BIG DAY OUT 2000
Gold Coast
23 January 2000
by Ben Harries

Big Day Out Y2K on the Gold Coast was my first festival ever, and I have to say it was an awesome experience. I woke up early on the Sunday and in my desperate attempt to get a tan I went for a swim down at Main Beach. I got out at about 8:30 and received a call from my mate Wheatley on my mobile. He wanted to meet up at 8:45 somewhere, so I dashed home, showered, changed and found my friends (wheatley, gorrid, rhys, jay and emma) sitting next to an icecream truck near the smith street carpark.

Of course it was damn hot, and we sat there amongst a number of other people waiting for gates to open. The eventually did at 10:15, 45 minutes early and we rushed in.

While we were waiting we were busy deciding whether to go to Frenzal Rhomb or Something for Kate. Our decision was made a bit easier when we were greeted by a sign the said Frenzal Rhomb were unable to perform.

The first act we checked out was Gerling at 11, who I found disappoiting. Luckily there were big balls to punch around and sit on, otherwise I would have left earlier. As it turned out, Gerling finished early and we went over to the daisycutters, who played "kiss me stupid "and their new single which wasn't too bad. After that it was time to grab some lunch, a program and a jebediah shirt, which perfectly filled in the time until something for kate played.

We rocked up the the green stage and it was absolutely packed out. The tent was full and then about 10 rows of people were standing outside the tent. WE decided to make the effort to push into the mosh pit and that didn't prove too difficult. SFK were truly excellent playing songs off both albums and a new one which I didn't grab the title of and didn't get into. I managed to find myself a pretty safe spot near the post right in front of the middle of the stage. They ofcourse finished with captain and I walked out wet as, largely thanks to my sweat and the water that was being chucked everywhere.

I met up with my friends who had bailed half way through, and found that my program was absolutely mashed up and destroyed. None of us had any desire to see Yothu Yindi so we hung around the boiler room until Blink 182. we left it way late and couldn't get closer than the speaker tower so instead we stayed infront of the orange stage and got a good spot for jebediah. the highlight of Blink 182 was their pathetic jokes and ofcourse when the managed to do a bit of that TLC song "no scrub". Jebediah were awesome aswell, especially when they got the crowd involved in a bit of "Nookie". I had to bail from the pit, a person can only get kicked in the head so many times. So we went around and got close for Grinspoon. the lead singer, I think whose name is Phil came out in a red cape thing. they absolutely rocked, but didn't do songs like repeat that I was hoping for. After 'spoon we grabbed some food and agreed to meet up at 6:20 for foo fighters.

We got pretty close (5 metres) to the front and the were awesome. Favoutrites had to be monkey wrench, everlong, my hero, hey johnny park and learn to fly. we stayed for a bit of nine inch nails but not being dig fans we headed up to the essential stage to see the testeagles. when we got there, the place was absolutely deserted. I learned later that testeagles had played instead of frenzal rhomb at 1:30. so it was back to the blue stage to see the chili peppers. they were pretty good, but my mates wanted to see the chemical brothers so we left early. Not being a big fan of the chemical brothers I only recognised hey boy, hey girl and that was pretty awesome. But this was not my type of music so I decided to leave early.

The day was absolutely amazing. Highlights certainly being SFK and foo fighters. I am still recovering with every toe and both ankles bruised from many heavy people landing on my feet, but nothing will stop me going next year.

* You can contact Ben by email, or ICQ - 31066177.

* You can also read my (Chay's) review, complete with pictures, of this festival.