The Stereosonic vibe was in the air from the get go, with people from all walks of life converging at the train station and uniting in celebratory cheers as we headed towards the the Melbourne Showgrounds. On arrival, it appeared Melbourne had remained true to its reputation of unpredictable and hormonal weather. Despite the lack of sunshine, the energy from the crowd was still as high as ever, with Melbournians going all out in short shorts and bare midrift festival attire. Either that, or simply shirtless.

To get into the festival mood, we took a pit stop at the Kopparberg Bar for some iced strawberry and lime cider while relaxing in the country-inspired cottage bar. The exterior landscaping was vibrant and green with it’s freshly cut synthetic grass, with a white picket fence separating us from the madness radiating from the Sonic/Hard Stage. Here, Stereosonic punters basked in the overcast, occupying themselves with a range of activities such as ping pong and at the obligatory selfie at the photo booth.

The first show to pop the cherries of these two Stereosonic virgins was the with the intense melodic beats of Dash Berlin. Kicking off with a remix of John Legend’s ‘All of Me’, the trance enthused crowd was united in euphoria; singing the along to this remixes of retro smash ‘Rhythm of the Night’ and Bruno Mars’ Locked out of Heaven’. Well known Dash classics ‘Waiting’ caused fans to rise like Jesus’ resurrection, and continued to ascend until closer ‘Til the Sky Falls Down’.

OG Asian Steve Aoki opened up with album title track ‘Neon Future’, and proceeded to please the crowd with the hyperactive beats of ‘Afroki’, ‘Turbulence’ and ‘Rage the Night Away’. Amongst his headbanging and fistpumping, Aoki doused the crowd in champagne, and got the crowed amped up with encouragements of profanity along with crowd surfing encouragement (despite the clear no crowd surfing signs) by launching inflatable life boats into the sea of fans beneath.

As the sun began to set, Swedish producer Alesso literally did ‘Tear the Roof Up’ with the first track followed by a procession of hits popular hits ‘Years’, ‘Calling’ and ‘Reload’. The crowd truly got into ‘Heroes’ – gauging cheers and united sing-a-longs as lovers kissed, mates hi-fived and all the sole troopers got lost in the euphoric moment. The final song, a collaboration with Calvin Harris on ‘Under Control’ took over as the main stage was encased by darkness.

The night was complete with a trip to the Armada stage. Headhunterz got the crowd dancing erratically in a seizure-like state to the hardstyle vibes of ‘Dragonborn’, ‘Shocker’ and remixes of the classic ‘Shot Me Down’. It was a totally a kick-ass experience sweating it off in to the relentless bass, ending the night in exhaustion but a unique level of contentedness.

After a groggy morning we were greeted by cooler, darker weather on day two. It was a bleak setting as the grounds were encased in a light mist of rain, with the expectation that the gods would take out their vengeful fury in downpour. We took hiding in the Kopparberg bar and their umbrella covered seating to avoide the frizz-inducing raindrops. Chugging down several refreshing pints of pear cider, we awaited the young Oliver Helden’s performance on the opposing stage.

Helden’s performance of relaxed beats initially attracted a humble crowd, though by his final song it had multiplied generously. The 19-year-old Dutch was of particular interest to this duo and were thoroughly pleased as we danced joyously to ‘Beats Sky Full of Stars’, ‘Can’t Stop’ and his remix of Kiesza’s ‘Hideaway’.

Calvin Harris provided an epic performance with chart-topping hit after chart-topping hit. His performance drew the biggest and rowdiest crowd, with a real fear of my noticeably smaller chum being trampled and eaten alive by the masses. Punters got revved up on hits such as ‘C.U.B.A’ and ‘Blame’, where the mere sound of the intro caused the crowd to lose it with arms and smart and phones ready to record, clearly indicating mutual favourites among the set. An infallible line of songs were performed with chart classics ‘Flashback’, ‘Sweet Nothing’, ‘Feel So Close’ and ‘Bounce’ leaving the crowd in an awe.

To end the Stereosonic experience, Diplo was our choice – it was avery swaggy vibe as he jumped about like a five-year-old with a sugar fix, egging on punters to take their shirts off and rotate in helicopter/stripper-like fashion. Mass twerking and booty-shaking was one of the visuals forever embedded in my memory, particularly during the ‘Set it Off’. All this posterior vibration reminded me of why I still need to get onto that squat rack.

Fortunately, over the course of the two day event we found no use of the $5 ponchos we purchased and no sacrifices needed. ‘Twas an incredibly epic event, and it satisfied and my otherwise insatiable appetite.

Words by Anita Adamski

Steve Aoki – Neon Future I