As the bass thumped and the crowd jumped, Canberra welcomed Foreshore back into town. Set beside the lake on Commonwealth Place, the mood and decibel levels were high as the sun rained down.
Canberra’s premier dance festival is quickly establishing itself as one of the leading festivals of its type in Australia. This year the festival attracted both international and home-grown acts to groove the Canberra crowd.
The festival was split up into three major stages – the Lake stage, Lawn stage and the Sun Stage. Throughout the course of the day each stage offered different genres of dance, from the heavier trance-driven Lawn Stage, to the electro-pop and break-beat of the Lake stage.
The swarming crowd of festival-goers rotated around the stages, being treated to acts such as The Bloody Beetroots, Axwell and Miss-Kittin and the Hacker. Due to the large capacity of the two main stages, the varied list of 19 main acts ensured there was never a dull moment.
In between the dance anthems being blasted over the lake, revellers were also able to purchase sustenance (many choosing the liquid variety) from the kiosks.
Highlights of the day came from Toronto’s Deadmau5, who mixed in his trademark electro beats with quirky covers such as the Super Mario Theme from Nintendo. Appropriately for his Australian tour he also donned his familiar mouse mask, this time imprinted with the Australian flag.
Fresh from their winning streak at the Aria Awards the ‘Empire of the Sun’, headlined the Lake Stage and the whole festival, dramatically performing their well-known hits ‘Walking on A Dream’ and ‘Standing on a Shore’.
Stanton Warriors also provided a hard-hitting set on the Lake Stage, which included a thumping remix of La Roux’s – ‘In for the Kill’.
For me the most entertaining songs of the day were the songs which have become pop classics, which the Dj’s remixed with heavier beats and electro backgrounds. A perfect example of this was Sydney-sider Bass Kleph, a house DJ, who remixed Justin Timberlake’s ‘Senorita’.
It was a brilliant days entertainment, and Foreshore has been the perfect example of how to run an organised and successful festival. As the word spreads, it will surely become one of Canberra’s premier attractions.
