Words by Sam and Matilda Elliott

Splendour 2022. We had been waiting for this festival to come back since Covid had canned it in 2020 and caused many different date changes until this year. 

When we finally came back into the converted North Byron Parklands, it looked a little different; the grassy hills were now dark and sludgy, with some areas having mud so high and deep it felt like you were trudging through a jungle to get to your act!

We felt like Labradors, eagerly running to every set, sniffing out tunes and good vibes. For our piece, we simply couldn't put everyone in here, so we have decided to add some of our favourites, some old, some new, and some completely unexpected! 

The Jungle Giants

Our first day of music was surreal, and we felt this way. Festival goers were buzzing despite being covered in mud and rain. Dealing with soil, cold weather, broken tents, and foot ailments, we never want to see images of such things again. Everyone has a big smile. 

Walking into the Amphitheatre felt like returning to an old stomping ground you regulated as a teen. Familiar and special. The Jungle Giants emerge from backstage to a full amphitheatre, a remarkable feat for an afternoon set!

It was remarkable to finally see some of the Love Signs album played out; it is the newest instalment and was played passionately. The Jungle Giants played all their hits, old and new and even brought out the fantastic songstress Sycco to perform crowd favourite Treat You Right. 

What we always love to see in a festival set is the genuine love and appreciation from the bands to be there; the musicians are in the moment with thousands of packed punters yelling along to their music rather than simply running through the motions. The Jungle Giants seemed to be in disbelief and euphoria their whole set. The Jungle Giants' lead singer Sam shouted, “This is the best day of my life, Splendour!”

Oliver Tree

As the sun sets on our first day of music, out comes Oliver Tree, who is clad in his iconic bowl cut, bleach blonde mullet; he wizzes across the stage on his scooter, performing a trick that sends the punters into fits of screams and cheers. 

With a fake Aussie accent in full swing, Oliver Tree then begins his set with crowd favourite Alien Boy. Sam immediately hops on a lovely stranger's shoulders, painting his fresh stripy blue and white shirt with coats of mud from her gumboots. 

Oliver Tree then invites New Zealand DJ icon Whatsonot to the stage, who then performs a round of songs with the American icon. 

Although Mr Tree is quite a goofy character, with a set full of scooter tricks, bong ripping, WWE wrestle moves, outfit changes and him calling the audience ‘Cunts’ on more times that we could count, his music was simply entrancing. 

The giddiness and performative nature is all part of Oliver’s show; he is as goofy as he is musically talented. Oliver also had an exceptional amount of knowledge of his Aussie fan base, shouting well known slogans, referencing some Aussie cult faves such as the Hilltop Hoods, and even referencing Scomo’s infamous shitty situation in Engadine Maccas!

We couldn't help but have ridiculous grins plastered to our faces for the whole time, after every song he would shout in his best Australian/sounds more like an English accent… “Who wants to hear ONE more song?!?”

We do Mr Tree, we do!

Stella Donnelly:

Sprinting from another set, we felt extremely pleased to catch Stella Donnelly’s set. We are always in awe of the amount of heart and personalisation Stella is able to pepper into her tunes, whilst creating an all knowing feeling of universal comfort and understanding. 

A highlight of Stella’s set for us was her performance of her song Die, in which, Stella juxtaposed the subject matter of the song to some absolutely incredible gymnast type dance moves, her brilliant vocals filled up the mudded tent and made us all feel truly heard. 

This sense of unity further became enhanced when Stella covered Love is in the Air. Finally Stella closed with her classic tune, Tricks, which as always lifts our moods greatly, even whilst this song closed and we spent a good five minutes trying to dislodge our friend and her gumboot from the mud.

The Strokes

Headlining the first night of music was a big task; with punters slipping and sliding through sleet like rain and mud, it was not ideal circumstances. The Strokes opened with their The New Abnormal hit Bad Decisions, which Julian Casablancas lulled into the microphone with his signature chill flow. 

The set was a mix of old favourites and new tracks, which was refreshing yet odd. It was funny hearing New York City Cops meld into newer tracks such as Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus. Julian addresses the crowd softly with a fun vigor in his voice, mentioning the funny costumes he could see whilst playing with his shirt pocket. 

It felt extremely odd listening to The Strokes in a festival capacity for us; The New Abnormal, became the soundtrack to our lockdown; hearing the tracks in a new setting allowed our minds to feel free and create new and happier memories. For us, The Strokes almost felt like a mindfulness activity, listening to the tracks, we felt exactly where we needed to be and not disillusioned in any sense, we finally had Splendour back. 

Genesis Owusu

Finally becoming assimilated to the life we had created amongst the mud and wet patches, hoards of people clambered into the tent that would soon be occupied by four-time ARIA award winner and innovative music genius, Genesis Owusu. 

The crowd buzzed with speculation and anticipation. Soon those speculations were put to bed as Genesis levitated across the stage, fully emerging in a new era, leaving behind his wondrous SWNT era and cementing himself into his “roach” era. 

Genesis took the crowd through a vivacious journey of discovery, delicately flowing between playing favourites such as Gold Chains, Good Times, and Don’t Need You. However, the highlight of the set for us was seeing Genesis perform his new single coming from his new era of tunes, GTFO. 

When the delicate hymn-like song began, the entire tent fell privy to every word from Genesis’ mouth. “Free yourself from speech, all you gotta do is listen,” Genesis cooed as chills engulfed our bodies, as we all became deeper entranced by the song. With a world so focused on the “next best thing”, we are seeing now more than ever, artists are expected to be jacks of all trades. If they fail to appease our need for constant contentment, they will be left in disposition, asked to GTFO of the spotlight. We see this track as an ode to the minimised people, who do all they can to get to where they need to be by struggling through all adversity life throws their way to accomplish. 

We truly cannot wait to see what else will be accomplished with Genesis’ creative mind, along with the Black Dog Band, we can see world domination on the cards.

Duke Dumont:

To be completely transparent, Duke’s set wasn't one we had initially been itching to see, we had bopped along to his songs at any given fun time, and loved his work but it was not one we had penciled on our coveted list. 

With a bit of free time we begin to bumble to the Amphitheatere and the set begins with Duke's hit Red Light, Green Light. As the flurry of people begin to pack into the open-air stage, we start running to the set as we realise how silly we had been to have put this set on the back burner!

Duke Dumont is coolly standing at his station, smoking even while he plays his extensive list of hits. What made this set special was his use of visuals. The screens of the Amphitheatre became lazer like, cutting through punters and piercing across the sky of the Byron parklands. 

You couldn't help but dance and lose yourself in that moment, although one of the last sets of the night, and our bodies were close to conking out, we couldn't help but have a jive! We were glad to have stumbled across this set!

After watching Tyler The Creator close out the massive weekend that was Splendour in the Grass 2022, we felt truly warm. We have been Tyler fans way back from 2011. Being geeky high school kids in their school’s band who were for some reason bullied, in early high-school his music with Odd Future, and albums Goblin and Bastard really resonated with these shy dorks from Western Sydney. 

Seeing him perform old favourites and new hits will certainly become a core memory for us and simply one we will keep in our mind for a very long time. 

Although, we didn't get to see The Gorillaz or other favourites, and we were absolutely coated head to toe in mud (even our ears!), the lines of Saturday night for the bus home made us take to learning the skill of hitchhiking to avoid a 6 hour bus line, we truly had a blast at our Splendour weekender.

Our hearts go out to the real troopers who were the campers, although we became mud dwelling gremlins, we always had that sweet sweet shower and warm dry beds waiting for us in Ballina. We wonder if our review might have been a bit skewed if we were in the elements over those freezing nights.