Reviewed on Friday February 26 and Saturday February 27 (photo by Voena)
The annual arts and music festival Secret Garden went down over the weekend on its picturesque private farm in Camden, an hour out of Sydney, with tasty offerings in the way of music, theatre and drag.
Both the natural setting – a working farm with a maze-like tree grove in which all kinds of tiny stages and arty set-pieces were hidden – and the whimsical set and stage designs by the production team were immersive, well thought out, and in the case of waking up to a number of dairy cows walking around, just damn delightful. Think a Viking den tucked into the brush and decorated with real cow bones and skulls, a tree decorated with plastic ears, and funhouse mirrors in unexpected places, for starters.
In the words of some very proud parents overheard congratulating their daughter, who I can only assume was one of the organisers, “It was fabo.” They weren’t wrong. The whole festival was fabulous; in fact, it was one of the best camping festivals I’ve ever been to. The lineup of top-notch local dance and indie acts was excellent as always – Black Vanilla’s powerful stage show stood out among a crowd that included sets from Matt Corby,Gang Of YouthsandRaury, as did the awesome Camp Queen stage, with drag queens vogueing hard to trap bangers – but more than that, it was about the sideshows and installations.
One of these was Farmer Wants A Girlfriend, where the site’s farmhand was set up with one of the revellers; he chose the pretty Cleopatra and not the guy in a bird’s nest costume, who was the crowd favourite – although it was revealed not long after that ‘Nesty’ wasn’t even single. Or the ‘megaphone of love’ – a megaphone set into a piece of wood encouraging revellers to share the love. Then there was the wedding chapel, hosting rotating “weddings” all weekend long, replete with joyous dancing to Michael Jackson, where I heard someone say, “Everybody get out your Snapchats” in a gravelly Grace Jones voice; guys, this festival is peak 2016.
Secret Garden isn’t a festival for dickheads, and while – as with every mass gathering in Australia – you do get a few, like the clowns (literally) who managed to shut down a stand-up comic’s show, mostly it was a ridiculous time with interesting people in an array of hilarious costumes doing seemingly normal things, like playing pool in the forest or hosting a fake Viking banquet.
Everything about the festival was meticulously thought out and primed for hilarious encounters. Watching a bunch of guys in nuns’ habits play pool in a forest is funny; hearing a passing girl yell at them “The nun outfit is so 2015” is even funnier. Bravo, Secret Garden.
