- Bush raves have long been entrenched in the Australian clubbing psyche. But over the years they've fallen out of easy reach for most of Sydney's population, replaced by an increasingly dominant, heavily produced festival presence. With its debut in December 2009, though, Subsonic has already cemented its place as a legitimate alternative to the travelling festivals that feature so prominently on the summer festival calendar, without sacrificing the accessibility that often goes astray whenever a drive longer than two hours from a capital city is required.
The areas surrounding Sydney are by no means lacking a landscape suitable for a bush party. Riverwood Downs, however, is in a league of its own. Travelling to and arriving at the Monkerai Valley, where the Subsonic site is situated, is a reward in itself. Stretching about 200kms north of Sydney, the path to the festival grounds winds through lush farmland and eucalypt forests, passing chicken farms and quirky small towns before a 20-minute crawl along an unsealed dirt road takes you to a kind of natural amphitheatre.
The festival site itself was phenomenal. The Main Stage, based at the foot of a series of rolling hills, was relatively straightforward. The other two, however, were a completely different story. The Soul Kitchen, which primarily played host to local artists, was situated on the secluded bank of a narrow creek, while the Market Stage, a few hundred metres away, had all the decorative hallmarks of a '90s bush doof—hanging decorations and totems—and attracted the corresponding demographic accordingly. The three stages were within easy reach of one another, but never conflicting sound-wise—something that's hard to ensure when relying on an area's natural terrain for aesthetic effect. And with three days of round-the-clock scheduling, the highlights were many. No one period of time was more consistently rewarding, though, than the 30-odd hours between Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening.
Sydney-based jock Schwa played an impromptu set to kickstart the Saturday night proceedings, and didn't hesitate pulling out the heavy-hitters, dropping Jamie Jones' "Ruckus" and Metro Area's "Miura" in a set that almost completely traversed the house spectrum. Over at the Market Stage, Germans Jens Bond and Gunnar Stiller played consecutive sets, both mixing up bobbing tech house and techno that was lapped up by a small crowd. Midnight came and went, and the Main Stage played host to the live, bass-heavy instrumental hip-hop of Melbourne-based New Zealander Opiou, which was eventually followed by the night's main drawcards, Extrawelt. The Hamburg-based duo played a raving techno set, with sounds spanning from the more minimal to the hands-in-the-air synth-based style they've become renowned for. The early hours came featured Boris Brechja, Phil Smart and RifRaf taking their respective crowds through to sunrise.
At 8 AM on Sunday, Antix took over the main stage with some of the finest minimal the weekend played host to, while dazed punters making the mid-morning walk from the camping grounds to the festival site were greeted with proto-dubstep booming from the Soul Kitchen. On the Main Stage, Tobias Thomas spun for two hours, dropping Superpitcher's anthemic "Rabbits in a Hurry" somewhere towards the end of his timeslot. The tech house of young German pair Heinrichs & Hirtenfellner then proved to be the day's surprise highlight, while an extended set from Michael Mayer followed, and, in typical Kompakt fashion, navigated through loopy techno and reductionist house.
In an Australian festival market that is rapidly reaching its capacity, Subsonic has set a new benchmark. The organisers have brought accessibility to an authentic bush party and, with their second showing, properly filled a void that, until now, New South Wales had been lacking.