Festival X Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne Review!

Festival X Brisbane- Gene Convery & Kylie Vesey

After months of hype, Festival X was finally here. There was a lot of expectation for Festival X - could they live up to the hype and could the companies behind it (which there were so many, I lost count) live up to the Aussie festival's of the past?

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the Brisbane RnA, was that while there was a heavy police presence, they all looked happy, smiling and saying hello to the festival-goers. There was a distinct air of excitement around the whole festival grounds.

I want to take this time to commend the QLD police service for what was an outstanding job of harm reduction. They were there in force and to be noticed but in no way did I or anyone I spoke to feel threatened and unlike my last Australian Festival I did not get pulled over by a dog and stripped searched for a false positive.

As soon as you walked in, we were met by the first stage “Helix” (Techno stage), the design was great! Huge wall to wall LED screens with crisp sound and great visuals. If this was the level of production for a side stage, we were in for a good day!

As we walked down onto the main oval/mainstage, you notice how far forward the stage was. If you had been to a Stereosonic, you would have experienced the stage at the far back of the oval, this time it was halfway up. This not only gave you a better view but supplied a lot more intimacy for the crowd.

The back two stages were the Trap/Bass stage, "Flux" and the V Stage, which hosted locals only. The Trap tent was the same as festivals of the past - the long white tent completely enclosed, was great for visuals but no so great when it was 33 degrees at 2pm. I did not stay in there for long, but I did hear that Tchami and Alison Wonderland were amazing.

As the sun started to go down, I made my way back to the main stage to catch the end of MK. The one thing that stood out to me was the crowd. I have been very lucky over the last few years and been able to attend multiple festivals in Europe. The crowds there are not only musically educated but they are kind, caring and compassionate towards their fellow festival-goers. I have to say the Brisbane crowd was just that, I bumped into a few people while walking, as you do at a festival and I did not fear for my life. In fact, each time we both said sorry and went about our day.

While there were a few jacked guys with their shirts off, no one seemed like they wanted to fight, or that they were not there for the music and to just have a good day!

Has the festival crowd in Australia changed?

It sure seems that way. The other things that stood out were the amount of free water, sunscreen and general harm minimisation tools that were in place. They were sending out notifications about first aid, how you will not be judged just helped, and that you could just go there to chill out, the police stayed back and kept a watchful eye over the crowd.

As the X Wing was built on stage and Calvin Harris started to warm up, I could see why they had bought the stage so far forward. It was intimate, and the sound quality was outstanding for the RnA, which is prone to bad sound due to wind.

Calvin Harris came on and I was instantly transported back to 2014 as he dropped one after another of his classic tracks! His set was far more house orientated than I was expecting, but it was the perfect mix of house undertones with classic Calvin tracks that had the whole crowd singing along.

As Calvin came to an end, I have to say I was left wanting more - I was expecting a little more from him. Maybe some new music/edits, I still had a great time but I was hoping for more.

Surprisingly, the crowd emptied as we waited for Armin Van Buuren, I can only assume they were heading to Alison Wonderland. Armin came on and played a set as only Armin can! This was my 3rd time seeing Armin this year and it was a completely different set to Tomorrowland and Balaton Sound. It was really made for the Brisbane crowd with a mix of Electro, Bigroom, Trance, HardTrance and he closed on some Hardstyle.

This was by far the best event I have been to in a very long time, maybe even ever in Brisbane!!

Festival X Brisbane set of the day:

Gene: Armin van Buuren

Kylie: Calvin Harris

Festival X Sydney Marco Bombaci & Oliver Liwanag

Sydneysiders have been waiting for the return of a multi stage event like Festival X. Dubbed as the Stereosonic replacement, this event did not disappoint. When you have big Australian promoters like Hardware, Symbiotic, Onelove, all joining forces - we were all in for a treat!

Our crew strolled in nice and easy at around 2pm - not long after the gates opened. We were greeted by a friendly security team backed by a heavy Police presence, that were rather friendly as well and carrying on with their duties. This truly set the tone and overall mood for the day.

Although it was quite early in the day, partygoers strolled through the gates in the masses! The general consensus was that there was a hint of the old Stereosonic vibe, but already better in many ways. It seemed as though everything was well organised and thought out, and without any major incidents, we knew that this festival was a game changer for Sydney. The first thing we did was take a look at the layout, and familiarise ourselves with the stages. The stage designs and audio were a big step up from past events we had attended at the Showgrounds. The Oxygen stage, hosted by Symbiotic was by far our favourite in terms of production and audio set up.

For me (Marco) it was all about the Oxygen and Helix stage - all the Trance, Techno/house I could cram in the day, the better! We parked ourselves at the Oxygen stage for the majority of the day, and when I had the opportunity I dashed over to the Helix stage for my techno and house fix.

The Oxygen stage, hosted and curated by Symbiotic in Hall 2, proved to be a popular with revellers, with a solid crowd present to witness some big names, including Trance maestro Giuseppe Ottaviani, Trance stalwarts Cosmic Gate, Psytrance leaders Vini Vici and homegrown hero MarLo. Not to be overshadowed though, the likes of Ruben de Ronde and Futurecode (Ben Gold and Omnia) warmed up the crowd with a mix of classics, vocal uplifting trance and progressive along with their own releases.

A welcome surprise, came in the form of the Sunset Bros, whose set not only drew a sizable crowd, but got them going absolutely mental. It was no surprise that Giuseppe Ottaviani delivered some proper pure trance that had everyone with the hands in the air in utter euphoria. Cosmic Gate delivered what we have come to expect from them over the last twenty years - a consistently solid Trance set, complete with classics such as Exploration Of Space.

I quickly separated from the rest of the crew to catch Nic Fanciulli and Paul Kalkbrenner at the Helix stage. It was nice to chill out to some house tunes played by Nic, followed by some techno from Paul Kalkbrenner, I found it to be a nice juxtaposition. The sun was coming down and the tunes were getting heavier!

I made sure I was back for Aussie trance legend, MaRLo - closing out the oxygen stage with lots of energy and pyro. Great production mixed with killer sets ensured that the Oxygen stage and Symbiotic succeeded in giving Sydney Trance fans what they needed, something to get them excited for Transmission!

Giants Stadium was absolutely packed for the start of Calvin Harris, as fans poured in to get a glimpse of the artist who has not toured Australia for 5 years. Planting our selves stage left, we could feel the excitement. Calvin delivered a set filled with some of his biggest tracks, many in collaboration with Pop music's biggest names. We had "One Kiss" featuring Dua Lipa, "This Is What You Came For" featuring Rihanna, "Promises" featuring Sam Smith, "I Need Your Love" featuring Ellie Goulding, "Sweet Nothing" featuring Florence Welch - and the list goes on. The crowd were treated to a set complete with bangers that have shaped EDM and pop music over the last decade. But it was when Calvin dropped tracks such "Summer", "Under Control" and "Flashback" that really satisfied myself and the thousands of Sydney revellers that evening. Calvin came and went and with that a good portion of the crowd too, leaving us plenty of room to witness the King of Trance, Armin Van Buuren.

Armin played a great mainstage set, powerful and a good balance between tracks from his new album, and some classics. It was amazing when he played MaRLo’s track, "Lighter than Air", with everyone with their phones out, and an appearance from the man himself. The crowd went crazy during "Blah Blah Blah". Ending the night with a bang with fireworks set off around the stadium, a nice touch to what was a successful day, a moment Sydney needed and left us hungry for more!

Festival X Sydney set of the day:

Marco: Futurecode and Sunset Bros

Oliver: Giuseppe Ottaviani and Sunset Bros

Festival X Melbourne - Bianca Tavitian

If there are two things you can bank on with a Melbourne festival crowd, is that come opening time, there is always a mass waiting for those gates to open, and that the rain will absolutely never stop us from dancing the day away.

Sunday was no different; I ensured that we were en route to the long awaited Festival X at Melbourne Showgrounds no later than 11.30am, to make sure we were walking through the gates, straight to the opening act.

Melbourne was one of the two states to be blessed with the EPIC Trance line up held on Oxygen stage, presented by Symbiotic, and they delivered the goods with their Melbourne opening artist - none other than our local superstar, Marcus Santoro.

However, things were not going to plan; with main gates not open until 12.20pm, we were left wondering did we get the times wrong?

Once the doors opened, the police presence inside was none like I had seen before in my decade of festival; masses and masses of ladies and gents in blue, but not once did we feel threatened, or as though it were festival goers versus police.

With the small hiccup of opening times not being adhered to, we found that this was what was the only disorganized part of what was to be one of the best festivals Australia has hosted in a long time!

It’s been a long time (circa Stereosonic days) when we could park ourselves on the rail in a Trance stage and not move for close to 5 hours; with SUCH a strong line up going back to back (Marcus, Futurecode, Ruben, Sunset Bros, Giuseppe, Cosmic Gate) there wasn’t a need to remember a whole festival was happening outside of Melbourne’s infamous Shed 4.

Special mention goes to Sunset Bros - it's not often that artists open their sets with their BIGGEST song of the year (arguably, of all time), then continue to deliver a set as equally high energy during the middle and closing, as the beginning was!!!

The moment we heard:

'Hallelujah, I love you... You ready? Cause I couldn't be happier than right now'

My whole group looked at each other, shocked that the Sydney duo were opening with "I'm Feeling It", and just watched the crowd whip out their phones, ready to record the exact moment the beat dropped, which saw Shed 4 take full flight, as the electricity fell off the Richter scale!

Leaving Shed 4 and walking to mainstage to see none other than the GOAT, Armin van Buuren, I was really impressed with the crowd around me - no over intoxicated souls, no riff raff, everyone just genuinely stoked that we finally had a chance to bring back our festival culture. And as the excitement levels peaked as Armin opened with “Revolution”, the crowd, no matter the age, were ready to dance the next hour away.

Having seen Armin play 2 previous times this year, with the last one being his legendary 8 hour set at Untold (Romania), most people asked how I could watch his 1 hour sets after having lived through a full 8 hours of him. But no matter the set length, Armin will always take you on a melodic journey, filled with energetic drops, punchy sing-a-longs and the feeling of never wanting to stop dancing. It just solidifies that the man can do no wrong, no matter where in the world you see him play.

We then ran back to Oxygen to see Vini Vici play "Great Spirit", because who doesn’t love shouting a bunch of random lyrics to just belt out HEY HEY HEYYY A-HEY-AHO, and then quickly over to Flux to support our girl Alison Wonderland.

Flux, the house of Trap/Dubstep artists, allowed us to catch the end of Tchami, who closed of his set with throw down, after throw down. Which only then proceeded to Alison's opening to carry on the same trap drops, and continuing what we had finished at Tchami.

And finally, the man of the hour. The last time I saw Calvin was 2014 in both Vegas and at Stereosonic, and boy, was this set just one HUGE nostalgic throwback.

Calvin absolutely delivered, playing every single song that defined his career, leaving me overcome with happiness, as I danced and sung to every song for an hour straight. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be the best production, or an artist with the latest and greatest tracks to fill your heart with emotion, and Calvin did exactly that. I had been so excited, and had goosebumps thinking about what he would bring to his Festival X set, and boy, did I leave one happy girl.

But, there was one moment that set apart Festival X Melbourne to the rest of the Australian’s shows, and that was right back to Oxygen stage, where Symbiotic had announced earlier in the day, a special B2B set!

And boy, what a B2B that was! When the whole day’s stage line up goes B2B, it suddenly turns from your standard B2B, to one hell of a closing set party!

Festival X Melbourne set of the day:

Bianca: Ruben de Ronde and Sunset Bros

Overall, we at Behind The Decks all agreed that Festival X has set a new standard for EDM festivals here in Australia. We just hope that they can continue the momentum of a killer, multi stage/genre line up for many years to come.