Field Day 2011

Overview

Walk the streets of London or NYC on the first day of the year and you'll find only emptied cold streets echoing to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. But here in a city where sunscreen and festive cheer walk hand-in-hand, it seems only natural to stretch midnight celebrations 'til sunrise and over to the nearest city park. And so, the perennial question: will you see this New Year through, or will you be climbing into bed at a quarter-past 12 to arise for an early Field Day?

Whatever you decide — although I daresay you'll change your mind after a few glasses of champers — Fuzzy has just announced a clanger of a lineup for Field Day 2011. The Ayawaska-inspired Klaxons will headline, along with the godfathers of hip-hop Public Enemy (rumour has it Flavor Flav still rocks out the clock) and a handful of Aussie and international favourites including long-awaited The Rapture, London indie band the Mystery Jets, bouncy crowd-pleasers Art vs Science and Sydney's beloved French DJ duo, Justice. There's also New York electro-rockers Sleigh Bells, funny Frenchies Jamaica, kooky Brit girl Marina And The Diamonds, and electro-king Erol Alkan. The list goes on with Tame Impala, Duck Sauce (Armand Van Heldon and A-Trak), Chromeo, Peaches, Trentemoller, Aeroplane, a DJ set from Baio of Vampire Weekend, and a hark back to the good ol’ days of Finger Lickin’ Fuzzy break-beats, Plump DJs. Nice!

Now, a second question to pose: will you go for the standard long-loo-queue poor man's standard ticket, or for the slightly more expensive one where you get to wee when you want, feel very important buying drinks from the Botanic Bar, and (apparently) meet, greet and harass the acts on their way into the festival?