Meredith Music Festival

2018. Year of the Kookaburra. Onomatopoeic of its call, and hot, sizzling hot. Off the back of one of the driest springs on record, Friday hit 38 degrees and punters spent much of the day moving with the shadows thrown by the Amphitheatre trees, while smoke from a bushfire near Buninyong drifted across the site and closed part of Bush Camp as a precaution. Then, during Yaeji's late Friday set, rain arrived in some weird cosmic coupling of beats and atmospheric pressure. The music was a broad church. The Breeders headlined Friday night with Panda Bear, Pond, The Aints! and Genesis Owusu, and Yaeji and Roza Terenzi carried it into the small hours. Saturday ran from the City of Ballarat Municipal Brass Band through Sui Zhen, Montero, Mental As Anything (Greedy Smith pouring tea before a whole Sup sing-along), Nadia Rose, The Pharcyde, Billy Bragg, Mildlife and Sampa the Great, before The Presets, DJ Lady Erica and Lil Louis, the founding father of house, took over the night. Sunday wound down with Tourist Kid, Ooga Boogas, Shrimpwitch, the Master Song Tai Chi and the Meredith Gift, and the comet Wirtanen was visible to the naked eye above it all.