Jumping on the dance festival bandwagon, All Our Friends offered up a generous serving of dance music on a chilly Saturday at the University of Canberra (U.C) Refectory.
Over this summer Canberra has proven its strength as a strong pulling force for international and well-known dance acts. All Our Friends was no exception, drawing D.J’s from all over Australia and the international stage.
The festival was well organised and split into three main stages; Monster Energy stage, The Pit and the Funktrust stage.
To the alarm of many ticket-holders, the line-up was drastically cut three days before the festival, with headliner such as Tiga and Proxy pulling out. This resulted in longer set-times and the arrival of a hesitant crowd through the gates.
One of the first DJ’s I caught was DJ Karton, who presented some frenetic beats to awake those yet to rise from their morning slumbers, including myself!
The Funktrust DJ’s, who hail from Sydney, performed soon after on the main stage to a crowd that was steadily building. They were the only DJ’s of the day to use live vocals, and this quickly hooked the crowd into the music. Whilst their main stage performance was great, their more eclectic and hip-hop influenced set in the self-named Funktrust Room, suited their urban style more.
Due to the three stages, I was able to move from room to room, and I soon stumbled across AutoErotique. Flown in from Toronto, the duo played their own stylish brand of electro/house music.
The headliners of the day were the dance superstars Steve Aoki, and Laid Back Luke. Both of their sets were heavy hitting, and the crowd jumped and grooved to their well known hits, and their remixes of other tunes. The highlight of the day came when Steve Aoki screamed his remix of the Bloody Beetroots song Warp 1.9. Both DJ’s were worthy headliners and worth the ticket price alone.
Surprisingly my personal highlights came in the form of two lessor known D.J’s.
The first to draw attention was Nick ‘Cheese’ Dennett, who ensured the day started with a roar with his 3.30 set. Cheese showed originality and flair, and ensured the entire crowd jumped with a smile on their face. Not only was his set fantastic, but he also hails from Canberra, so it was great to see some impressive home grown talent.
On the ‘Pit’ stage DJ Chris Wilson also mixed a fantastic and thumping set, and is most certainly a DJ to keep one’s eyes on.
It was a fantastic day of dance music, despite the late changes to the line-up, and all the patrons would have left feeling truly satisfied. It is great to see dance music thriving in the nation’s capital, and with more festivals like ‘All Our Friends’, it will continue to do so.
