Live Review: Big Pineapple Music Festival

Whether the punters brave the insane build-up of traffic, a two-hour train ride from the city or being crammed onto a shuttle bus full of people, there are complications getting to Woombye and finding The Big Pineapple Music Festival gates.

As we enter, final soundchecks can be heard in the distance as a wave of people move down the hill towards the triple j stage to catch first act of the day, Fragile Animals. The South East Queensland indie-rock band kicked off the festival with a sound so accomplished you'd expect to hear it further up the line-up.

After trekking back up the hill towards the Pineapple Xpress stage, electronic-pop artist Doolie swells with grace and enthuses several festivalgoers into some early dancing.

Walking around the festival in between sets is a delight on its own. There's a vast variety of food outlets near the entry to the festival, drinks are relatively reasonably priced, and a few clothing and other holistic stands can be found scattered throughout the grounds. Whether it's hot chips or a hot new outfit you're looking for, Big Pineapple Music Festival has it.

Opening the Superlove stage is Imbi The Girl. There's a solid early turnout dancing around, with many more scattered around the hill. She plays a gorgeous set and gets her small gathering to sing along.

The first big roar from the festival crowd comes from the triple j stage as Pandamic rush on with trebly guitar and big, loud bass notes. There's a big singalong from the moshpit for Sandy and Scumbag and the festival feels like it has officially kicked into fifth gear. Not even the glaring sun seems to stop people from burning out their energy so early into the afternoon.

Right as Pandamic finish up, The Vanns overdose on reverb at the Sea Shepherd stage, frontman Jimmy Vann leaping around with his guitar in hand. He impresses the crowds easily and people flock down the hill for this band's set.

Then The Space Cowboy takes the Avant Garden stages. He holds more than 50 Guinness World Records and he wows the crowd with exhilaratingly dangerous stunts like juggling with a chainsaw and performing hat tricks on a 3.5-metre unicycle - pure insanity.

Greta Stanley plucks out a sweetly beautiful melodies and, right from the start, the crowd is utterly captivated by her gorgeous vocals. There's people sitting down, swaying side to side and though it's a little sombre overall her set feels so wonderfully blissful.

People are seen rushing down from the top of the hill, remembering that Tasmania's greatest Maddy Jane is on next. It's one huge singalong. She's so far from home, but Jane certainly knows how to engage a new audience.

Kim Churchill jumps out onto the Sea Shepherd stage to a huge reception. There are now people all over the hillside, but as the sun begins to glare at its brightest it seems like the majority of attendees are enjoying a sit-down rather than a huge mosh.

To say a roar goes up for Tired Lion would be an understatement. Opening with Japan, they instantly kick us into overdrive. Even without their recently departed guitarist Matt Tanner, the band deliver an insane set. After giving a big shout-out to the bands they played alongside in the Gold Coast last night, Tired Lion delve into Behave and Fresh, while also delivering a huge moment with a cover of Smash Mouth's All Star. Sophie Hopes' voice echoes powerfully through the field as she bursts into the chorus of Cinderella Dracula. Even as Tired Lion leave the stage there are calls for one more song. Their 30-minute set is just too short.

Back up the hill at the Avant Garden stage, Castlecomer take the stage. They tell us they're stunned by how many people have shown up. The crowd dance along as the Sydney indie-rock band blast into their new track Move. Castlecomer then draw everyone within hearing range in with a cover of Tal Bachman's She's So High.

The sun's just about to go down, and strobe lights and smoke machines illuminate the stage as Northeast Party House hit the stage. We feel euphoric as they burst into Calypso Beach and when they play the first note of Youth Allowance the entire hillside goes mental. Frontman Zach Hamilton-Reeves dances around, singing his absolute heart out. It's a big, blessed kick-off to the late-night sets.

At the back of Sea Shepherd stage, a big neon sign reads Cub Sport. The four-piece leave their audience in complete, blissed-out awe throughout Come On Mess Me Up, Good Guys Go and a beautiful rendition of Kanye West's Ultralight Beam.

There's a thick mist of smoke-machine smoke and blue light washes over the triple j stage for Adelaide's Allday (Tom Gaynor to his mum). He leaps around, but unfortunately we can't hear him. There's a lot of confusion in the crowd and, as Gaynor checks his microphone he notices it isn't even turned on! After a brief freakout, he finally jumps straight back into the set and the crowd instantaneously forgets about the mishap. Everyone's bouncing again, and the hillside's completely lit-up with cigarette lighters being waved side to side.

There's a mad rush down the hill from all sides of the festival grounds and no one needs to ask why. Dune Rats are about to take the stage. Frontman Danny Beusaraus opens with a massive, "Yeah, Big Pineapple! How ya fuckin' garn!?" and the crowd erupts! The three-piece start with Don't Talk and 6 Pack, and the mosh looks more dangerous than it has all day. There's legs flying overhead, walls of death and circle pits all happening at once; it's chaotic, but there's no doubt evereyone would do it again in a heartbeat. They blaze into Red Light, Green Light and security look panicked trying to control the crowd as sparks fire from the stage and crowd-surfers are at an all-time high.

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets are absolutely terrific. They aren't headlining the festival, but it feels like they should be. There's a mess of hair flying around and heads butting into each other, but it's all worth it for one of the most unforgettable sets of the night.

There's no introduction since Violent Soho don't need one. The lights dim and then focus on a solo Luke Boerdam as the lyrics, "The heat, it drowned itself and all the roads," play through the speakers, drowned out by a massive cheer. The crowd belts out the rest of Like Soda's verse and, in a huge flare of light, the whole band blast on as the crowd goes absolutely wild with excitement, the pouring rain completely forgotten.

The mosh gets absolutely wild for In The Aisle and Jesus Stole My Girlfriend before Violent Soho bring it back down with So Sentimental, then back up again with How To Taste. A portion of the crowd give in to the inclement weather conditions and leave around the time the band perform Blanket and Viceroy, but the remaining punters are still out in full force, destroying the field with every single jump.

The crowd take over on Saramona Said, screaming, "Let's start a fire, it's like a big freight train". Despite the incredible reaction to Dope Calypso and Lowbrow, there's an even bigger roar for Covered In Chrome. It's impossible to properly describe the euphoric feeling of belting out the line, "HELL FUCK YEAH!" at the top of your lungs. The crowd's drenched with sweat, soaked with rain and short of breath. Violent Soho finish their set strongly with Ok Cathedral.