Southbound 2013 - Busselton, 4-5th January 2013
Words: Catherine Parrish

Southbound Festival has successfully concluded its two-day camping extravaganza for its ninth year running. The 18+ event drew a crowd of around 22,500 people over two consecutive days at Sir Stewart Bovell Park in Busselton the past weekend: a slight increase from last year according to promoters Sunset Events. Weather conditions were fine and sunny for both days of the festival, with a coastal breeze keeping Saturday’s high temperature of 34 degrees bearable out in the open. Campers were admitted just after 8am on Friday morning, allowing those who showed up early to camp closest to the stage without having to trek through the city of tents that were pitched by the hundred throughout the day.
Returning to Southbound this year was the Strongbow boat deck, Carlton Dry VIP bar and HBF Health Haven with aircon, free icey poles and an intense game of table tennis battle between San Cisco and Loon Lake. New sponsorship from Vodka Crusier brought their House Party structure from the east coast, providing patrons with the chance to enjoy a drink in the shade and overlook to two main stages; The Sunny Stage and The Share Stage.
There was also plenty of gourmet food stalls for all your catering needs, a huge merchandise tent and artist signing table, a silent auction for signed equipment by the performing artists and the Ecobound program which offered Green Money Vouchers in exchange for recyclable bottles and cans. The giant 20 foot “SB” infrastructure designed for holding used cans was full once again by the end of the festival.
Returning to Southbound this year was the Strongbow boat deck, Carlton Dry VIP bar and HBF Health Haven with aircon, free icey poles and an intense game of table tennis battle between San Cisco and Loon Lake. New sponsorship from Vodka Crusier brought their House Party structure from the east coast, providing patrons with the chance to enjoy a drink in the shade and overlook to two main stages; The Sunny Stage and The Share Stage.
There was also plenty of gourmet food stalls for all your catering needs, a huge merchandise tent and artist signing table, a silent auction for signed equipment by the performing artists and the Ecobound program which offered Green Money Vouchers in exchange for recyclable bottles and cans. The giant 20 foot “SB” infrastructure designed for holding used cans was full once again by the end of the festival.
Day 1 - Friday
Friday brought 31 bands across both Sunny and Share Stages, including fan favourites Emperors, Ball Park Music, Matt Corby, Django Django, The Vaccines, San Cisco, Hot Chip, Coolio, SBTRKT, The Hives and The Flaming Lips.
Despite their early afternoon time slot, Ball Park Music pulled a relatively large crowd to the Sunny Stage for their set. Often heard on Triple J, Ball Park performed favourites Fence Sitter, Coming Down, and Surrender. Matt Corby wooed his crowd with his raw singing
Friday brought 31 bands across both Sunny and Share Stages, including fan favourites Emperors, Ball Park Music, Matt Corby, Django Django, The Vaccines, San Cisco, Hot Chip, Coolio, SBTRKT, The Hives and The Flaming Lips.
Despite their early afternoon time slot, Ball Park Music pulled a relatively large crowd to the Sunny Stage for their set. Often heard on Triple J, Ball Park performed favourites Fence Sitter, Coming Down, and Surrender. Matt Corby wooed his crowd with his raw singing

talent, rugged good looks and acoustic guitar ensemble. His most popular single, Brother, had an echo that ranged back as far as the campsite. Django Django took the stage at 3:20pm, and was followed by a surprisingly funny comedy set from comedians Felicity Ward, Luke Heggie and Matt Okine.
Local act San Cisco won the bigger crowd at the Share Stage over The Vaccines, and earned much of their enthusiasm during hit-single Wild Things and fan favourite Fred Astaire. Hot Chip did not meet audience expectations when it appeared a lot of show-goers had chosen their set time as an opportunity to grab some dinner instead. Their closing song, I Feel Better, was an extended and altered version to the recorded version, and thus earned little interest from their crowd. Following Hot Chip was Sydney-siders Boy & Bear, but most attendees had started to drift towards the Share Stage where hip-hop legend Coolio was performing. There was an enormous response to Gangster’s Paradise, but less excitement was shared throughout the remainder of his set.
Triple J unearthed artist Flume entertained listeners with a psychedelic and entwining set; perfect for winding down as the sun began to set. Swedish band The Hives stormed the Sunny Stage dressed to impress in black and white tuxedos and top-hats. “Hello! We are the Hives and we are here to fuck shit up!” vocalist Pete “Howlin’” Almqvist introduced himself after opening their set with the first track
Local act San Cisco won the bigger crowd at the Share Stage over The Vaccines, and earned much of their enthusiasm during hit-single Wild Things and fan favourite Fred Astaire. Hot Chip did not meet audience expectations when it appeared a lot of show-goers had chosen their set time as an opportunity to grab some dinner instead. Their closing song, I Feel Better, was an extended and altered version to the recorded version, and thus earned little interest from their crowd. Following Hot Chip was Sydney-siders Boy & Bear, but most attendees had started to drift towards the Share Stage where hip-hop legend Coolio was performing. There was an enormous response to Gangster’s Paradise, but less excitement was shared throughout the remainder of his set.
Triple J unearthed artist Flume entertained listeners with a psychedelic and entwining set; perfect for winding down as the sun began to set. Swedish band The Hives stormed the Sunny Stage dressed to impress in black and white tuxedos and top-hats. “Hello! We are the Hives and we are here to fuck shit up!” vocalist Pete “Howlin’” Almqvist introduced himself after opening their set with the first track

from their newest album, Lex Hives. Almqvist made a point to ignore set times and boundaries (“Do I look like a give a fuck about playing over time?”) by having conversations with the audience, and even asked everybody to sit down at one point (which they surprisingly all did!). The Hive’s set ran over by ten minutes but without complaint after delivering such an exciting and electrifying performance.
British DJ SBTRKT (pronounced “Subtrack”, for all those asking) kept pumping electronic sounds at the Share Stage for over an hour while The Flaming Lips, a popular rock group from the 1990’s, had front-man Wayne Coyne rolling onto the Sunny Stage in a giant inflatable ball. Cruising over the open palms of the crowd, people jumped forward to touch their very own vocalist-in-a-bubble. A few minutes later and there were dozens of multi-colored smaller balls thrown between the crowd and the stage, as well as a mass explosion of streamers and confetti. The biggest controversy of the festival occurred when the giant “laser hands” props used a part of their set were stolen, but later found abandoned in a field after the band put out a plea to find them in exchange for VIP passes. DJ Alison Wonderland closed as the final performance for the day on the Share Stage for all those party-goers still bound with energy, but most found themselves slugging back to their tents for a semi-decent night’s sleep.
British DJ SBTRKT (pronounced “Subtrack”, for all those asking) kept pumping electronic sounds at the Share Stage for over an hour while The Flaming Lips, a popular rock group from the 1990’s, had front-man Wayne Coyne rolling onto the Sunny Stage in a giant inflatable ball. Cruising over the open palms of the crowd, people jumped forward to touch their very own vocalist-in-a-bubble. A few minutes later and there were dozens of multi-colored smaller balls thrown between the crowd and the stage, as well as a mass explosion of streamers and confetti. The biggest controversy of the festival occurred when the giant “laser hands” props used a part of their set were stolen, but later found abandoned in a field after the band put out a plea to find them in exchange for VIP passes. DJ Alison Wonderland closed as the final performance for the day on the Share Stage for all those party-goers still bound with energy, but most found themselves slugging back to their tents for a semi-decent night’s sleep.
Day 2 – Saturday

An early sunrise and soaring temperatures come Saturday morning made it impossible for campers to sleep in their tents any later than 7:30am. Long shower lines made conversation with other hung-over campers easy, while others stood in line for the shuttle-bus into Busselton for a bite to eat.
Saturday’s line up had another 31 bands to showcase, and early birds had the chance to watch The Love Junkies, Stillwater Giants, Jinja Safari and The Art Of Sleeping till noon. Highlights of the mid afternoon included First Aid Kit’s cover of ABBA’s Chiquitata, Maximo Park’s Books From Boxes, and Best Coast’s summer anthem, The Only Place.
Australian Idol success Lisa Mitchell captivated her audience with her sweet tunes and battering her eyelashes. Performing a majority of tracks from her new album, Bless This Mess, Lisa Mitchell was definitely a Saturday crowd favourite and photographers delight. Bombay Bicycle Club and Angus Stone were a difficult clash, but both dispersed an equally receptive audience. Cosmo Jarvis’s Gay Pirates, a love song in pirate terminology, was plenty enjoyable by all.
Probably the most unusual and surprising act of all was Rodrigo Y Gabriela, a Mexican instrumental-rhythmic acoustic guitar duo. Their amazing demonstration of talent and genuine entertainment made this set one of the best across the entire festival. Independent Australian singer song-writer Bertie Blackman dominated the Share Stage after sundown, while Beach House almost put everybody to sleep on the Sunny Stage (or at least into a relaxing power-nap on the grass). Electronic New Yorkers Ajax spun an hour long set from 8:40pm and Hilltop Hoods, who just earlier announced via Facebook that their Southbound set would be their “last for a while”, had everybody jumping off their feet to a number of hits. One could only imagine that their tour hiatus makes time for the recording of their seventh album, Walking Under Stars.
As Saturday came close to Sunday, Parachute Youth and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs kept up the electronic beats for the
Saturday’s line up had another 31 bands to showcase, and early birds had the chance to watch The Love Junkies, Stillwater Giants, Jinja Safari and The Art Of Sleeping till noon. Highlights of the mid afternoon included First Aid Kit’s cover of ABBA’s Chiquitata, Maximo Park’s Books From Boxes, and Best Coast’s summer anthem, The Only Place.
Australian Idol success Lisa Mitchell captivated her audience with her sweet tunes and battering her eyelashes. Performing a majority of tracks from her new album, Bless This Mess, Lisa Mitchell was definitely a Saturday crowd favourite and photographers delight. Bombay Bicycle Club and Angus Stone were a difficult clash, but both dispersed an equally receptive audience. Cosmo Jarvis’s Gay Pirates, a love song in pirate terminology, was plenty enjoyable by all.
Probably the most unusual and surprising act of all was Rodrigo Y Gabriela, a Mexican instrumental-rhythmic acoustic guitar duo. Their amazing demonstration of talent and genuine entertainment made this set one of the best across the entire festival. Independent Australian singer song-writer Bertie Blackman dominated the Share Stage after sundown, while Beach House almost put everybody to sleep on the Sunny Stage (or at least into a relaxing power-nap on the grass). Electronic New Yorkers Ajax spun an hour long set from 8:40pm and Hilltop Hoods, who just earlier announced via Facebook that their Southbound set would be their “last for a while”, had everybody jumping off their feet to a number of hits. One could only imagine that their tour hiatus makes time for the recording of their seventh album, Walking Under Stars.
As Saturday came close to Sunday, Parachute Youth and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs kept up the electronic beats for the

dedicated dance party people, while Irish indie rock band Two Door Cinema Club took the Sunny Stage as the last act of the festival. Two Door has a highly animated stage presence that held the eye of tired punters and kept them from retiring to their tents. Singles Sun, Sleep Alone, and What You Know evoked cheering and plenty of sing-alongs as show-goers lapped up the last of their Southbound 2013 experience.
There were a number of honorable and charitable goods from the attendees at Southbound that effortlessly increased the value of the camping experience. A man dressed in a summer Santa suit told me to “be good” during my time at the festival before handing over a Green Money drink voucher. A group of campers with ice-cold water pistols were patrolling the path from tents to stages, shooting cool water onto the shoulders of anybody who was looking sun-burnt. A girl, who found $10 on the ground, stopped and asked nearby campers if anybody had dropped the note before pocketing it herself.
A huge thanks to Sunset Events for providing the south-west with such a fun, enjoyable and safe event that delivers such an overwhelming and positive crowd of music-lovers.
There were a number of honorable and charitable goods from the attendees at Southbound that effortlessly increased the value of the camping experience. A man dressed in a summer Santa suit told me to “be good” during my time at the festival before handing over a Green Money drink voucher. A group of campers with ice-cold water pistols were patrolling the path from tents to stages, shooting cool water onto the shoulders of anybody who was looking sun-burnt. A girl, who found $10 on the ground, stopped and asked nearby campers if anybody had dropped the note before pocketing it herself.
A huge thanks to Sunset Events for providing the south-west with such a fun, enjoyable and safe event that delivers such an overwhelming and positive crowd of music-lovers.