Live Review: Party In The Park

With an impressive all-Australian line-up, the inaugural Party In The Park was essentially a hipster’s festival paradise.

The open-air North Sydney venue was laced with food stalls (albeit somewhat minimal) ranging from a vegetarian “veggie patch” serving almond and olive burgers to Nepalese cuisine complete with chicken and veggie momos (dumplings) to your standard spinach and feta Turkish gozleme. Beanbags were scattered across the freshly cut grass covering the oval and fedora-clad festival punters walked in carrying picnic blankets, smiles and good vibrations.

Indie-folk outfit Sons Of The East were first to grace the stage shortly after 5pm and played tracks off their self-titled debut EP, including their first single, Hold On. The Sydney band delivered catchy lyrics and a refreshingly organic fusion of vocals, guitar, banjo and keys while the crowd made itself comfortable on the grassy hillside, relaxed and settling in for the evening.

The Cat Empire. Pic by Lucy Alguire.

The ladies (and boy bass player) of Little May followed, singing Boardwalks, Hide and their cover of Icehouse’s Great Southern Land, recorded for triple j’s Like A Version. While it received disappointing reviews and comments online, their performance of Great Southern Land was a unique highlight of their set.

Melbourne indie band Husky played songs from their debut album, Forever So, including a track titled Tidal Wave, which was soft, nostalgic and enchanting. The band delivered an intimate performance with lead singer Husky Gawenda belting out dreamy, soothing vocals. It was about midway through their set that the crowd grew a little more in size and everyone seemed to finally warm up for the night.

Performers on stilts walked around the oval, hula-hooping and bantering with passersby while some had festival snaps taken in front of the McGrath Foundation’s Curve Lurve Caravan, the campaign aiming to increase breast health awareness in young women. A teepee tent complete with adorning fairy lights provided a shaded chill-out hub for those who might’ve worn themselves out waiting in line for the very few bathrooms on site, while a designated smoking area had been set aside towards the back of the grounds.

One of the main things that hindered this Party In The Park experience, and perhaps something for organisers to take note of for next year’s edition, was the lack of music and entertainment between sets, the times instead filled in by the event organiser/spokesperson/MC on the microphone reminding everyone to hashtag “Party In The Park” on social media.

Sydney indie-pop-rock band The Jezabels took to the stage just after 8pm with rock star vocalist Hayley Mary wiggling, thrusting and headbanging across the stage in a leather jacket and tight black jeans. She hopped over the barrier to the audience on more than one occasion and returned to the stage with a T-shirt that a fan had ambitiously tucked into her jeans, before stating “It was decided by the crowd that I wasn’t wearing enough clothes!” The band (Mary) had a lively stage presence and performed Rosebud, before what seemed at first like the last track, The End. “We’re pretty cliché but it’d be cliché to end on that song so we’re going to do one more. Maybe two.” They followed up with Easy To Love before Mary fearlessly returned to the mosh pit once again and crowdsurfed into the audience for their last song.

Six-piece Melbourne band The Cat Empire were met with cheers from the crowd when they emerged to play the headline set. They kicked off with the fast-paced Brighter Than Gold, which had fans from the front of the barricade to the back of the oval all up, arms in the air, singing, dancing and hip-shakin’ away. Inflated beach balls were thrown into the crowd as the band played the upbeat, Latin-influenced In My Pocket.

The Cat Empire rounded off the night perfectly, delivering an exotic blend of jazz, Latin, reggae and rock and creating an atmosphere that was original, fresh and full of life with instruments ranging from keyboard, percussion and turntables to tubular bells, trumpets and trombones. They had an impressive, vibrant, enjoyable stage presence and left the crowd with arms linked, dancing around in circles together, laughing and singing.