First came the mud, then came the heat. After Victoria’s Meredith music festival experienced torrential rain in December, the opposite was true for its sister festival, Golden Plains, with two straight days of 38C weather. The heat meant that, while the festival went ahead, the traditional opening smoking ceremony was scuppered due to a total fire ban. (Pitch Music and Arts festival in the Grampians, also on at the weekend, was eventually cancelled due to the heatwave.)
But if anything is true about Golden Plains, it’s that the community finds ways to band together. Punters get creative – mister bottles, wet tea towels, a cup of ice-cold Esky water over the head (that last one definitely wasn’t me). Strangers mist one another, festival volunteers roam around spraying cold water and signs flash on-screen, reminding us all to take care of each other.
