Good Vibrations @ Gold Coast Parklands, 19.02.2011 – Part 2

As the day goes by, the numbers at Parklands increase to a respectable number, and there’s a decent number at each of the stages.  I’ve never seen some many shirt-off bogans and chest tattoos in all my life though.

Highlight of the second half of the day is Kelis, who, as with Erykah Badu, has brought the style and the bling with her.  Faithess and Phoenix close out the two main stages and both prove to be worthy headliners.  Photographing the two headliners poses a different set of problems for each.  Whereas the height of the main stage makes physically photographing Faithless an issue, despite the good lighting, Phoenix play mostly in the dark for the three songs that we get to photograph.  Although I’ve seen both bands before, part of me wants to stay and see more of their sets.  However, knowing that I’ve got to get the train back and edit and submit the photos means I don’t stay after Phoenix’s first three songs, and I find that even though I’ve been working and didn’t pay to get in, I’m not the only one leaving the site not long after the headliners have started playing, with another 45 minutes left of their respective sets.

Where Good Vibrations goes next year is hard to say.  Having made the decision to bring in a two-for-one offer for most of the cities, even extending it to people who had already bought tickets, the organisers have left themselves in a very precarious situation if they are going to return in 2012.  With their ticket-base knowing that they can be forced into last minute measures to sell tickets, they can essentially hold the festival to ransom.  The only way that the organisers are going to be able to resolve this situation is to put together the dance music festival to end all dance music festivals.  Whether they will or not, whether they can or can’t will only been seen when they announce next year’s line-up. Even then, it might not be enough.

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