RHW Out and About in Laneway

Laneway 2018 was a huge wonderfully executed distraction.  Heading into it was a conflicting idea to me. On one hand, Aidan (as I later found out) and I both had never been to a festival of this calibre, or any at all, so we had no clue what to expect. Additionally, being absolutely honest, we only knew give or take three people on the entire line-up. However, the offset to this was this strange premonition we seemed to have about the name Laneway, which just seemed inexplicably to imply it was going to be a great time.

That premonition was satisfyingly true. When we set foot into the festival, the vibe and overall set-up blew us away. After sitting down to catch Amy Shark, who according to Aidan sounds like an Australian Halsey, we kept looking for opportunities to explore the rest of the location. The attempts were largely unsuccessful thanks to the absolutely stellar line-up we knew absolutely nothing about. When we finally brought ourselves to break away from The Ransom Collective, a fresh 6-piece from the Philippines, we (just me) treated ourselves to some cider. The only reason we didn’t try any of the food stalls at the Uber Eats village was thanks to not being able to decide between the many unique choices available, before getting drawn away by heavy rock music in the distance. When we finally found the source; the Cloud Stage, I was taken aback by how easy it was to just get into the crowd and jam along to the hardcore rock from Amateur Takes Control. Ultimately, the best acts for Aidan and I were, Billie Eilish, Mac Demarco and of course Anderson Paak. and The Free Nationals, who despite multiple technical difficulties rebounded onto stage with what Aidan thought was “arguably the best performance of the entire day.” Laneway prides itself on leading new and revered seminal music, to which I might add, an extensive degree.

The sheer amount of heart that went into the entire festival, from the attractions, decorations, and especially the music, truly made for an experience like no other. 

Written by: Michael Tsang

Edited by: Jacquelyn Tan