Southbound

As time draws depressingly close to my departure, I got to spend two glorious days watching some of my favourite bands in the sunshine. The last time you heard from me, I was trying my best to sleep off my hangover before heading to Busselton; I wasn't feeling ideal and Jess looked like death warmed up when Candice, Chris, Oli and I picked her up from work, but we soon perked up at the thought of the impending festival fun. I absolutely adore music festivals but haven't really been to one since Boardmasters in Newquay a couple of years ago, so I was really looking forward to going to one with the added bonus of guaranteed sunshine as opposed to torrential rain. Southbound is the biggest festival in WA and was also celebrating its 10th year this year, so we were in for a treat. We remedied our hangovers immediately by heading for the bar for some ridiculously expensive alcohol, then found a spot in the crowd. The afternoon of Day 1 brought us Bonobo and The Cat Empire, who were both great and it wasn't long before we'd completely forgotten about our fragile states.

With time to spare before the acts we had our eye on for the evening, we explored the site amongst the hoards of drunk revellers. We had only started drinking to make ourselves feel better and weren't up for another heavy night, mindful of the bigger day on Saturday. There were all kinds of stalls and shops to look around and we bumped into Flo, the french chef from Pour House; Candice and Chris wanted to leave early, so Jess, Oli, Flo and I spent the rest of the day together. By the time it got dark, it became apparent that 75% of the people in the crowd were off their faces on booze or something more and I wasn't drunk enough for it not to bother me. All through Roots (R&B/Hip-Hop 5 piece from the 90s with a sousaphone and everything), these two northern idiots were trying to start their own little mosh pit and making everyone around them angry, so it was pretty hard to enjoy the music. We stayed for a little bit of Vampire Weekend before it was time for Terry to pick us up and I think we were asleep before we got through the door in preparation for a bigger day on Saturday.

Sure enough, Candice was over at 11am the next morning with bubbly and glitter, which could only mean we were in for a far livelier day. The boys were joining us later, so we had a brilliant girly afternoon listening to Tom Odell, a personal favourite of mine, and cuffing back ciders in the sun. Late afternoon brought another wait until the incredible London Grammar, who I have been waiting to see all year, so we headed to the Coconut Club to pass the time in the sandpit in front of their live DJ sets. This turned out to be the most fun we'd had so far; we were pretty merry by this point and found Oli there with German Sonia (yet another Pour House employee) and her international friends and we had such a good boogie with them, ending up staying there for hours.

Stoked to be back on the juice!

Coconut Club boogie

Germans dance funny

Too many beersies

Mia and her hideous squid earrings...

Looking good Jess

Glitter girl band!

After a quick bite to eat, finding Chris and Janek (who'd found a wristband on the ground outside and got in for free!) and stocking up on the cans, we dived into the crowd as London Grammar took to the stage. Oh. My. Goodness. It is without a doubt in my mind that I say Hannah Reid has the most incredible voice I have heard in my life and she's even more haunting live; I had goosebumps the whole time! Their songs are just perfect and I can't wait for them to release more stuff. As we left, Jess and I agreed we would have paid all that money just to see them, so seeing the other bands was an added bonus! Southbound was such a perfect way to end my time here and it's just made me all the more eager to get to Glastonbury soon for more glittery fun.