Between a wedding, filthy house party, dirty nightclub and confrontations with a fat, naked, hairy Croatian dude (nick-named Troll), I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Brisbane Valley Fiesta at the weekend.

I know it’s not a Melbourne event, but some good friends tied the knot in Queensland on Saturday (congratulations Ant and Sara!), so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone. Video of groom!

Set over three days, October 23-25, the Valley Fiesta is a veritable smorgasbord of musical talents, (known and unknown) with nothing better to do but perform on the grimy streets of Brisbane, for little more than a tuppence. This year the event attracted more than 65 acts including, CW Stoneking, Bertie Blackman, The Mess Hall, Kev Carmody and The Panda Band – to name just a few.

Now, I’d love to tell you about how whimsical and amazing the Valley Fiesta was this year, but alas, it was a complete and utter shit-fest! For starters the three stages were stuffed into the narrow Brunswick Street venue, with little or no room for onlookers. Sponsorship flags flew high as more than 100,000 visitors, who could care-less about live music, walked from one end of the street to the other, in search of f**k knows what, like a bunch of f**king lemmings – ARRRGH!

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I can tell you about some of the stand-out performances particularly The Panda Band, who played a wickedly entertaining set and stole the show with their bubbly indie pop tunes. But for me, it was all about the street performers and more modestly dressed buskers. It’s the guys and gals jamming on the street corners and down the alleyways, not for any reason other than fun. As cliché as it may sound, it was here that I discovered the true meaning of Fiesta.

After (politely) pushing and shoving (move bitch!) my way out of the crammed Brunswick Street venue, where the supposed “Fiesta” was taking place. I wondered off into some of Brisbane’s more suspect back alleys.

It wasn’t long before I came across two guys and a girl playing a trashy electro rock set, in what I like to call electro-trash-gypsy-rock-pop with just a dash of funk. One of the guys was out in front wailing on an electric guitar as his tiny amp struggled to keep up. Another guy threw out some 80-90s synth beats and other weird sounding samples on an old-school sampler. All while a girl smashed pots, pans, tupperware and passers-by with her drum sticks for backing beats. Their set must have lasted more than three hours and the trio had the street filled with enthusiastic music lovers dancing and smiling ear to ear (like music was supposed to be fun or something). Trash-rock video (click me)!

In summary, what was once such a peaceful and creative event has become a wash with pretentiousness, violent drunkenness and arrogance, sculpting the Valley Fiesta into just another (commercial) festival. But don’t be despaired, with a little searching and an open mind, it doesn’t take you long to find the true Fiesta is still alive and well…

P.S. I also visited a filthy house party where naked people were running around like a pack of wild animals, and one guy kept drinking vodka through his eye – but that’s another story.



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