With just a few months til they celebrate their 21st birthday alongside the likes of Grinderman, Gang Gang Dance, Kurt Vile and Cut Copy, we asked the good folk at Meredith Music Festival to look back at their top five festival moments of all time. From serendipitously timed thunder storms to nude world records and a masterclass in party care of Andrew WK, these are but some of the moments that make Meredith so special and unlike any other music festival in Australia. Take it away Aunty…
THE HUNDRED YEAR STORM
2004. Unseasonal tropical nastiness had pushed South and made Victoria a cauldron of storm activity for one dramatic week. Friday night Meredith got smashed by cyclonic winds and sideways pelting rain. The site was soggy and boggy. But it stayed warm. We scrambled to recover and get going again, and by Saturday afternoon it was Meredith-as-usual. Then Saturday night around dusk an even nastier-looking storm front (the type known as “The Anvil”) approached, just as Dirty Three took the stage. It looked waaaay uglier than the day before. Then as the band started winding up, the wind got up, the temperature dropped, lightning cracked over nearby fields and it all felt a bit diabolical. The tense expectation in the crowd was palpable. Then somehow, just as it got above us, the storm split and slid around either side of the Amphitheatre. So Dirty Three played like men possessed (as they do), with the backdrop of a giant electrical storm; a vast bruised sky and regular lightning cracks lighting up the entire district, bringing gasps from the crowd each time. You could live a hundred years and never experience anything like it. Astonishing.
This video doesn’t do it justice but its all we got.
MEREDITH REFUSES DEFEAT
In mid 1996, co-founder Chris Nolan was working in Hanoi when he suffered a multi-organ collapse and fell into a coma. Meredith is held on the Nolan farm. The news devastated his friends and family, and understandably it had an impact on the festival; after five glorious years the Meredith Music Festival had to be abandoned. As the weeks went by, people close to Chris and indeed his family decided maybe the best thing was to go ahead after all. So with only ten weeks to prepare, the local community rallied, the site was prepared, bands were booked and Meredith rode on. Chris emerged from the coma some time later, and 1996 remains the only Meredith festival he has missed. These days he can be found up the back of the Amphitheatre in ‘The Nolan Stand’ with his parents Mary and Jack who receive a steady stream of well wishers wanting to acknowledge and thank Chris for all the good times they have had. Although he can’t actually see them or talk to them, he hears, understands and appreciates it.
JK RUNS 210 KMS NUDE TO GET TO MEREDITH
The Meredith Gift is a nude footrace that takes place on the Sunday. In 2001 entrant JK came second. In 2002 he came second again after tripping at the last second having led from the start. In 2003 he won, only for the race to be declared void after several contestants ‘broke’. It broke his heart and he retired. Then in 2004 he decided to make an attempt on the World Nude Running Record. If he could get from Langwarrin to Meredith he’d claim the World Title – 210 kms. He started running a couple of weeks prior to the fest and reports came through at regular intervals that he was on track. Then two days before Meredith he suffered a foot injury and all looked lost. At the festival word got round that he was within 10kms of the site on Sunday morning… and at about 3pm, to the wild cheers of 10,000 teary, emotional people, JK limped into the Amphitheatre, and claimed the title. He took the stage to the strains of Chariots Of Fire. “How do you feel?” asked the MC. “Pretty fucked”. Champion.
ANDREW WK INSPIRES
2007. We’d been in conversation with Andrew WK about ‘doing something’ at Meredith. The budget didn’t stretch far enough to fly his whole band out to play, and we’d seen him do a sort of ‘lecture’ in the US that was pretty amazing. So we asked him if he’d do something like that, he was keen but also wanted to play some music, so it was agreed and he took the stage Saturday afternoon. He walked on, didn’t say anything for ten minutes, and played very occasional notes on the synthesizer which was the only equipment on stage. The big, happy crowd went quiet. Blank. Then a bit disquiet. Things got tense because… well… nothing much happened. The air of expectation was so thick you could cut it. And just at about the point when it was going to all fall over, Andrew started ramping things up. First some electronic drums on the keyboards. Then some wild piano soloing. Then things built and built and built, and BAM! in kicked a full band recording to his hits and WHAM Andrew was standing on the punter barrier, exhorting everyone to PARTY HARD. It turned into the greatest, most fun, unified moment yet seen in the Supernatural Amphitheatre. Then he delivered a short ‘motivational lecture’ and dived into the crowd who surfed him aloft for the remainder of the song. Incredible.
NEIL FINN
Meredith 2010. Sunset Saturday. Neil Finn stands backstage, “do I just walk on?” “Yep – old school” says the Stage Manager. He’s playing solo to 10,000 people. He walks out, smiles to the crowd, picks up his guitar. “Can you be my band tonight?”; crowd says yes. They provide the rhythmic track to ‘I Got You’, it goes really well. Second comes ‘One Step Ahead’, crowd loving it now. For the next hour the biggest singalong ever heard out there goes down. The most joyful passionate singing you could hear. The sun sets, we get a string of incredible songs, theres joy in the air, couples sway, grown men cry. For ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ Warren Ellis from Dirty Three walks on and plays the middle eight on violin, planned backstage impromptu. Place goes crazy. ‘Fall At Your Feet’ is a bittersweet triumph. Neil gets a guy named “Matthew” out of the crowd to play guitar, gets the biggest applause of the day “Matthew’s sorted tonight” cracks Neil. Finishes with ‘Better Be Home Soon’. It’s hard to really describe how just wonderful this moment was. It was perfect. Religious.
Meredith takes place on the 9th, 10th and 11th of December.
General tickets on sale from September 1, please see www.mmf.com.au for details.
