Reviewed on Wednesday January 1

The ’90s were back at Field Day for sure. From rainbow He-Man shirts to crop tops and bucket hats, everything old (style-wise at least) was new again.

Clad in matching blue-and-white Adidas trackies, Flight Facilities dipped back to, you guessed it, the ’90s for their decade set, playing the likes of Coolio, Biggie, Beastie Boys and Snoop circa Dogg before getting dancier with some Jamiroquai. Continuing the DJs-in-Adidas theme, Alison Wonderland kept the punters going in between sets.

A$AP Rocky wasn’t coy about what was keeping him going through the haze of jetlag – “I’ve got a confession to make: I’m really fucking high right now. We’re gonna have to see mosh pits, exposed tits, fucking backflips.” And with ‘Wild For The Night’ the stage turned into a dancefloor, Rocky’s crew getting crazy alongside Wiz Khalifa, who also took the opportunity to philosophise about what brings us all together (hint: it’s weed).

Over at The Island, rumoured sleeping pill imbiber Chet Faker turned the chill factor up to 11, debuting a new track ‘1998’, followed by his laidback version of ‘No Diggity’ rolling almost imperceptibly into ‘My Happiness’ while NYE survivors stretched out on the grass.

Hermitude gave the crowd a taste of things to come, debuting an unfinished track before they led into the non-Flume version of ‘HyperParadise’ with a sing-along to ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. They went on to pay Flume back in kind, playing their own remix of his track ‘Holdin On’.

Solange was undoubtedly the queen of the day. Her set was deliciously cool – she sashayed and whipped her miles of braids back and forth; ‘Lovers In The Parking Lot’ was sublime and ‘Losing You’ saw the crowd try its best to match her move for move. She even managed an encore before disappearing with a “Thank you Sydney, you’re glorious!”

2013 was the year of Flume and he capped it off nicely with a main stage headline set. He played the hit remixes, from Hermitude to Disclosure and an extended mix of ‘Insane’, which featured a ghostly projection of vocalist Moon Holiday. Meanwhile across the park The Wombats played ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’ in darkness, leading the enthusiastic crowd as singer Matthew Murphy yelled encouragingly, “C’mon you bastards!”

As for the post-festival trudge back to transport, we could have all done with a golf cart out of The Domain à la Solange.

REVIEWED BY NATALIE AMAT

Image: Ashley Mar

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