Junae’s POV

Growing up back and forth between the city and countryside long entrenched a belief in me that urban and rural traits could never comfortably blend. This perception broke down when I moshed with Tokyoites to Gorillaz in the middle of the mountains and rivers at Fuji Rock Festival in 2017. This experience permanently shook my 14-year-old mind to its core, showing me how calm and chaos can coexist. Fuji Rock has consequently spoiled every music festival I’ve attended since, so when Farrago posted media release tickets to a similar three-day musical event, Meredith Music Festival, I key-smashed at my manager, skipping the formalities.

The days leading up felt like a lifetime (exam season did not help), but the travel time itself was surprisingly short. Lachie left the city at 10 AM and got there at 1 PM, whilst I started driving at around 11:30 AM to arrive only 30 minutes after him, cruising through a barely existent line and finding Lachie and the rest of our group just finishing unpacking. Lachie and I added each other to our respective lighthouses (“Find my” on IOS), which made it easier to track him and the rest of our team at our South Pines campsite. I brought my ¥1000 Coleman pop-up tent that I hadn’t used since Fuji Rock 2017, and whilst I’m not a camping expert, I can confidently say that it kept me and my belongings perfectly safe and unmelted from the scorching sun. Meredith also has a “no dickhead policy” that previous festivalgoers attest to, which continued its legacy for at least the safety of my valuables (my favourite blanket and overpriced skincare). 

To officially begin the festival was a smoking ceremony and a welcome to country that was unfortunately and upsettingly largely muffled out by the crowd. Folk Bitch Trio introduced a calmer atmosphere with their delicate harmonies that felt like a gentle start to the musical celebrations of the day. I left to grab lunch right after the end of their set, making my way to Eric’s Terrace to inhale a beef quesadilla that tasted similarly to way it gleamed under the Meredith Sun. Stepping out of the pit never felt like I was “leaving” any of the acts per se; I could still see and hear Saya Gray in the distance from my terrace view, adding immeasurable points to my first Meredith culinary experience.

Anxious to have a moment of everything Aunty had to provide, I power-walked over to Sunset Strip to have a peek at, you guessed it, the sunset. While the views themselves were beautiful, I felt a little overwhelmed by a crowd that was almost as packed as the one in the Amphitheatre, despite watching it alone. But with the scale of this festival, I am certain that I could have found myself a different location to resume my intimacy with the Sun. Afterwards, using the precise location my iPhone logged to accompany photos of me sitting proudly next to my tent, I navigated my way back to my temporary abode to powernap for my most anticipated act of Day 1.

My alarm set off at 1:40 AM, and I was accompanied by the skin on my arm vibrating, which I suspected was from shivering from the cold. But upon pulling down my layers, I found an abnormally bumpy forearm raging at me. By 2:23 AM I was cloaked in a space blanket, getting examined at the First Aid Station conveniently located 5 meters away from the Amphitheatre where I could hear Ninajirachi on full blast. Although my epidermis throwing a fit stopped me from being in the crowd, it did not stop me from being in awe of her stage presence that invaded the First Aid station. Lachie found me in a sound-resistant bunker after the set and chronicled how Ninajirachi’s set was probably “the best show of his life”, later taking the lead in navigating us back to our campsite.

I left soon after my release, still feeling like a burn victim and unclear about my persisting condition. If I can give one piece of unsolicited advice regarding this festival: bring your antihistamines, topical steroids, sprays, whatever. And Bring. More. Clothes. A sweater and blanket will not be enough. I thought I’d learned my lesson from camping in Tassie winter, but I was severely mistaken; bring that puffer jacket, bring that hot pack. I’m passing on the rest of this review to Lachie, whose experience as a full-fee paying, full-3-day experienced Meredith-goer better qualifies him to write about Day 2 and Day 3. 

Lachie’s POV

After Junae’s unfortunate departure in the wee hours of Saturday morning, the day nevertheless persisted as the festivalgoers began to settle into the rhythms of the music after a sensibly chaotic Friday night. Saturday morning was perhaps the most peaceful and invigorating part of Meredith, as the one-two punch of The City of Ballarat Municipal Brass Band and Melbourne ten-piece indie rock band Mouseatoillie serenaded those of us who were up early enough to enjoy them. The latter group were definitely a highlight of the weekend, because despite being one of the lesser-known acts on the lineup, the energy in the crowd was electric. Part of this could be attributed to the fact that the band having ten members meant that one in three audience members had some kind of social connection to them.

All of the weekend’s sets took place on a single stage, Meredith’s infamous Supernatural Amphitheatre (or the ‘Sup for short). As Saturday rolled on, the festival's heavy-hitters began to grace the ‘Sup, Chet Faker kicking off the evening with a surprisingly cathartic performance. My expectations for Faker were low, as I only knew of him from my father’s never-ending praise for his musical stylings, but he offered up a comforting and groovy series of numbers. After Faker came Bar Italia, a London-based rock act that the Meredith crowd did not especially latch onto. I was too inebriated to notice, but there seemed to be several technical difficulties that plagued the rock trio’s set, which culminated in their running overtime and missing out on performing their biggest hits. This was a shame, as the group did have a confident and engaging presence onstage at the amphitheatre.

Following Bar Italia was TV On the Radio, an American rock band that owned the longest non-DJ time slot at the festival. Meredith really started to come alive during their 70-minute set, the crowd swelled to previously unforeseen sizes as we began to relish in the increasingly frigid evening air. After TV On the Radio came the weekend’s breakout superstars, as three-piece J-Pop group ATARASHII GAKKO! brought the amphitheatre to a resting state of a load roar, as the bustling crowd lapped up the eclectic mix of genres that comprised the group’s electrifying set. After that night-defining set, Meredith DJs RONA., Haii, and Wax’O Paradiso captured the amphitheatre from 1 AM all the way through to 7 AM. As a middling enjoyer of the techno genre, most of these performances were lost on me, but nevertheless I lasted until about halfway through Haii’s set and managed to catch a bit of Wax’O Paradiso from the inside of the med tent on what became my second time visiting a fallen companion that weekend. 

Although I’ve taken a good stab at it, capturing the energy of what made Meredith such a special weekend is particularly difficult. While the never-ending stream of world-class acts certainly justifies attendance, there’s a particular sense of community in the air that makes the weekend something truly worthwhile. Being surrounded by such warm and carefree fellow festivalgoers was an incredibly enriching experience, and the atmosphere curated by returning amphitheatre customers has stoked a burning fire within me to become a festival regular and enjoy all that Aunty has to offer for years to come.