Future Music Festival
Flemington Racecourse
March 7, 2010
The cry from the poncho-clad crowd was unanimous: they were not happy, shouting down the call to “please remain calm”.
Moments earlier, Scottish boys Franz Ferdinand had them churning up the ground in front of main Future Music stage, where the wet grass was rapidly giving way to proper gumboot-painting mud. And then, suddenly, the artfully built excitement was shut down, like a light bulb dying with a pop and a curl of smoke.
The downpour, and whispered news of “100-kilometre winds,” had proved too much, and the stage at Melbourne’s Future Music Festival was “temporarily shut down”.
We had been warned.
But the messages of “adverse weather conditions ahead,” that had flashed up on the stage’s screens during Franz Ferdinand’s jumping set had somehow only added to the excitement. To the crowd, the rain had simply turned Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse into an enormous muddy shower. All those years of singing behind the fogged-up screen were practice for this day; when the city flaunted her famous bi-polar weather to full effect.
The morning of the festival had dawned more promisingly, with only a light drizzle sent down from heavy grey skies. But the sticky heat had people in t-shirts and shorts, and the line-up (The prodigy, Empire of the Sun, David Guetta, Franz Ferdinand, Booka Shade, the always-catchy Operator Please, Bag Raiders, Boys Noize, Does it offend you, yeah? Dub Fire, and Eric Morillo to name a few) was more than enough to outweigh concerns about the weather forecast, which predicted storms at around 3pm.
The crowds flooded in later than the expected 12pm start, watched on by some rather excited muzzled dogs and their handlers, eyeing the loiterers along Epsom road.
Warming up the afternoon, Queensland’s Operator Please had the crowd sweating as the sun broke through the cloud at the Pink Flamingo stage. Lead singer Amandah Wilkinson proved her unique voice was made for a live mic, throwing in a Beyonce cover along with radio darlings ‘Yes Yes Vindictive’, ‘Get What You Want’, and ‘Leave it alone’.
Those caught unaware by the sun were quickly sporting a raw pink glow.
As the day wore on, the anticipation for the headlining acts grew, but so too did the nerves, as the storm clouds bore down upon the city and the sky grew dark. And so it was that at around 5.30pm the First Class viewing area (two-storey and decadently undercover) by the Future Music stage was receiving some dirty looks from the increasingly sodden crowd.
Most danced on regardless, the water washing away inhibitions as a succession of half-naked men scrambled up a large pole in front of the stage to be met with a volley of water bottles upon reaching the top.
Franz Ferdinand had the crowd singing, their energy easily matching Columbian-American DJ Eric Morillo, who had owned the stage moments before. I’m not sure which member of the crew was hoisted up to sweep the water off the roof as Franz Ferdinand chanted out “Take me out” below, but I can bet they had a memorable time braving the wind and rain while doing it.
The stage was shut down after the set ended. However, the crowd bit back their anger, and after what felt like 20 minutes of relative quiet, we were told that yes, the show would go on. Those who walked away from the main stage came running back as David Guetta fired up. It was like a muddy mediaeval battle charge, “waaarghoooooh yeah”.
Nobody blinked an eye as a group of men emerged marching towards the right-hand side of the stage, a marquee defiantly plucked from the grass and hoisted above their shoulders.
Over on the Pink Flamingo stage, which had also been shut down earlier, Empire of the Sun’s Luke Steele sat tight, waiting for the rain to let up for his performance – which lacked AWOL band mate Nick Littlemore. This ultimately took one-hour and meant German DJ Boys Noize was forced to cancel his set.
Fortunately headliners the Prodigy were able to perform, exploding onto the Future Music stage with their trademark frenetic energy and a succession of well-know hits.
Afterwards, for those who hadn’t spent the day sheltering in the Solid Gold Roller Disco or the tented Above & Beyond and Silent Disco areas, it was a cold and wet journey home.
