Stereosonic

Overview

I'm sorry, Splendour who? In the wake of the whirlwind wow that pervaded this year's uber-festival, Stereosonic is striking and strutting out, as Australia's annual electronic music festival amps up for its fourth summer beatfest. With a solid techno-heavy lineup with more day-glo and Berocca fizz than Gary Numan's walkman, this year's rollcall wowed enough to sell out 1^st and 2^nd releases on the first day of sales with a generously stretched 3^rd cache now available for latecomers.

This year's Sydney run has nothing but love for punters, with promoters moving the festivities to Sydney Showground's Main Arena, just for kicks. Onelove and Hardware assure that the shift is sure to minimise sound issues, mobilise transport, schmick up facilities, supply snoozy parkland, give artists some onstage room to move and keep things raging until (just before) midnight.

The major drawcard this summer is Dutch headliner and trance bravado Tiësto, sauntering onto an Australian festival stage for the first time since 2005. The coy worldwide uber-clubmaster is joined across 2 main stages by the diamond-studded specs of quirky Scottish nu-disco kingCalvin Harris, cropped blonde electropop beats of Swedish sirenRobyn, deck wizardry of Barbadosian baron Carl Cox and Jamaican-me-crazy reggae fusion from Diplo/Switch project Major Lazer. With the additional likes of Sebastian Ingrosso, Benny Benassi, Infected Mushroom. Wiley and Afrojack amongst a solid local and international mixbag of DJs, electronic artists and progressive collaborators, this festival of sonic wonderment is, to be blunt, gloriously bangin'. Hands up.