Sunset Sounds 2011 @ The Riverstage: Day 2, 06.01.2011

First published on Collapse Board (13.01.2011).

It’s traditional for street press reviewers to miss opening acts and then use their limited word count to tell the world that there were ‘public transport issues’.This precedent has obviously rubbed off on me, but with Sunset Sounds I managed to take it to a new level and due to a mix up of the festival dates and dates for flying back from Europe manage to miss the whole of Day 1. Missing 50 per cent would have been bad enough as it is, but Sunset Sounds 2011 was the most front-loaded festival line-up I’ve ever seen so it was more like missing more than 85 per cent of the interesting things to photograph and acts that I’d never photographed before. Missing Day 1 meant missing Interpol, Public Enemy, Sleigh Bells, The National, Ladyhawke and Kitty, Daisy And Lewis. Being there for Day 2 meant I got to photograph The Living End and Washington. .. again.

On the upside, missing Day 1 meant missing the torrential storm that swept through for most of the day, although it was still raining almost constantly on Day 2 and the place was an absolute mud bath. As with others, it’s hard not to be concerned what impact the two-day festival may have on the use of the Botanical Gardens as a music venue in the future; it’s going to take some time for the place to recover.

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