A Joyous, Monumental and MUDDY Splendour

What more could you wish for?

 I sang my lungs out to Beyonce along the pacific highway and smiled bright eyed despite a 5am start and a burnt McCafe coffee. The sky was lit with iridescent colours as the earth invited us on an adventure towards Byron Bay.... 8 hours and 50 minutes to go. Nature at that moment, supported pure feelings of euphoria. The feelings were nothing short of satisfied and content. I was fulfilling, along with my best friend a dream we'd had since we were 16 years old. This trip was a monumental moment, a symbol of a new found freedom and love and a new age of adventure and music and friendships. It was a reward to myself, I was taking on a promise I'd made as 16 year old Elena (and Steph). I had a pact with my worries to let go and run wild and flow with all present feelings... to embrace autonomy. I think that under my terms, I most definitely did so.

10am woodstocks, Kings Cup, paranoia, Joseph's breakfast Mie Goreng, The Wombats and Florence and Meg Mac epitomised Splendour....The Wombats featured not only the flawless Mathew Murphy and his infamous words 'lets all scream like we're giving birth', a sore voice and a satisfied crowd but a sense of community and a shared love. Everytime I turned towards a friend, it was hard not to smile and squint while piping the lyrics to 'Your Body is a Weapon'. A mans eyes had rolled as his curly mop of a head bopped back and forth (untimely) to whatever slow motion bass was playing for his personal enjoyment... he was having the time of his life. Florence, on the other hand is a gleaming angel who has such an energetic and positive stage presence. She fulfils the role of a perfect artist and performer. She performs and she delivers and it was more than absolutely brilliant...  Meg Mac.... She is my only love (not really, I'm open to others). She has no album, just an EP but she kills the songs that she does have as well as her rendition of the Broods', 'Bridges'. I saw her at Groovin' and would absolutely see her again. Xavier Rudd.... what an insanely incredibly beautiful man. I had the urge to dance and sing and his passion radiated within the GW McLennan tent. His music has meaning and it is spiritually and emotionally aware and awakening. His sympathy and connectedness to Australia and its vast landscape and culture is so prevalent.

I can't forget all the other wonderful people I saw:
- Mark Ronson
- Of Monsters and Men
- Porter Robinson
- San Cisco
- Japanese Wallpaper
- Mansion Air
- Harts
- The Rubens
- Pond
- Dune Rats
- Tame Impala (insane)
- Alison Wonderland
- Last Dinos
- The Vaccines
- Alpine
- Royal Blood
- OH Mercy
and more.....

I'll tell you one mud story. My friend Steph and I ventured out to grab a few drinks before the Wombats and Florence palava and fun. The drink stand was strategically (NOT) positioned at the top of the hill above the amphitheatre. Stick it together...  nights and days of straight rain.. and a large hill. It didn't end well but we were determined and although at times I felt like giving up, I was egged on by the tango line of extremely attractive men that pulled and pushed me up the hill (thankyou Stephanie for laughing and documenting this on snapchat- muchly appreciated). I received a Smirnoff ice RED (never drinking again) and a bourbon and coke and slid down the hill to the comfort of friends and a sense of ultimate achievement and success.  Add to a funny story... I lined up for the compost loo for about 20 minutes and in festival toilet time that isn't too long. Just before I went in (I didn't) the guy before walks out and says to his friend, "mate, thats revolting, there's no room left in that toilet for anything'...

I have all the plans to go back next year and to experiment with other festivals as they come around. I haven't stopped listening to the set lists and I don't think I ever could...
I've said it so many times but thankyou to Steph, Sayuri, Juzan, Maia, Joe, Sarri, Stank, Samir and Jeremy for being great company and for allowing me to come into your weirdly incredible friend group. Sarri summarised it pretty well...

"We faced many hardships, battling the deadly monsoons, wrestling with the quick-mud, Joe's earth-shaking snore, goon overload, paranoia, noise complaints and the speed limit. In these hardships we lost many good shoes and clothes... Nevertheless, the goodtimes outweighed the bad. Some found love in unexpected places- notably the packed mosh of the florence set while I was stuck right behind you, you two sickos (I saw everything). We made friends, including but not limited to, three day pinga deep guy, the reverse dinga guy, 600 pingas deep guy, the sexually charged hipster guys, the bathroom coke guy, tommy the songwriter, Jazzy Jeff, and so on. Many horrendous snapchats were made mainly involving Joe sleeping, aka dying. In the end, we all made it out alive and Jeremy didn't get lost. Also, the music was good too. TL:DR. Splendour was fucking awesome."



Ill leave you with that.

All ze love, Elena xxx