I'm finally getting around to sharing a little about my/our experience at Peat Ridge Festival over New Years.
After the immediate awe inspiring Glenworth valley is absorbed by the senses ( mountain ranges all around, the little lake that runs around the grounds, cicadas at highest pitch...) the first thing that really grabbed me at Peats Ridge was all that colour. Everything is vibrant- flowing fabrics off the hips of ladies, flags set to the wind, the sun bouncing off the various installations, the gypsy caravans decorated homily in the artists grounds... up, down and around with the serene backdrop of bushland.
The energy at this festival is not like at many other "drinking" and "partying" festivals. It's more thoughtful and relaxed. No-one is rushing from here to there except the wild young'ns dancing and racing around joyfully. It's my first experience at a festival where I have not been pissed off by someone drunkenly harassing me or groups of shirtless southern star clad guys making a scene. Besides the few instances where supposedly educated individuals with a conscience for environmental issues were seen sitting in their air conditioned cars, running a roaring generator all night and clearly not using the very simple bin system to recycle and compost, overall this was clearly a unique set of festival goers.
We participated in a few ways at Peats Ridge in the geodisic dome we called home for the duration of the festival [Land of Hopeless Utopians]. Night No.1 had us doing our trademark liquid light show on the dome's white canvas whilst guest Punk Monk Alexander Sovronsky played haunting violin jammed with Ghosts of the Civil Dead recordings and twisted manipulations by Alexander Papasavvas on pedals. The beanbag clad floor filled with stargazers consuming their virtual acid through coloured drips, blobs , splatters by Kate, Alex and myself.
Night No.2 had us bring a mini-festival of film to the dome, mapped and mashed by the regenr8 crew (amazinggg!) The beehive of films featured many of our Kino Sydney friends as well as Punk Monk home-made pieces and scavenged treasures. Sovronsky again pierced the air and set hearts beating, this time jamming with the creation of Liam O'Shea- a composition loosely inspired by Xanadu, twisted and bashed into a immobilising beat for beanbag dwellers who congregated en masse. The dome was definitely the healing zone for those zapped from all that dub or the heat and needed to collect themselves, or lose themselves.
Throughout the whole festival the inaugural 15MB of FAME was taking place. Those excited about participation had their phones and cameras out and were capturing what made Peats beautiful to them and were handing in these scraps for us to make into a visual scrapbook of Peats. Anyone could do this. Peats is about something different to everyone and the footage we received was so amazing. Above you can see the result.
Hello 2011.
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