T14

YOUTH

STARTWO, TUESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2009

Magical day out

Stories and pictures by NIKI CHEONG
niki@thestar.com.my

S THE cool eveni ng breeze bl ew, the

crowd easi l y 20, 000- strong swayed
to the fol ksy musi c of Nei l Young. The
l egendary rocker was performi ng an amazi ng
90- mi nute se t that had the audi ence, made
up of teenagers and ol d foggi es al i k e, si ngi ng
al ong.
Everyone was savouri ng the beauti ful
moment watchi ng Young pl ay hi s heart out
when a woman i n the audi ence screamed i nto
her cel l phone: I m standi ng ri ght i n front of
the screen on the ri ght si de of the stage.
Perhaps, at any other ti me, the peopl e
around her mi ght shush and chasti se her for
rui ni ng the moment.
But i nstead, the gentl eman (or bl oke, as the
Aussi es wo ul d cal l hi m) next to her
excl ai med: Hah! You ve got no chance.
Hi s response provoked a ri ppl e of chuckl es
and for that short moment, Young, performi ng as the headl i ni ng act a t the Bi g Day Out
(BDO) event for 2009 i n Perth, W
estern
Austral i a, l ost the attenti on of a few fans.
Not that he d compl ai n, though. After al l ,
thi s i s exactl y what festi val s l i ke these are al l
about
they are as much about the communi ty and camaraderi e between musi c l overs as
they are about the musi c. And Young, i n al l 64
years of hi s l i fe, has performed at hi s fai r
share of musi c festi val s.

Big history
This year s Big Day Out marks the 16th
anniversary of the festival being hel d in Perth
( except in 1998 when organisers decided to
forego the BDO for an el ectronic and dance
festival ) .
I t was al so the l ast l eg of the big Summer
09 music festival , a cul mination of two weeks
of great music at five other venues Sydney,
Mel bourne, Adel aide, the Gol d Coast and
Auckl and ( NewZeal and) .
Over the years, big international names

It seemed as if everyone at Claremont Showgrounds was dancing away at the main stage area where home act Pendulum was
performing during Big Day Out in Perth, Western Australia.
such as Muse, My Chemical Romance, Bj ork,
Red Hot Chil l i Peppers, Col dpl ay and Bl ack
Eyed Peas have performed in Perth. Joining
the el ite l ist this year were Young, The Prodigy
( who has pl ayed the festival several times) as

city centre.
wel l as The Arctic Monkeys.
More than 60 acts wowed the crowd from
I n its earl y years, the festival was very
the various stages, fromas earl y as 11 amon
much about giving the peopl e of the Land
that fine Sunday of Feb 1, til l cl ose to
Down Under the chance to catch maj or
midnight.
grunge performers l ive ( its biggest coup
The two main performance areas, the
woul d probabl y be Nirvana in the first ever
Orange Stage and the Bl ue Stage, were l ocated
Big Day Out concert in Sydney in 1992, one
next to each other in the heart of the showyear after the band rel eased its iconic
Smells
grounds. The bands took turns to performon
Like Teen Spirit) .
Th is time ro u nd , h o w ev er, th e mu sicone
wstage
a s aass the other was being set up for
next
d iv erse a s it c o u ld g et, f ro m th e h a rdthero
c show
k .
Western Austral ia s own
so u nd s o f B risb a ne s Th e B u tterf ly E f Besides
f ec tYoung,
to
th e d a nc e pu nk b ea ts o f C u t C o py to Pendul
th e umdrewin the biggest crowd, quickl y
fil l sic
ing up
h a u nting o pera tic - inf lu enc ed ro c k mu
o the
f mosh pit area in front of the
Serj Ta nkia n ( f o rmerly lea d v o c a list ostage.
f
band Sneaky Sound System
G ra mmy - w inning b a nd Sy stem o f a D o Popul
w n) artoAussie
,
o f c o u rse, Y o u ng s f o lksy tu nes. were al so quite a hit.
There was al so the Boil er Room, situated in
an open area ( instead of the usual indoor
Perth offerings
l ocation which l ent it its name) , fromwhere
Austral ian dance group I nfusion and British
Such diversity in music meant that the
el ectronica duo Simian Mobil e Disco pl ayed to
event which sol d out al l its 38, 000 tickets
a capacity crowd before The Prodigy cl osed
for the Perth l eg drewin a crowd that was
the event.
fl uidl y moving between the eight different
The l atter was so popul ar that organisers
performance areas at Cl aremont
had to cl ose off the area, causing the crowd to
Showgrounds, j ust 15 minutes drive fromthe

Lilyworld dancers performing on the green, leafy stage in between set changes.

STARTWO, TUESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2009

YOUTH

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Popular Australian band Sneaky Sound System wowing the crowd on the Orange Stage.
spill onto a nearby green which had a huge
screen featuring the bands live show.
At the Green Stage, local band Cut
Copydrew in the crowd with their energetic
performance, as did The Ting Tings, leading
many people to wonder why these two
massively popular acts were not offered a
spot on the main stages.
More interesting, however, was the
enchanted garden Lilyworld, the only
performance stage which was located within
an 18+ only alcohol-allowed area (other stages had an allocated fenced-up area by the
stage that only those with 18+ drinking tags
were allowed in and could purchase alcoholic
drinks).
It was arguably the most fun area at the
event, as a series of whacky dance performances kept the crowd constantly on their toes,
including one guy who was prancing around
the area on his crutches. In between shows, a
parade of pretty dancers took to the green,
leafy stage to entertain the crowd while the
Chuppa Chup guy walked around selling
sweets.
Also quite a sight was the Silent Disco area,
situated right behind the main stage
crowd, where fans of club music could
go in, put on headphones that were
provided and dance away. The
expressions of the people who
peered into the area, only to see a
bunch of people dancing seemingly
without any music accompaniment, were priceless.
And, as with any good
Australian festivals, the event was
not complete without a couple of
carnival rides and lots of stalls
selling hotdogs, pizza and, yes,
even kebabs.

The Silent Disco, where people donned headphones and danced to the music. Curious
onlookers would have thought they were dancing without any music at all!

Waltzing to Vienna
Those of you who have been following
R.AGE updates closely last year would
have known that we have a nationwide
contest to select debutantes for the
Viennese Ball Kuala Lumpur. Three R.AGE
debutantes were eventually selected to
dance at the prestigious Vienna Opera
Ball in Austria. Sasha Leong writes about
their preparation and the few German
phrases shes trying to grasp before
flying off for the dream ball.

Fun for all

The sheer size of the crowd
at the event meant that
although it was not a familyfriendly one (kids could have
been trampled on or gone
missing), there was a carnival feel to it.
Unfortunately, the headlines in the local media the following
day was not on how well the event went but
on the 17-year-old teenager who overdosed
on drugs and was rushed to a hospital, where
she died later that night. That was the first
such incident in the history of Big Day Out,
according to the organisers.
Considering the sweltering heat (the
temperature approached 40C at one point;
backstage, the artistes air-conditioned
cabins not withstanding had water guns
readily available and access to a small makeshift pool), the crowd was relatively wellbehaved and mostly in good spirits. Old
friends could be seen bumping into each
other while cliques of buddies were often

Serj Tankian, former lead vocalist of

System of a Down, returned to the Big
Day Out stage as a solo artist.

Mr Chuppa Chups was spotted in Lilyworld,

selling sweets.

seen whipping their cameras out for a good

session of cam-whoring.
No one not even a Malaysian journalist
who was flown in for the event by Air Asia X,
one of the sponsors of the event could have
felt out of place. Such festivals have a way of
bringing together diverse groups of people

who share a love for music.

As for that woman yelling into her cellphone, her friends managed to locate her,
thanks to a guy who loaned her a flashing star
to wave in the air.
It took a lot of strangers to help unite some
friends in a massive crowd, but such is the
magic of music festivals.

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