Field Day 2010

For the first time in years of blowout new years day kick-ons, the day festival that started it all did not sell out. Put it down to the GFC, ridiculously ambitious NYE celebrations or simply an over-saturated market (Space Ibiza, Spice afloat, Sounds on NYD), on approaching the field day gates at 5pm, I was surprised to find tickets still available on the door.  

One thing's for sure; the line-up can certainly not be blamed for the drop-off in sales. Running the musical gamut from indie-pop to dub-step via techy house and Jamaican electro, the 2010 line-up catered for all breeds of party ready field day-ers.

First stop on the timetable was Centre Field for indie-pop five-piece, Architecture in Helsinki. Colourful pop tunes flowed freely over the crowd accompanied by a visual montage of the Melbournites draped in technicolour wrapping paper. The set-best was Architecture's energetic rendition of their hit, ‘That Beep'. Looking around the elated crowd it was clear to see a few biscuits kicking in.

Heading around the corner to the Fuzzy Logic stage, I arrived just in time for the end of Datarock's set. The boys brought their matching red sweat suits, their half-head shades and their A-game. The energy was high, the dance moves loose and the crowd impressed. However, during ‘Computer Camp Love' no actual instrument playing was going on. It seems those Norwegians are heavy on the tracksuits and heavy on the backing tracks. Whatever, it was a bit of (fa-fa-) fun.  Those guys like to party. What of it?

Moving to the other side of the festival and the other end of the dance music spectrum, I hurried to Left Field for dub-step beat maker, Skream, and his buddy MC, Benga. Performing to a small but loyal collective of south-London music lovers, the pair delivered a short and sweet set of drum ‘n' bass, grime and dub.

Next up at Centre Field was one of the key drawcards of the day, The Presets. Julian expressed their happiness to be back in their home-city for the silly-season and their geographical joy translated to their live performance. In their allotted hour, Julian worked the delighted crowd, Kim proved himself as one of the most impressive dance music drummers around and the pair managed to squeeze in most of Apocolyspso and all of our favourite jams from first album, Beams.

Back at Fuzzy Logic was the performance that turned out to be the festival highlight, Major Lazor Soundsystem. The sun had gone down and one half of the Jamaican style dance act was onstage and ready to party. Switch was nowhere in sight, but Diplo was in charge and on the decks. Just when we thought the ‘soundsystem' would end up being Diplo spinning tracks from Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do, out pops pint sized MC Skerrit Bwoy and the party really began. Flanked by two beautiful dancers, Skerrit Bwoy delivered a live element that far surpassed expectations of how the soundsystem would perform sans-Switch. 

Feeling partied out; I retreated to The Woods for something a little more chilled out. Local group Seekae delivered this wish in spades. Their brand of chilled-out white man hip-hop was exactly what was needed post-Diplo. Ivan Vizintin from Ghoul popped in to lend his ethereal vocals to a few tracks and despite their 15-person strong audience, Seekae played a great set and proved that sometimes it's the acts that don't even make the poster that can really impress at a festival.

The day wouldn't have been complete without swinging back past Centre Field to catch a bit of the 2manyDJs headline set. As expected, the Belgian brothers were delivering their famed mash-ups to a sea of drugged-up dancers. It was all fun and games until the speakers blew and the boys stormed off, and with that I decided to call it a (field) day. Erin Moy