Rocking the Daisies is a very civilised music festival. Granted it was the first music festival for both LA & CTG, so we don’t have much to compare it to, but we expected a lot worse. We stayed in the Kreef Hotel, a tented hotel with our own private showers and very clean portaloos. There was hot water and mirrors and basins. The service was excellent, as was the breakfast the next morning. The hotel is only a short distance away from the stage area, saving us the great trek the rest of the campers had to do.
Kreef Hotel
The tents had mattresses with sheets and everything. Much better than this:
We arrived on Friday afternoon just as things were getting started. The sun was setting. We drank beer. We pottered around the stalls. It’s much like the Old Biscuit Mill, with a big stage in the distance and some people jumping around on the stage. Very pleasant.
Ophelia, Simz & CTG
Friday night got very cold very fast. So we drank more beer, ate some steak rolls from Knead, talked to some people, talked to some other people, saw some other people, tried on silly hats…There’s kind of so much to do besides watch music we found ourselves only catching 3 acts: Seventh Son, the Dirty Skirts and New Young Pony Club. The Dirty Skirts were super-pro, very ‘big international band’, lots of black-and-white imagery, lots of black leather. New Young Pony Club were bouncy and rocky and fun. And very English. We bounced and we rocked, and then we all fled to the Red Bull tent, where there was warmth, and a lineup of DJs that would keep you dancing, and hence warm.
This photo was taken at about 9pm in the beer tent, which should give you a fair indication of the vibe.
I think the Red Bull tent was the unofficial headlining act of Daisies? We didn’t stay for Saturday night, but it was the place to be on Friday night and from reports it kicked ass on Saturday night too.
The Loaded Smoothie Beach and the dam were a definite highlight. We chilled and swam for a good part of the morning. Worked on our ‘base tan’.
Then we bought nougat, cheesecake and lemon meringue pie from the Miss K stall. Because how could we not?
Miss K's Lemon Meringue
Did you know that Rocking the Daisies is a green festival? I knew that but I didn’t really know what that meant until I saw this, which maps areas you can recycle your waste, and water stations where you can refill your water bottles rather than buying new ones, etc.
After we ate our cheescake and our nougat and our lemon meringue and our Vida (thank god for Vida!) we were ready to hit the road. Not bad for a first-time festival, not bad at all. Would we do it again? Absolutely! See you next year! Next time we’ll bring some hard antihistamines, since our hayfever was worse than our hangovers :)
My festival outfit: skinnies by Pepe, leather boots by Woolworths, Jersey by Urban, shades D&G at Sunglass Hut
LA's festival outfit: dress by Country Road, Cardigan by Trenery, boots by Trenery and shades Ray Ban at Sunglass Hut.
Click here to see my full set of photos from RTD 2010.
