Festival at the Showgrounds

Besides running airlines and mobile phone companies, as he does in many places in the world, Richard Branson also organises music festivals in Australia, very aptly named the 'V festival'. The Melbourne edition was on on Saturday at the Showgrounds, a site most famously known for the giant meat-pie (as anyone who's ever travelled around Oz will know, lots of small country towns have a 'giant' something, ranging from fruit items to crustaceans, to put the town on the map, not so sure why Melbourne

has one... probably 'cause Sydney hasn't!), or the 'pie in the sky' as it's locally known.. definitely a new entry in my 'giant' top 10! The line-up included many current britpop(ish) acts like snow patrol, the kaiserchiefs and the killers, but I was personally most looking forward to seeing a band I didn't even know still existed; Madness! I had never seen them play before, but had heard they were a great, energetic live act, and they certainly didn't disappoint! So while all the youngsters were at the Kaiserchiefs, the 30+ crowd (i.e. us) were practising some rusty ska dance-moves.. good old 20th century music! As night fell we also checked out some local talent (Jackson Jackson), and finishing act the Killers. Luckily it was the end of daylight saving time that night, so we had an extra hour sleep to recover (now only 8 hour time-difference to the Netherlands!).

Until next week's post!

ps. Thanks Rachael and Andrew for suggesting going the festival, and getting the tickies!