It’s just before 2pm and a positively balmy 33C at the Sydney Showgrounds. I am surrounded by young people in baggy shorts, slip dresses and frosted wraparound sunglasses, and my Docs are already rubbing. Laneway festival turned into the Big Day Out slowly – and then all at once.
For the entire 2010s the Sydney leg of the Melbourne-born event was held at the sprawling outdoor Rozelle compound that is the Sydney College of the Arts. Now in Homebush for the second year, the vibes remain, largely, off. Most of the festival takes place in three near-identical cavernous tin sheds, one of which is split in half by two side-by-side “main” stages that ape the BDO’s setup without being as effective, all of which ends up dwarfing the performances. For a festival that started on small stages packing out literal laneways, the strange, sterile, anonymising effect of these big metal boxes feels all the more dissatisfying.
