Review: Breakfest Reunion Block Party at The Court & James St

Breakfest Reunion Block Party at The Court & James St
w/ Stanton Warriors, Plump DJs, Krafty Kuts, Freestylers and more
Sunday, November 30, 2025

The legend of Breakfest returns! Since the sad demise of the legendary Perth festival that took over Belvoir Amphitheatre every Boxing Day for twenty years, there’s been a hole in the hearts of the Perth breaks scene. After the festival’s last hurrah in 2022, promoters Boomtick have kept the vibe alive by putting on a few breakbeat-focused events around town, such as their One More Time parties, but this year’s Breakfest Reunion block party was the biggest and best yet! It really captured the festival vibe of old and was the closest to conjuring that special magic that made Breakfest the ‘best day ever’.

This was of course, in part thanks to the crowd, who showed up big time, selling out the event a couple of months in advance. Breaks crew know how to party and how to dance! After all, that’s what dance music’s for! There was a joyous vibe throughout the day with many smiles on many dials. It was a real reunion of sorts, with many old Breakfest crew catching up for the first time in a while.

The other major factor was the stellar line-up, who all brought their A game. It was probably the biggest breaks lineup ever assembled in WA, including headliners and Breakfest alumni, the Big Four of Breakbeat—Stanton Warriors, Plump DJs, Krafty Kuts and Freestylers—all playing together for the first time in Perth! While each of them has graced the Breakfest stage many times, it was a real coup to lock them all in on the same bill. Not to mention Deekline, Skool of Thought, Kid Kenobi and all-star local support.

The final element that really brought it all together and made it special and unique was the venue. While The Court has often been used for such events—thanks to the Pride Festival the night before—the venue had expanded to take over James St, with the main stage on the street making it a real block party! It was a great setup, with top-notch sound and lighting. Coupled with perfect weather, all the ingredients were there for a superb feast for the senses!

All the old-school Breakfest and Ambar veterans, residents and local legends were in the house to represent, starting with a rare set from Perth’s first lady of breaks, the one and only Mono Lisa, going back-to-back with Philly Blunt to open The Block stage in style. While The Garden stage in The Court saw Pussymittens entertain the early crowd filing in from 2.30pm. As she does every Monday arvo on RTRFM’s Full Frequency show with Micah, mittens mixed up a choice selection of classics (like the soulful hip hop of Pharoahe Monch’s Push) with some fresh and freaky beats and bleeps (like Jorg Kuning’s Skudde) that were just the ticket to warm things up nicely before she handed over to another Perth veteran of the broken beats and bass, Invoker.

Meanwhile, Kid Kenobi had taken over The Block stage and a large crowd was gathering, dancing in the sun with reckless abandon to his infectious brand of breaks and bangers. Sydney’s son of breaks always entertains. Another nice touch on the main stage was a slideshow of photos from Breakfests past, displayed on the big screens.

Sporting a black T-shirt with 2002 emblazoned on it (a great year for breaks), the ever-youthful Kid always has a swag of custom edits in his bag, dropping his own remixes of evergreen classics like Groove Armada’s Superstylin’, The Chemical Brothers’ Galvanize and The Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up that got the block jumping, before he handed over to Aston of the Freestylers with Green Velvet’s timeless La La Land. Some of his productions would even be played later on by the headliners.

While the main stage understandably drew the lion’s share of the crowd most of the day/night, the Garden stage was a nice respite with more space and shade and still plenty of great tunes. Another legendary local duo doing damage on the dancefloor was BAA (Break-Aholics Anonymous), aka Ben Mac and Tone, who used to host an infamous vinyl-only night at Ambar. With Breakfest mascot Stumpy on the screen behind them (and a giant inflatable version looming overhead on the roof), their heavy-hitting brand of breaks even encouraged a dinosaur onto the dancefloor!

Things were starting to get hectic out on the street as the Freestylers took things up a notch, with Aston dropping their trademark tune, the Rinse Out remix of Audioweb’s Policeman Skank. Their big, bouncy crossover single from 2004 Push Up also got things heated on the dancefloor.

Sammy Virji & Flowdan’s Shella Verse brought some heavy dubwise riddims, before Aston finished his set by dropping the Freestylers’ massive collaboration with our very own Pendulum, Fasten Your Seatbelts, much to the crowd’s delight.

Krafty Kuts then took over and without delay launched into a big mash-up intro in his inimitable way, compelling us to put our hands up, and from there on in, he took us on a non-stop sonic journey in his relentless mixing style. A whirlwind, technical tour de force that cut up, broke down, blended and reassembled myriad familiar tracks, creating something new in the process. A master of his ‘kraft’ and a Perth favourite who has been gracing us with his presence since the first Breakfest back in 2001!

Back in The Court courtyard, another Perth favourite was tearing it up. A big crowd had come across to pack the dancefloor for one of Boomtick and Breakfest’s most loved sons, WA’s finest breaks superstar, Micah, who laid down a big-time party set like only he knows how for the locals. Dropping some huge dirty breaks, like the driving sounds of Rennie Pilgrim’s scorching Agatha Stomp remix of Zero’s Emit/Collect, he had bodies moving and limbs flailing.

Beatslappaz followed suit. The veteran duo of Perth-based producers and DJs Juxtapose & Eyan kept things rolling with a fine back-to-back selection, including a beefed-up breakin’ mix of Daft Punk’s One More Time.

Back on The Block, Krafty Kuts was building his set to a furious climax, dropping a kinetic mix-up of Prodigy’s Firestarter as the famous Breakfest beach balls were unleashed upon the crowd, followed by a huge bass-heavy rework of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Then it was over to the Plump DJs, or DJ rather, as they were represented by half the group, Lee Rous, often the one to tour, like Freestyler’s Aston and Stanton Warriors’ Dom. The Plumps have always had quite a distinct bouncy style and sound and were a real pioneering force in breaks. They have numerous seminal tunes that still stand up strong and detonate dancefloors like they did twenty years ago. Though even in recent years, they’ve produced some quality new material.

Evil 9’s Crooked was a bit of a highlight, and by this point darkness had descended and lights and smoke had emerged, complete with laser beams, enhancing the atmosphere further. Rous seized the moment, playing a great party set with some superb selections, including another mix of Smack My Bitch Up, before finishing with the Plumps classic 2000 track The Push, which he mashed up with Blur’s Song 2.

Skool of Thought really had The Garden stage rocking with some proper old-school breaks for those who wanted something a little tougher and finished on a big note with Pendulum’s Tarantula, which of course went down well, before handing over to Deekline for some real heavy business!

Stanton Warriors had taken the main stage, represented as usual by Dom Butler, the consummate showman, who took headlining in his stride. Kicking off with the usual intro heralding his arrival, “Stanton Warriors, come out to play-yayyy!” Taken from their track Superstar, the dramatic intro also samples a famous scene from the classic 1979 NYC ganglands action movie The Warriors. The Stanton Warriors have always had a certain theatrical flair to their sound and style (also sampling John Carpenter’s movie theme for Assault on Precinct 13 on their big track Get Up) and always know how to build things up to fever pitch with cleverly sequenced dynamics.

The Stanton’s 2000 remix of the 1999 classic Dooms Night by Azzido Da Bass got a spin, as well as their more recent 2019 vocal anthem, Up2U. Dom also dropped his new track from this year, released under his own name—the killer Find Me by Dominic B & Jem Haynes—a huge bass tune with some nice melodic steel drum sounds. Closing out the main stage in epic fashion was Stanton’s remix of Gorillaz’s Feel Good Inc. and a huge remix of The Prodigy classic Out Of Space.

For those craving something more on the drum ‘n’ bass tip, Deekline delivered, closing out The Garden stage with some real heavy, rolling, liquid grooves accompanied by an MC, who sincerely thanked the crowd for being the best show of the tour. What a vibe.

For those who didn’t want the party to end and didn’t have to work tomorrow, conveniently there was an afterparty at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, which ended up being a whole other highlight in itself, with the Australian debut show from King of the Beats!

What do you get when you cross Krafty Kuts, a Plump DJ and a Freestyler? King of the Beats! This formidable combo is a new, heavy-hitting, all-star breaks supergroup who just released their debut single, Nighthawk. They had the packed club heaving well past midnight, and from there on things got a little hazy…

This was an all-star, all-time event for the Perth breaks scene. Up there with the best Breakfests. While Breakfest may be no more, and this party wasn’t on Boxing Day in Belvoir Amphitheatre, the spirit of Breakfest is alive and well and was truly present on Sunday. Big ups to Boomtick, the all the DJs and the Perth breaks massive. See you at the next reunion!

ALFRED GORMAN

Photos by 3DeadPixels