How satisfying is ‘2020’ to read and write?? That alone could honestly get me through the year.
Anyway. Not the reason we’re here today is it?? We’re gonna talk about Laneway Festival 2020!! I first went to Laneway Festival last year, which you can read about HERE, and to date, regardless of some hiccups concerning how the event was planned and organised, it’s one of my favourite day festivals that I’ve ever been to. Which is why when the lineup came out sometime last year, featuring some of my all time favourite artists ever who you’ll hear about soon, I told my friends that I was going regardless.
Now I’m not trying to throw shade at any of my friends whom I love dearly, but Laneway was my first festival of 2020, and it was the first chance I had to entirely body this Tweet that I sent out into the world at the beginning of the year.
When I say the lineup for Laneway Festival 2020 was incredible, it was incredible. If you don’t recognise at least some of the names on this lineup from somewhere on my blog in the last three years, I’ll be severely disappointed.
I mean, how good? Just as good, was the absolute squad we had going into the festival. You guys know my best friend Kate, and you may also know Tessa, if you’re up on my social media. Joining the three of us, we had Kate’s younger brother and his group of friends, my two cousin’s, one of my cousin’s boyfriend, and the other cousin’s group of friends as well. Because Laneway is a 16+ event now, the rule that has been implemented since last year is that anyone with a 16+ ticket, has to enter the festival with a guardian who has an GA 18+ ticket, with each guardian allowed to bring in five minors. So because of this, Kate, my cousin Alishia and I all had five 17 year old’s registered to us as our children, to bring into the festival, which is a lot more fun than it sounds.
Cue a little fence hopping to get into the line and being partially split up for a few minutes, and getting into the festival this year literally took twenty minutes, opposed to the two hours we waited last year, but we won’t talk about that.
Getting in so early, meant we literally had the whole day to see every artist we set out to see, and I’m so glad I got to catch everyone I had on my list. It was such a successful day. Here’s some of my favourites.
AGUNG MANGO
Agung Mango was added to lineup for Laneway as the Melbourne winner of the Triple J Unearthed competition which was super exciting for me, as he was an artist who’d been on my radar, but I’d never gotten to see live or really listen to properly. Luckily, we managed to catch majority of his set as soon as we got in, and it was such a great start to the day. His high energy performance consisted of several songs spent moshing in the pit with everyone, bringing guys on stage to rap and mosh with him, hyping and directing the crowd, and genuinely giving his all to the set. It was enough to make a fan out of my cousin Alishia and I straight away. I definitely recommend giving him a listen if rap, hip-hop, RnB is your type of stuff!
OMAR APOLLO
No surprises here, but Omar Apollo was one of the main artists I wanted to see live. After listening to his music and being thoroughly obsessed for close to three years, I made sure that I was ready, drinks in hand, in the mosh for his set to begin. And begin it did with Omar making his entrance in a silver, shiny button up, strutting across the stage knowing he owned it. It was such a good set, with amazing solos from not only him but his band as well. He started with Ashamed possibly one of the best opening songs I’ve seen in a set ever, and played all my favourites like Kickback, Ugotme, Headlights, and Hit Me Up. Thoroughly energised for that entire set, and the high just continued for the rest of the day.
KAIIT
If you think the name Kaiit might seem familiar, you may have caught my live review of her concert earlier last year when I saw her at Max Watt’s with some of my friends. If you happened to miss that post, you can read it HERE. She also features heavily in a plethora of my personal playlists. Over the years Kaiit has become one of my all time favourite musicians, and she was a big part of the reason I decided to bite the bullet and buy tickets to Laneway for the second year in a row. Her set was magical. The energy she brought to the stage, and the love she was able to share with everyone in the audience and on stage with her was contagious, and made for one of the most wholesome mosh pits I’ve ever been a part of. I made friends with complete strangers while singing along to her songs, and it was incredible to see how the crowd grew and grew as her set went on.
OCEAN ALLEY
I mean, would it even be a You Should Hear festival post without mentioning Ocean Alley?? Probably not. They had such a breezy set. The more festivals I’ve gone for, the more I’ve been happier to hang at the back of the mosh pit and actually get to see and hear the act on stage a bit more clearly. This was definitely the case for Ocean Alley who had a huge crowd for their set. They played so many of their fan favourites, it was such a wholesome set. I don’t know, there’s something about them that just makes me feel so content the few times I’ve got to see them live. Their set was a great mix of chill-er, laid back songs, mixed in with some of their heavier stuff that allowed you move around and bang your head, perfect for the readily waiting Laneway crowd.
MAHALIA
Arguably, my favourite set from the day. I had such a fun time in this mosh-pit. We managed to get there about ten minutes before she was scheduled to go on, and get quite close to the stage. The crowd literally tripled in size over the course of her set, and it felt like the entire festival was behind us, but I’ve never had so much fun. I was with my cousins, my cousins friends and Tess and Kate, and it was such a wholesome forty minutes of just dancing and screaming along to her songs. The video below probably sums up the vibe a lot better than I can describe it to be honest, so I’ll leave you with that.
THE 1975
The finale. I’m gonna be honest, I had no intentions of trying to fight my way through to get anywhere near the front, or even the middle of the mosh for The 1975. I like them. Am I in love with them? No. Am I in love with a very limited selection of their songs? Yes. So I was quite content hanging out closer to the back of the mosh for their set, and considering majority of festival goers were there for the final act of the day, it was pretty far back. That had no real impact on how much I enjoyed it though. I’ve always wanted to see The 1975 live, purely for how atmospheric and ambient their music is. You just get hit in the face with a wave of nostalgia anytime you listen to their music. Getting to hang at the back with my arms around my cousins, absolutely screaming the lyrics to Somebody Else and Love It If We Made It really just topped off my entire day to be honest.
To be real with you, I’ll probably be at Laneway Festival again next year (here’s hoping I don’t jinx it). It’s kind of become a little family affair over the last two years, so I’m keen to see how 2021 Laneway Festival pans out.
x
Priya
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