It’s not every festival feels like a country weekend fete that just happens to be headlined by Father John Misty. Fairgrounds, Australia’s newest boutique camping festival descended on the small NSW town of Berry on Saturday, December 5. Taking over the local Berry Showgrounds, Fairgrounds boasted all the trimmings of a major music festival with the essence of a local fair — with a mini-Meredith lineup to boot.
Headlined by the high priest of folk balladry, Father John Misty, alongside Brooklyn's rocktronica duo Ratatat, Portland/New Zealand’s genre-defying Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Sydney’s raucous garage favourites Royal Headache and Melbourne’s soul virtuoso Meg Mac, Fairgrounds brought the best bits of Meredith to Berry for one (bloody hot) day of laidback sets at the showground. Between Josh Tillman’s rambling philosophising — “I hope pop music gets existentially fatalistic in the next year,” — and Shogun’s humble apologies for a blown amp — “That sounded like elevator music on mushrooms,” — punters were treated to quite the cornucopia of artists — some even caught CW Stoneking adorably reading tales to kids in the storytelling tent. Really.
With a strong focus on the local South Coast area, however, Fairgrounds wasn’t just about the tunes. Local nosh, local market stalls and the local swimming pool played equally starring roles at this multifaceted festival — something we’re sure made Berry residents pretty happy. Between watching Searching for Sugarman at the openair cinema, sack races, bouts of tug-of-war and dips in Berry’s local pool (within the festival grounds and equipped with hectic DJ sets), punters feasted on local delights, from South Coast candy from Berry’s own Treat Factory, and fresh rock oysters from An Australian Affair, harvested less than half an hour from the festival site. Plus pies, pies, pies, pies, pies. Straight-up, it warms our jaded little hearts to see a smaller scale festival like Fairgrounds supporting local nosh, something still spearheaded by the likes of local loving’ bigwigs like Bluesfest and Splendour. Although there were a few food shortages and longish waits, Fairgrounds’ menu was a slam dunk of a local spread, one worth waiting for (if you tried the oysters).
Check out our gallery of happy snaps from the festival. Here’s hoping Fairgrounds pays Berry a second visit, this is one Aussie event we’d line up for again — anyone who sets up shop down the road from The Donut Van is alright by us.
Photos by Andy Fraser, words by Shannon Connellan.
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