With the aim of being Australia’s leading festival for families, The Lost Lands has been built on the promise of igniting the festival lover in everyone, and once again, they have signed, sealed and delivered on that promise.
Taking over the magnificent gardens of the Werribee Mansion on the Melbourne Cup Weekend (1-3 November 2019), both the young and the young at heart were captivated by a wondrous world of music, circus, theatre, comedy, art, food, wine and so much more! Year after year The Lost Lands continue to feature a stellar musical line-up of acts that can be enjoyed by both adults and children – meaning smiles all round, and once again, they absolutely nailed it.
Continuing the festival’s dedication to showcasing diverse talents, and commitment to curating a festival for all, this year the festival stage was taken over by the energy of hip hop star Baker Boy, English indie rock legends Gomez, soul sisters Vika & Linda Bull, electro-rock icons Regurgitator, songwriter & poet Sampa The Great, indie rock band Holy Holy, and Japan’s pop-punk outfit Shonen Knife – just to name a few!
As avid music lovers and festival-goers, we absolutely love getting out to as many gigs as we can, and this was a great opportunity for us to attend a more low-key type music festival – a music festival where there weren’t frustrating stage time clashes that you just can’t avoid, there was no ‘wall of death’ to get caught up in, and there definitely weren’t drunk fools running around – going a little bit too hard, too early (you know the type…).
Instead, there was a single main stage presenting the aforementioned bands and artists, there was an awesome dancefloor in front of the stage where you’d see kids on parents shoulders having the time of their lives, and you’d find most people spread out on picnic rugs with cheese boards and cold meats, eating and listening to music all day.
With overwhelmingly positive reviews from the entire Forte crew, we thought we’d make it simple and share our team highlights of this year’s festival.
Melbourne Ska Orchestra
While it’s always hard to bring it down to just one highlight (definitely not a bad thing!), Blake’s decided the Melbourne Ska Orchestra, as well as some of the members following up that wild set with a late-night Jazz performance on the steps of the mansion. This gig was complete with power cut out, acapella performance and many drinks were had. A close second for him though was being dragged up on stage by the entertains Katie Wright Dynamite in the Big Top. Classic!
Regurgitator
Regurgitator delivered an absolute timeless set that had most people up and dancing from the get-go. Decked out in a dazzling matching silver uniform, the trio owned the stage as they performed the likes of I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff, Everyday Formula, I Like It Like That and Blubber Boy. To the crowd’s delight, they even performed a fun version of I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am, of course changing the the lyrics to ‘I Sucked A Lollypop’ which garnered a few cheeky laughs from parents in the crowd. The best part was the cute cameo from Quan’s son during Polyester Girl, taking on the role of Polyester Girl in a cardboard box. He even came on again for the last few songs of the set, Blood and Spunk and ! (The Song Formerly Known As), stealing the show from his dad with adorable dance moves and a beaming smile, proving just how family-friendly this festival really is!
The Big Lost Band
After various rehearsals in Melbourne and Geelong, around 100 people came together to perform three songs with more than 20 guitars, 5 basses, 10 or so drumkits, 3 keyboardists, and a 50 strong choir on the front lawn of The Mansion. Glenn joined in on the fun not so discreetly with his Marshall, but he managed to hold back on the volume and let the young ones shine while they performed “From Little Things, Big things grow”, Spiderbaits “Calypso” before finishing off with a bang and the classic track “Thunderstruck” by Aussie legends AC/DC.
The Food
We all know you can’t be expected to party all weekend without fuelling up, and The Lost Lands made sure the tanks were full with a HUGE number of food stalls serving up all manors of deliciousness. We absolutely love our food, and the various options were so tempting, so much so that Nathan decided to make his way through more than half of them… from burrittos, kranksy, Tex-Mex BBQ, gnocchi, squid and potatos on a stick, to ice cream, pretzels, and Dutch pancakes, no stone was left unturned.
While of course these highlights merely skims the top of the diverse and wonderous festival program delivered by The Lost Lands, there’s no denying the charm of this refreshing festival, which truly draws a crowd of all ages and ensures everyone ignites that festival lover inside. Bring on 2020.
Photo by Ben Vella