Tuesday’s post was all about our mission of driving from Brisbane to Byron Bay for Splendour in the Grass 2007. Today, I will regale you with my own personal account of Day One of Splendour in the Grass 2007.

Making Our Way to Day One of Splendour 2007

On the Way to Byron Bay

As we were staying with my housemate’s parents for the Splendour 2007 weekend we had the luxury of being driven into Byron Bay by his brother. Unfortunately, this meant poor old Speed Racer had to stay at home and miss out on all the fun. On a positive note, it meant that I could get spastic on $5.50 cans of domestic beer if I felt like pissing away my money.

Walking from Byron to Belongil

Fearing the swarms of festival goers around Belongil Field, HM’s bro decided to drop us off in the middle of Byron instead of taking us all the way to the gates. This wasn’t a problem for us as it meant we got to enjoy a nice walk through the township of Byron. After swinging by the bottle-oh for a couple of roadies we leisurely made our way to Belongil Fields. It only takes about 20 minutes to walk from Byron to Belongil so that was hardly any great exertion.

We arrived at the festival grounds relatively late in the day. The decision to skip the first few acts (and therefore the hottest part of the day) meant that by the time we rocked up there was barely any queue to get in. After showing our ID to security and presenting our bags for a frisk we swapped our tickets for wrist bands and were ready to rock the fuck out… well, almost ready…

Doing Lines @ Splendour 2007

To celebrate our entry to Splendour and to help prepare ourselves for the big night ahead we decided to participate in a few lines:

  1. The line for the skanky toilets (really not so bad by festival standards),
  2. The line to purchase drink tickets, and
  3. The line to exchange drink tickets for drinks.

After this it was time to actually enjoy some kick arse live music!

The Herd is The Werd

Aussie hip hop at it’s finest, the lads from The Herd put on a great performance. Admittedly, I was more impressed by them when I saw them at last year’s Woodford Folk Festival but then again they were the main act on the main stage of the main night.

Sneaky Sound System

I wasn’t all that familiar with Sneaky Sound System before seeing them live at Splendour 2007 but they definitely rocked.

Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly Splendour 2007

An Australian music legend and a consumate professional, Paul Kelly and band (including an appearance by nephew Dan Kelly) put on a fine performance.

Sarah Blasko

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Sazza Blazza is a wonderful songwriter with a spellbinding voice and was easily the best act we saw on Day One of Splendour 2007. She’s such a cute dancer, too!

Warming up at the Wine Bar

The temperature dropped really suddenly towards the end of Sarah Blasko’s set so we headed over to the Wine Bar to warm up by the heat lamps and drink some cold beer.

Lily Allen Really, Really Sucked @ Splendour 2007

Lily Allen Splendour 2007

Seriously. We had high hopes for this one but Lily Allen was absolute rubbish. Full credit to the band and Lily’s prerecorded vocal track for managing to hold pitch and key because she sure as shit couldn’t. She was well tanked by the time she got on stage and proceeded to down shots of vodka and swill beer throughout the set. While we’re not against people getting legless and having a good time it would have been nice if she could have shown a little respect for her fans and remembered the words to her own songs. If you want to see a drunken british slapper mangle great songs just go to any pub in any major city in Australia any night of the week!

Stay tuned for the recap of Day Two of Splendour 2007…