do with it.
She said: ''you can hide it somewhere and pick it up later''.
We told her that it is a $40 stainless steel bottle and we don't want to risk it.
She said you can leave it here and pick it up at the end of the day. She refused to let us in and refuse to give us any docket to redeem it. She ensured us she will be their all day and we can get it back there. She wasn't there when we tried to
find her.
The person who was in charge of the gate sent us to see someone. And that lady said Lost item is not laneway's responsibility.
We told her that it wasn't about lost item but your staff lied to us. Can you check out who were on the gate during that time and chase it up, she said they are all volunteer (Volunteer for a commercial event?)
She gave my girlfriend her manager's mobile number and they talked. The manager hung up on my girlfriend.
8) The deputy mayor's speech was rubbish. Bring John So back.
they've posted a response.
it's in this thread.
they blamed the punters.
''The unsafe and reckless behavior of a small number of patrons within the Little Lonsdale Precinct led to the decision to limit entry into this area and ensure that our resources were able to focus on the safety of our event attendees after 7:30pm. It was very disappointing that a minority’s reckless behavior spoilt the day for people who wanted to see certain bands and we apologize for this inconvenience, the reasons for which were not possible to communicate to the audience in such a short period of time.''
it sucks!
You are selling fucking jagar bomb and vodka redbull and can't take the recklessness?
Anyone see the ''Lanegay Festival'' protest posters before they were covered up today? I am sure it was at it had a picture of someone giving the finger on it.
what were you doing taking a stainless steel bottle to a festival?
was it holy water?
''volunteer'' got paid one stainless steel bottle at the very least......
yeah last time I went to laneway (when it was actually in the laneway) I hated it because it was so cramped. I've been tempted to go back since it expanded, but it sounds like they still have the same problem. At least I didn't actually miss any bands when I went, it was just really squashy.
Meanwhile, the free library stage was AWESOME. Even though all acts only played 1/2 hour sets...
josejones said 1 day ago:
we never go home.
Don't you mean we work from home?
hehe
nice article josejones