Kitchener Park Woodlands
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Wonderland is the hippy meek child who will sometimes secretly indulge in the rave. She takes a calico bag to the shops and wears glitter on her cheeks when she wants to feel a little special.
In real terms, this personification came to life through the market village with its henna, jewelery and gourmet donuts. The taste buds of our new age man were well satiated by a craft beer or two in Beerland and the sea container junk yard was just the thing for the rinse fiend. 2016 was yet another year that Wonderland maintained their reputation as one of Perth’s best boutique festivals.
With another venue change, Kitchener Park gave off a solid eco/ nature vibe. Pine trees across two park spaces meant that each area visited was a new experience. The Wastelands corner was discreet and segmented off; perhaps to enclose the dankness and Beerland was decked out with fairy lights and wooden crates with complimentary house tunes. The main stage was open to the entire park with a view of the rides and crowd, which for the first time gave us room to actually breathe and move. Almost missed the silent disco hiding in the corner until it was pointed out and disappointingly, the weather decided to turn on a little bit of a drizzle, but it didn’t seen to detract much from the good vibes and happy faces.
Upon entering, Gamma Vs Oakover were going in hard with that grime and trap with a v. commendable MC. He really brought that London feel and that pick me up energy. With some light curiosity I found myself being drawn to Skegss as my next act of choice. Punk Byron Bay boys drove a strong summer beach vibe that made you think of skateboarding, surfing and sea salt. For something that’s not usually my vibe, I felt warm and buzzy. A change of pace saw TWERL lighting up that container space with some fairly apparent fire. For an up and comer – he had a serious crowd showing some love. Laying down favourites GTA with Hard house, Shockone’s Home and their own Flip of Feel It by What So Not and GTA got punters raving hard. It gave me the idea that the infamous 2-step is not dead. Unless it was just making a ironic, ‘one-night-only’ comeback there was a solid rinse pack going ham.
Returning to the main stage away from the madness saw Japanese Wallpaper taking the stage in the sunset light. After seeing them in Freo earlier this year, I thought I knew what to expect but for some reason there wasn’t as much of a tinkly sparkle this time. They brought Cocoon out nice and early and had a swaying, sweet feel but as it moved on it just felt a bit dead. There were chords of dissonance in Forces and I felt that he was being just a bit too meek for the crowd and space. It would have been good to see him come out of his shell a bit. Returning to the rave had Enschway getting us all the way up with a little whisper of moombahton and a bomb ass remix of Slumberjack’s Open Fire. He threw in a few interesting choice’s with the Chain-smoker’s Roses and SMH’s Save the World which made it feel a bit mainstream. He couldn’t leave us without ripping that Luude Timezone collab though.
Back to the main event, rock heads got their Dune Rats craving fulfilled, jumping straight into it and around the stage. As it passed into the night, the funky house beats were brought to the front by Hayden James. The deep melodic vocals and the easy yellow rounded sounds made it the perfect balance between energy and chill for girls on shoulders to sway along to. Ending the night saw Flight Facilities come aboard. With their signature ‘in-flight’ commentary and commanding from behind a starboard saw a full show with many featuring vocalists. Picking them as a final act is a wise choice for most festivals as they take out the hyperness and replace it with a smooth chill-down. Almost like post-work-out mediation.
Kudos to the Wonderland organisers for yet another lovely vibey nice day.
MIA CAMPBELL-FOULKES
