The Gold Coast Parklands hosted yet another perfect Big Day Out, welcoming 50 000 people with bright blue skies and a pretty average Queensland summer temperature of about 29 degrees (Celsius). Three main stage areas, two amazing tents and a number of other smaller stages hosted a fantastic lineup of people from 11 in the morning to 11 at night. With huge names like The Chemical Brothers, Beastie Boys, Carl Cox, and the Freestylers (only to name a few), awesome tunes were enjoyed by all. See the image below to find out where I was during the day:

If you care to see how the rest of the day was (be warned it’s a long one) then brace yourself and read on.

Despite my willingness to get lots of rest in preparation for the day, I found myself waking up one and half hours earlier than my normal body-clock waking time of 6am. With the heat and humidity of the day already noticeably uncomfortable, I should have gone back to sleep but I found I just could not. Later that morning, we had reports of rain from friends of friends, threatening to turn the mosh pit into the giant mud pit that was almost all of the Parklands last year. Fortunately for us, Queensland turned on its best and brightest with pretty clear skies for most of day accompanied by the rather unforgiving rays of Queensland’s scorching summer sun. Sunscreen is a definite must � a valuable lesson learned harshly from last year’s experience.

Other reports of bad highway traffic saw an early departure from Brisbane that got us to the venue a little past midday. Events such as this are so fantastic for both the variety of music and the people that you end up chatting to all day. It wasn�t until walking through those entrance gates and gazing across the immensely dense crowds did the amazing festival atmosphere sink in. We walked around the grounds in search for a good tap to fill up the camelbak bladders we had been forced to empty upon entering. I highly recommend anyone going to these huge events to take one because water can be difficult to come by (cheaply!) and it is just too easy to get dehydrated. Of course like at all events of this nature, the needs of staying hydrated must be well balanced with the difficulties of getting access to a toilet (talk to any girl at one of these events and I�m sure they�ll be able to educate you).

Had my leg been in a better state than was left after my accident, I would have spent more time in the middle of the Boiler Room, so I found myself drawn to the other stages for the first half of the day. When I went over to watch Eskimo Joe, I was amazed by how much space was in the D area (also known as the mosh pit) and just could not resist the opportunity to get prime position for the rest of the day. With the help of the camelbak and the frequent hosing down of the crowd by security, I somehow managed to last four hours standing up under the blistering sun without a break. After witnessing another solid performance by Eskimo Joe, I was then completely blown away by the rock and roll antics of The Hives. The lead singer’s preacher-like interaction with the crowd combined with his amazing, almost hysterical, jumping and kicking antics really got the crowd revved up. I think I will have to listen to much more of their stuff.

The Hives were then followed by brilliant performances by The Music, the John Butler Trio and Grinspoon. Although the John Butler Trio’s set was mellower than both The Music’s and Grinspoon’s, there was no doubt the crowd got into their music just as much. Towards the end of Grinspoon’s set and the foreseeable craziness that would be brought by Slipknot (take these melon-heads as an example), I thought it was a good time to exit and catch up with the rest of the guys. I managed to track them down (after receiving messages an hour or two later than sent) to the Boiler Room and caught the end of Infusion.

As you can tell from the rest of the program, I tended to float around for the rest of the night trying to catch as many performances as possible. I cannot say that I was disappointed by any of the performances I saw, making the relative cost of the ticket very affordable. My only frustration, shared by so many other people, was the inevitable clashes that were guaranteed to occur. The highlight for the end of the night was definitely the Beastie Boys. Taking lessons learned from last year, I caught the end of Powderfinger, and waited until they opened up the mosh pit once more after everyone rushes over the other side to the Blue Stage. By the time the Beastie Boys had finished their act, I was only about five or six people away from them! Of course this meant giving up a prime position to see The Chemical Brothers but by that stage I was in no condition to really be in the middle of the Boiler Room. I still managed to enjoy their music from afar and witness the amazing light show. Big Day Out 2005 was an awesome and rewardingly tiring day that I would, with no hesitation, attend once again!