Live Review: Field Day

On the first day of the New Year thousands of revellers dragged their sorry, hungover bums out of bed and straight into Sydney’s Domain for yet another party. A sold-out event, the day started out as a trickle but by 3pm, all three stages were heaving for Field Day 2017; the lines for the bar were long and the crowds were ready. Sun screen, beer and a little bit of BO was in the air. It was also not late into the day before the police sniffer dog operation — as promised — is well underway; this reporter alone witnessed three arrests.

While British synth poppers AlunaGeorge were tearing it up on Centre Field for an already massive crowd gathering under some grim-looking afternoon cloud cover, Montaigne — a last-minute replacement for the currently ailing MØ — offered up a powerful set for her small, but committed gathering on the Island stage (most seemed to know all her lyrics). Never short on theatrical flourish, the Sydney local delivered on her repertoire’s demanding, emotional and dramatic range with total control and tight arrangement. She may have been low on the timetable today but for the recent ARIA winner, this seems like it is about to change.

Tkay Maidza took the reins after Montaigne’s set on the Island stage to drop some of her patented dancefloor ready, synthy hip hop anthems. A potent ball of energy, Maidza spent her set tirelessly bringing her all for her crowd, which by the time she leaves the stage is overflowing its allotted grass.

Meanwhile, on Centre Stage LDRU strays from his usual collage of house beats and clever pop samples (he does, true to form, open with a mix of Spiderbait’s Black Betty) to give the late afternoon crowd a few dubstep tracks. These land very well (cue many girls on shoulders swinging excess clothing in the air) and the crowd eagerly devours everything that he gives them.

Riding a high, festival darlings SAFIA swoop in and keep the mood going. Their recent album’s tight production loses nothing on the stage as its drippy melodies are treated to some serious bass. To top it off, glitter and sequins are in this year and as the day wears on, more and more of it seems to wind up in grass and as the sun began to set during SAFIA, the debris caught the light and gave the Domain a special kind of magic — despite the gathering cloud cover.

Away from the glittering Center Field and tucked under the shady canopy of the Left Field stage, East London darlings Newham Generals (MCs D Double E and Footsie) take their places and ask their gathered audience one question before launching into their set: "do you know what Grime is?" The crowd’s enthusiasm imply that they do. What follows confirmed as much, as the crew offered up gritty, heavy beats and creeping, staccato verses true to their Dizzee Rascal roots to a seriously into-it crowd.

When it comes to the main events and beginning of the day’s end, Chicagoan and headliner Chance The Rapper takes pride of place in the second last slot on Centre Field. He kicks off the set with an idiosyncratic, cheeky, “ah” cry from backstage before launching into Everybody’s Something from Coloring Book. A song about parenthood, it seemed especially poignant given his daughter’s world-debut on Instagram that morning. Later in the set he pulls out 2016’s mixtape which acts as a solid summary of his whole set: all his tracks and verses have been clipped to create a non-stop, euphoric high and his full tracks are interspersed with a few of his breakout verses from tracks like Kanye’s Ultralight Beam and Action Bronson’s Baby Blue (dedicated to his ex). True to the optimistic and community-centred world his music imagines, the set is beautiful and intensely communal — Chance shines through not as an egoist but as an intensely generous person.

In the time it takes to reset the stage for fellow headliner Childish Gambino, the rain that has been threatening to dampen the day finally visits the Domain. In light of this, it is not Gambino’s fault that the mood is down by the time he takes the stage, but his set gets off to an awkward start that doesn’t help. He opens with the dreamy Me And Your Mama from his just released, tightly orchestrated and intricately produced '70s era album Awaken! My Love, but this tight arrangement doesn’t make it on Field Day’s stage and the set runs into more trouble. Gambino segues awkwardly back and forth between his two distinct musical personas (tongue-in-cheek rapper and retro soprano) without gaining any momentum or keeping sprawling orchestration in check. But these problems are likely just growing pains.

For Field Day organisers Fuzzy, however, 2017 was their time to shine.