For a day that was considerably devoted to standing in line (half an hour here, half an hour there, and so on) punters at the bus-about pseudo-Oktoberfest extravaganza that was Welcome To The Valley had an absolute whale of a time. The day began at roughly midday, where buses full of people already well on their way made the trip out to either Oakover Winery or Elmars Brewery. The numbers began swelling at Elmars just a little bit after 1pm, and by this time it was pretty evident that many pre-drinks had been consumed, as the lads had already started pissing on the fences (which was promptly brought to a halt).
Inside the venue, the music had seemingly already started; an unlisted surprise addition to the set. A gentleman in traditional lederhosen was treating the masses to some pretty cool jams on his piano accordion. Playing a quick set, the unnamed accordionist finished with Sailor's Hornpipe and made his exit while people were still filing in and finding their spot on the grass. Next up was acoustic soloist Logan Crawford. He played a mix of originals and covers, including Everlong by Foo Fighters, and was received warmly. Many people at this point were still very much concerned with getting themselves enormous steins of Elmars beer, and getting right up into the summer festival spirit of things. Free meals from vegetarian to pork roast to bratwurst were available too, so there was a lot of attention directed away from the stage. A DJ set had a few people dancing, however, most were simply enjoying the sun and the gallons of beer sloshing about the place, following Crawford for the remainder of the time at Elmars. The ale was most certainly flowing; one particularly exhibitionist couple could be seen groping one another and having a good old munch on the other's face, but for the most part everyone was just having a great time amongst friends.
Soon it was time to move on to the next place, and Belvoir was promptly overrun with swarms of people (not) lining up to get their next drink. One was probably better off at this point getting two or three drinks for themselves before elbowing their way out of the crowd waiting for theirs; it was definitely not worth two trips. As the crowd went from the queue for drinks down to the Amphitheatre, the boys from Aston Shuffle had their set well under way, and the dancing numbers were considerably larger by then. Preceded by another DJ set, Ball Park Music made their much-awaited appearance. Patrons began to promptly lose their minds as the band played Hanson's MMMbop, and sang along to It's Nice To Be Alive. Frontman Samuel Cromack's hips were wiggling as he threw his guitar aside for a few songs, and some very formidable moves were busted. After a tribute to Frankie & The Four Seasons, the group rolled out their closing numbers, iFly and Fence Sitter which were absolutely lapped up by the crowd. More DJ sets followed the band's time slot, but all too soon we were hopping on the bus and heading on back to the city.
