groovin' the moo

no, we weren't dancing with the cows. although... no. really not. "groovin' the moo" is a music festival that tours australia and only shows in non-capital cities, hence "moo". it was held in bunbury this year, which is about 1h30 south of perth. john and i snapped tickets up as soon as we could, cause the lineup was pretty awesome and the cost was (somewhat) reasonable.

we arrived in australind (small town outside of bunbury) around mid-day. we met up with our friends at a campsite, got our stuff set up and prepared ourselves for the day ahead. my friend gill was incredibly savvy and booked a bus to take us to and fro. we were concerned that camping would be a bit cold (it was 5 degrees the night before) but it was actually quite comfortable, possibly because we arrived well-prepared with proper canadian sleeping bags, extra blankets and fleecy pjs.

the bus dropped us off around 2pm and we promptly lost all the people we arrived with. which is a feat in itself, given how small the festival grounds were. the 2 main stages were set-up side by side so you didn't have to wait more then 5 minutes for the transition between shows. a great idea, i thought! or, if the "conventional" acts weren't your style, you could also saunter over to the tent, which was showing more dj's and that style of music.

we camped out near the main stages for the better part of the day, but checked out the dj tent a few times as well (grinspoon isn't really my style anyhow). our favourite act of the day was "empire of the sun"- they had ridiculous outfits, dancers and great stage presence. they also have awesome music. "spoon" also had a good set, as did canadian indie-darlings "tegan and sarah". the act that disappointed us the most was "kid koala", one of john's favourite canadian dj's. he changed his style and brought some mainstream guitarists in- it was all wrong.

silverchair finished off the night as the main headliners (right after vampire weekend, whom i don't particularly love). yes, that silverchair. you may know them as one-hit-wonders from about 15 years ago. but they have been rocking out in australia ever since, and are similar in grandeur to the hip. i have yet to find an aussie who doesn't like at least one of their albums (yes, there are many). we were reintroduced to them when we first moved here and they release the albm "straight lines" (great album btw). they played a lot of their older stuff. and whilst we didn't know any of it, the crowd sure as heck did. the atmosphere was awesome and the very light drizzle just added to it.

the festival ended with us finding our group and hopping back onto a bus, while thousands of other punters (aussie term for festival goers) waited around!

another of my festival highlights was riding the swing. yes, the swing. they had one of the big swings that you find at amusement parks. it was bloody expensive but oh so worth it! and like i said, i don't much care for grinspoon anyhow, so it was a good time waster.

this festival rates highly on my list, but not the highest. a few of the bands were pretty lackluster, food and drinks were astronomically priced and lineups were outrageous (toilets, food, etc).

would i go back to a groovin' festival? yes. but mostly because of the swing... :)

xo

the pinnacles

the pinnacles desert is another australian oddity of nature. it's a place where you expect to see luke skywalker and a second sun setting, but only if you ignore the big tour buses and totally touristy people getting out of them with their cameras.

john and i ventured to the pinnacles whilst we were staying in cervantes. it's a place i'd been keen to see but had been told it wasn't worth a day-trip, more of a "stop over" kind of place. luckily, with nothing to do in cervantes, we had good reason to visit!

the pinnacles are million-year old limestone outcroppings in a surprisingly large desert about 5km off the coast of WA. there are different theories as to how the pinnacles have formed, but alas, the visitor interpretation centre was closed when we got there, so i can't really fill you in. we were told that the erosion is still happening, and because of the winds blowing sand around, new pinnacles are being discovered all the time (and old ones are being burried!) there are thousands of them, some a few meters tall, some only a few centimeters. most of them phallic looking.

in all the guidebooks (and websites), you are encouraged to see the pinnacles either at sunrise or sunset so that you can experience "the magic and wonder of the the changing landscape and colours" or something like that. so naturally we went at sunset. after paying the 15$ entry fee, we were promptly told by the toll-booth attendant that the visitors centre closed at 5pm (sunset in WA is at least 6pm). maybe i'm just being picky, but surely if you encourage people to come at sunset, you should be open until at least sunset?! and 15$ is not a cheap entry fee if all you get to do is drive around the track and walk around. bah!

the pinnacles are kind of cool though. but i'd have to agree that it wouldn't be worth a day trip (3 hours each way). and i don't think the colours were magical at sunset. they were just sand-coloured limestone outcroppings. thousands of them. in the middle of nowhere. which in itself is kind of neat.

in a nerdy, star wars way.
xo