- Pitch Music & Arts, which launched in 2017, is an incredibly ambitious undertaking that risked biting off more than it could chew. Diving into a first-year festival with around 7,000 attendees and Australia's biggest house and techno lineup in living memory, then following that up a year later with an even larger programme and thousands more ticket holders, could easily have gone wrong in a number of ways. It was a pleasant surprise, then, to find that, for the second year running, the team managed to build an authentic environment where dozens of the world's best dance music acts were given the time and space to properly express themselves.
After a three-hour drive west of Melbourne, followed by a decent stretch of corrugated dirt road, I arrived at the festival gates on day two of four to see a mini tornado ripping through the campgrounds, plucking up tents and flicking them away like they were plastic bags. High winds, inescapable heat and a serious lack of rain presented a classically Australian fight against the elements, with thick dust a pervasive feature of the weekend. Thankfully, like our national flora and fauna, Aussie festivalgoers are a hardy bunch, and this was a small price to pay for the location—a flat, sprawling plain dotted with massive gum trees and straw-coloured grass thats sits at the foot of the stunning Grampian Mountains.
The three generously spaced out stages—Béton Brut, Vanish Point and Electrum—gave the site a real sense of freedom. I headed to the brutalist-looking main stage (Béton Brut) for our first passage of music: Kim Ann Foxman, CC:DISCO and The Black Madonna, spread across eight hours. Foxman thundered in right out of the gate with some slamming acid, the dance floor a rainbow of motley dancers and bobbing doof sticks. (For the uninitiated, doof sticks are a central feature of Australian bush festivals, serving as navigational beacons for groups of friends as well as an outlet for mostly juvenile, drug-themed memes—Donald Bump, Kim Jong Untz and Thomas The Dank Engine were among this year's best.) CC:DISCO! got off to a measured start but was quickly met with love and adoration from the dance floor, particularly when Yothu Yindi's "Djäpana (Gapirri Mix)" got a look in. The Black Madonna stepped up with breathtaking confidence, dishing out a powerful three-hour session that peaked with a singalong of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love."
Considering Pitch's house and techno music policy, last year's aesthetic seemed slightly confused, incorporating some visual elements you'd expect to see at psytrance events—an easy trend to slip into in Australia. This year, though, the festival presented itself more confidently, with earthy tones and simplified stage builds that fell more in-line with the programming. That said, there was significantly less to explore than in 2017, with a noticeable lack of the "arts" promised in the festival's name. Given the considerable increase in capacity, some punters may have found the music-or-nothing approach a little disappointing. Save for a miniature roller rink and an alley of superb food trucks, there wasn't much else to do but dance.
While international names were the major selling point, locals got a strong look in as well. Fantastic Man and Millú took command of Electrum on Saturday night, displaying as much vigour as any of their overseas peers. Several hours later, the Wax'o Paradiso crew were tasked with soundtracking the Sunday sunrise, from 4 through 8 AM. (Admittedly, I slept through this, but woke up numerous times grinning at selections like Mylo's "Otto's Journey.") After lunch, which featured heavenly burgers and arancini, I came across Louis McCoy looking like a cyclist Ali G, transitioning from some Darude-esque trance into Puretones' "Addicted To Bass." The crowd grinned madly while Kornél Kovács filmed the scene, the DJ looking equal parts enthralled and bewildered, presumably wondering how on earth to follow.
Over at Vanish Point, flanked by two beautiful bouquets of Funktion-One speakers, DJ EZ delivered a breakneck hour of mash-up gold while a group of 15-or-so punters dressed in immaculate tennis whites set up a badminton court and commenced play. Later, Floating Points stepped up for a solo live performance. It felt like a selfless gift to his fans, reading in part like a greatest hits set that left me deeply satisfied.
For the fourth and final day, the operation was whittled down to only one stage: Béton Brut. As the weary but devoted crowd swarmed and overflowed from the awnings, Motor City Drum Ensemble—a DJ as credentialed as anyone to close a festival—rose to the occasion, extracting the most magical energy of the weekend. Hugs rolled through the dusty floor like a Mexican wave, as he hopped from flute jams and fierce acid to the percussive chaos of Liquid Liquid's "Optimo" and the highs of Shirley Finney's "We Can Make This World A Better Place." At one point, a car marked "RAVE POLICE" pulled up and became a dancing podium. It was a euphoric adventure right up to the last, wrapping up a stellar weekend as good as anything else on offer in Australia. At this rate, Pitch 2019 is going to be a pretty remarkable experience.
Photo credit /
Duncographic
Considering Pitch's house and techno music policy, last year's aesthetic seemed slightly confused, incorporating some visual elements you'd expect to see at psytrance events—an easy trend to slip into in Australia. This year, though, the festival presented itself more confidently, with earthy tones and simplified stage builds that fell more in-line with the programming. That said, there was significantly less to explore than in 2017, with a noticeable lack of the "arts" promised in the festival's name. Given the considerable increase in capacity, some punters may have found the music-or-nothing approach a little disappointing. Save for a miniature roller rink and an alley of superb food trucks, there wasn't much else to do but dance. While international names were the major selling point, locals got a strong look in as well. Fantastic Man and Millú took command of Electrum on Saturday night, displaying as much vigour as any of their overseas peers. Several hours later, the Wax'o Paradiso crew were tasked with soundtracking the Sunday sunrise, from 4 through 8 AM. (Admittedly, I slept through this, but woke up numerous times grinning at selections like Mylo's "Otto's Journey.") After lunch, which featured heavenly burgers and arancini, I came across Louis McCoy looking like a cyclist Ali G, transitioning from some Darude-esque trance into Puretones' "Addicted To Bass." The crowd grinned madly while Kornél Kovács filmed the scene, the DJ looking equal parts enthralled and bewildered, presumably wondering how on earth to follow.
Over at Vanish Point, flanked by two beautiful bouquets of Funktion-One speakers, DJ EZ delivered a breakneck hour of mash-up gold while a group of 15-or-so punters dressed in immaculate tennis whites set up a badminton court and commenced play. Later, Floating Points stepped up for a solo live performance. It felt like a selfless gift to his fans, reading in part like a greatest hits set that left me deeply satisfied. For the fourth and final day, the operation was whittled down to only one stage: Béton Brut. As the weary but devoted crowd swarmed and overflowed from the awnings, Motor City Drum Ensemble—a DJ as credentialed as anyone to close a festival—rose to the occasion, extracting the most magical energy of the weekend. Hugs rolled through the dusty floor like a Mexican wave, as he hopped from flute jams and fierce acid to the percussive chaos of Liquid Liquid's "Optimo" and the highs of Shirley Finney's "We Can Make This World A Better Place." At one point, a car marked "RAVE POLICE" pulled up and became a dancing podium. It was a euphoric adventure right up to the last, wrapping up a stellar weekend as good as anything else on offer in Australia. At this rate, Pitch 2019 is going to be a pretty remarkable experience. Photo credit / Duncographic