IT was the Meredith Music Festival that will be remembered as the wettest ever.
Some will think back on it and remember MGMT’s epic Saturday night set. Others will recall The Scientists Of Modern Music’s 3am dance-athon.
But mostly, when the 10,000 punters think back on Meredith ’08, they’ll remember two things – the rain and the mud.
Organisers and regulars agreed it was the worst weather a Meredith festival had seen – even worse than that once-in-100-years storm in 2004.
It started raining as punters slowly rolled in on Friday afternoon and didn’t stop until Sunday morning. About 46mm fell on the first night – the wettest December day Meredith had seen in almost a decade – and about 95mm over the whole weekend.
In Merediths past, revellers are usually treated for sunstroke, dehydration and extreme sunburn. This year, 16 people were treated for hypothermia. Tracks were closed, cars were bogged, tents were drowned.
But it was still fun.
Even amid the shivering damp of Saturday night, the Meredith spirit lived on. Steam rose from the mosh-pit as people danced the night away, not caring who was playing in the end, just wanting and needing to move.
Most people threw themselves into the Friday night of the festival with typical abandon. Unless you had some decent boots, then footwear was useless. Hardy - and possibly insane – souls wandered around in bare feet and satured clothing.
As night fell on Friday, festival-goers got their first taste of what it was all about. Spiderbait drummer Kram – one of the few musicians to play the first Meredith 18 years ago when it was a private party for 200 people – rocked his way through his first solo gig, invigorating the crowd.
Stoner rockers Ten East unloaded some mean riffs but it was the band that followed, Philadelphia’s Man Man, who were the highlight of the festival for many with their combination of disco beats and junkyard orchestrations.
Then it was time to travel back to the ‘90s for the energetic pop-punk of Regurgitator, who pulled out a ‘best of’ cavalcade of indie hits from their lengthy career.
Many disappeared into the mist after that to find the tent (it was 1.30am after all) but many hung around to dance into the wee hours with Holy F*** and The Scientists Of Modern Music.
Saturday’s first band Tame Impala benefitted the most from the weather. A larger-than-usual crowd turned out to see their morning set, probably because it was a choice of being wet and uncomfortable in your tent or wet and rocking out ‘60s-style in the arena. Seemingly everyone chose the arena.
Saturday rolled on through a number of highs and lows. Canadian indie darling Final Fantasy won few fans, but the acoustic rock of Mountain Goats was a highlight.
The Bronx tore Saturday afternoon apart with a blistering punk-rock set led by the stage-diving antics of singer Matt Caughthran, but it was the dance-tastic set of Architecture In Helsinki that got everyone moving in the mud.
Somewhere in between these two bands, the inevitable happened. Like every rain-soaked festival in history, there was always going to be mudsliding, and sure enough, on Saturday afternoon it began.
As a disappointingly out-of-tune Little Red wailed in the amphitheatre, daredevils in wetsuits, shorts and birthday suits slid, dived, rolled and skidded their way through the mud, coming up looking like the Swamp Thing.
As day became night, festival regulars Combo La Revelacion did their salsa thing and ex-Kiwis The Datsuns rocked hard.
But it was MGMT that most were waiting to see, and they sure made us wait. Between being booked for the festival and arriving on stage just before midnight, they had become one of the hottest acts in the world and they didn’t disappoint, delivering an epic set that mixed psychedelic rock moments with hits such as Weekend Wars, Kids and personal favourite Electric Feel.
A parade of DJs kept the keen punters dancing into the morning, but by the time the sun came up, many had endured the sogginess for as much as they could take. A few dedicated rockers stuck around on Sunday for Black Diamond Heavies and Even but the mass exodus had begun.
As everyone headed home for dry clothes and warm showers, few were disappointed with the weekend. No matter how much rain falls, the Meredith spirit cannot be dampened.
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