Harvest Presents: The Gathering

Overview

It's always a good thing when the little festival that could gets a leg up on the big 'uns. In this case, Harvest Festival has fully pwned the competitors by sneaking an amazing lineup in before the summer festival season gets too messy and expensive.

Harvest says, “fuck ya” to the regular indie music festival mould that says you need to sprawl big names across a few days and use filler acts to make up the rest of the timetable gaps. Seriously, everyone is buggered by the end of a three-day festival and just really want a lie down. Harvest knows we are a lazy bunch and has devised a simple plan to knock us all out in one go: bring Portishead back to Australia after a 14 year absence, throw in TV On The Radio, add in some Flaming Lips (who absolutely blew everyone's minds at Splendour in 2009) and chuck in The National, Bright Eyes, Mogwai, The Holidays and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

Big Day Out can eat on that massive lineup and swallow the bitter Harvest pill. This one-day festival may have a program with under 25 bands, but it's exactly that no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point idea that will make it successful. Tickets are still available to The Gathering (as it prefers to be called), so make no mistake – you are going to be disappointed if you miss it.