Words by Sam Elliott and Matilda Elliott.

Vintage Vibes festival made a big impact for it’s very first iteration. We were very pleased to make our way to the festival as this was our maiden voyage to the city of churches. 

The atmospheric experience of the festival was nothing short of merry, with a HUGE lineup of local treasures combined with veterans of the Australian music festival circuit. Whilst there were some slight hiccups on the festival’s timings, we cannot fault this festival as we left feeling incredibly at peace and with a collective, harmonious gratitude for good tunes and excellent people to connect with.

What we liked and thought was a real interesting approach to this festival, was the decision on the way the acts were presented. We would go from high-energy rockers or EDM talents pumping the crowd up, having them dancing or moving around, to slower, thoughtful, peaceful musicians right after. It was quite a funny feeling as a punter, leaving sweaty from one set and then leaving covered with goosebumps from another set, from being emotionally moved! A really different way of set, which was very cool. 

Starting off the festival a little later than we anticipated was West The Barton - South Aussie hard hitters who are cult faves in the Aussie punk scene, getting more well-deserved recognition. “Fuck all that slow shit! Let’s do some Rock n’ Roll.” West the Barton lead singer jeers heartily into the mic. We loved running straight into the festival into the magic created by the seven members of West the Barton. After the set, we bumped into a lovely lady who complimented our crocs, and we got to chatting about the set. She exchanged some deep cut songs from West the Barton for us to listen to as the fellas came from around where she lived. We of course had to join in this music swap, recommending our very own Western Sydney champions, Pist Idiots.

The afternoon became a haze of Donny Benet, beautiful saxophone solos and groovy sing and dance along tracks. We spotted a quirky couple grooving along heartily to Mr. Bennett and his band and felt almost like we wanted to capture the moment for them and film it, we decided against it but, the couple made US feel like we were watching a quirky rom com starring two unlikely lovers.

The legend that is Leo Sayer, came through as the sun began to set and he had the whole crowd eating out of the palm of his hand, dancing and singing with him. Young and older, all could agree we were in the presence of an icon. Singing with a chorus of locals from Adelaide, the singer sauntered through his legendary catalog of songs.   This is the first time we’ve had the pleasure of watching Leo, and we couldn’t get over his energy. The man is an enigma! 

“I’m 75, you can rock until you drop!” Shouts Leo. A brilliant reminder that you’re only as old as you feel, and that you shouldn’t let age stop you doing what you love.

Following Leo, we were privileged to experience an astonishing Welcome to Country. As we mentioned earlier, it can’t all be sunshine and rainbows. Unfortunately, The Babe Rainbow’s set that was cut extremely short was a prime example of this. 

We are a little unsure if it was a time constraint, organisational hiccups or what, but we were very disappointed with the outcome meaning that the blonde band of brilliance could only play two songs. The Babe Rainbow took to this like champs though and the songs they played were excellent and had the whole crowd swaying and synchronised. Their energy was also off the charts as the members were jumping toward the stage roof with big cheesy grins. 

Although we call ourselves avid King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard fans, it was interesting to note that this set was one with only a handful of songs we were particularly familiar with. We attribute this to the bands abundance of releases ons recent times. Between touring, recording, more touring and more recording we wonder when the fellas have a chance to scratch themselves.

The lead singer coos gently into the strange, reminding everyone to take care of one another, and to not be idiots in the crowds and to take care of everyone when moshing. 

“This definitely is one of our more mellow shows, though!” He grins. 

King Gizzard are right. Although the crowd are electrified and their glassy eyeballs are glued to the stage hanging of every beat the icons are throwing at them, this definitely is one of the more tame Gizz shows we have seen. We’ve been lucky enough to catch them for a few sets now and we’ve seen it all in the mosh, think death circles, crazy moshing, unified dancing and jumping and of course, a funky smell filling the air. 

The set had us entranced. We loved watching the passion they all have and their phenomenal level of excellence in their instruments. We’re revising our Gizz knowledge as we speak.

To end the night, we were whisked away into the psychedelic and funky realm of Tash Sultana. At this stage we had gotten into a massive deep and meaningful conversation with a gent who was also wearing crocs about all things psychology, ideology and the universe as a whole. Tash served as the perfect enabler for such discussion as she became one with her instrumentals and her vocals, gliding across the stage like an enchanted sprite bringing music to the masses. Tash ended her set with Notion and Jungle, which set the crowd into a frenzy. For Notion. our newly formed supergroup had our arms tightly wrapped around each other swaying along to the tunes. By the time Jungle began, we had all discussed and decided what jungle animal we would dance as for the duration of the song (if you’re curious - Sam was a Tiger and Matilda was a Macaw). 

On the last day of the festival, San Cisco start off their set with Skin, setting the crowd into fits of euphoria. The tight-knit crowd did not initially mix well with our platform crocs as we started to fall and sway with the crowd. Sam used a chain-smoking young man for stability and Matilda held onto our tall bestie to stabilise. There was not one person who did not have a smirk plastered across their face for the entire duration of San Cisco’s set as they played their bountiful catalogue of hits and amazing deep cuts. Devoted fans did not stray away from any words or the groove exuded by the band themselves. 

Angus and Julia Stone stole away our evening with a bit of magic as the sibling duo giggled and reminisced on the good and not so good times. 

Gang of Youths finished up the weekend for Vintage Vibes’ fist iteration. We were lucky enough to get to see them in August last year for their arena tour, but were yet to see their full festival set, so were excited to experience their set. They of course did not disappoint, playing crowd-favourite with fans laughing and crying throughout the whole set. Gang of Youths left the stage with an important message, stating that we all need to “love one another, and treat everyone with respect.” 

Vintage Vibes impressed us a lot in its initial run. We cannot wait to watch this festival grow and continue to prosper over the years.