Caloundra Music Festival 2021
1 – 3 October 2021
Kings Beach Amphitheatre, Caloundra
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It’s 11:30 am Friday, 1 October 2021 and the Caloundra Music Festival (CMF) ( 1-3 October) is about to kick off at King’s Beach. That’s right! CMF one of the biggest, if not THE biggest Australian beachside music festival, well-known for its authentic tag line - Sun, Surf and Soul, is back baby!
What should be CMF’s fifteenth annual event, is its fourteenth. There are no prizes for guessing pandemic pandemonium as the culprit that prevented CMF from delivering it loud and live in 2020.
Fast forward to 2021 (can you hear the chipmunks in my vintage cassette player?), festival cancellations or postponements still occur across the country, yet here I stand, one bountiful bundle of joy, at the entrance to CMF 2021 to embark on a sea-side musical adventure. Booyah!
Punters, for the ninth year can camp at the nearby school grounds, bonus for travellers on a budget and the weather is pretty good for it. The transport infrastructure including free buses, Uber and Taxi options cater to those who can’t make their way home on foot or wheels. I had no issue locating a park close by each day.
Just like King’s Beach itself, CMF is a festival of inclusivity. It is totes family friendly, all are welcome and no age restrictions (CMF responsibly has 18+ only inside areas). Young folk have their own space at the Funky Forest, with face painting, tie dyeing, sand painting and interactive performances, including a tie-dyed serpent mobiles by littlies through the festival on Saturday.
One of the 350 big-hearted CMF 2021 volunteers directs newly QR checked-in arrivals with empty water bottles to the free water station. Another vollie points out the sunscreen and sanitising station. I get spooked as she looks my way. How does she know I didn’t yet get my slop on? (“Slip, slop, slap” you know the jingle). Thanks lady.
I sanitise, slop on sunscreen and explore. Behind the main arena is the King’s Club (18+) where punters pay a little extra for a VIP type experience to sit in a prime undercover spot and view the two main stages with exclusive access to the appointed bar and toilet facilities. Serious punters are already in the shady haven downing ice cold beers – no judgment, it’s long gone 10am.
Patron accessibility is an important integrated element at CMF with ramps into the King’s Club and another onto a designated accessibility viewing platform that is also overlooking the amphitheatre giving an eagle eye view of its two stages. The festival organisers have assigned a patron accessibility volunteer to assist, if needed and I am hoping these things provide a positive festival experience for punters with accessibility needs.
Not feeling the desire to wet my palate with a brew just now, I mosey along and spy a few of the 17 Sunshine Coast food vendors who have set up shop. As far as food options go, the vendors have taste buds and most dietary needs sorted. I have no regrets circling back later for dumplings and ice-cream. Yum!
A sign hanging across the path screams Sun Stage (Sun)! Heck this is top notch digs for punters with or without a King’s Club ticket. Here you can escape the midday sun in a chillaxed space beneath shady trees and spread out a blanket or park your keister in a comfy sling style chairs or lifestyle bean bag loungers thoughtfully provided for patrons.
Punters clearly in the know, are gathering here with soft eskies in tow, claiming their spaces behind the fenced off dance area in front of the stage. Oh, that’s right, there are punter capped entry areas in front of all stages where you can dance, groove and even hula hoop. Punters are required to follow COVID rules and this includes wearing masks at all times if unable to socially distance.
On that subject - COVID restrictions inevitably means change to the CMF format for 2021. The festival is contained to the King’s Beach Amphitheatre area and capacity is limited to around 5000 bodies per day. This means no Surf Stage and nil performances inside King’s Club to allow more room for patron social distancing. So what if the program is set around three stages instead of five? I am ok with that, heck we are getting a festival! I exchange dialogue with many a punter over the three days who share this view.
As always, Soul Stage (Soul) is the main stage, the full size deal with killer lighting rigs. Alongside is little sister, Song Stage (Song) and the program has solo artists and bands alternating between these two stages to ensure punters a non-stop music experience.
This year Sun located on the amphitheatre ridge is a similar size and set up to Song. Sun is well-designed to face away from the main arena to avoid noise haemorrhage between simultaneous acts. Good thinking 99.
I later learn the 63 festival acts, comprise of some 350 performers. These acts are being supported by a crew of 291 legends (sound and light technicians, stage and set management, performer assistance etc)! I’m going to give a big thank you to the amazing and tireless behind the scenes crew and the vollies right here, right now before I forget.
Festivals can have one or two acts that don’t come up to par for whatever the reason. This weekend I can say that I did not witness any notable issues or poorly playing musicians or vocalists that maybe shouldn’t. Perhaps my rose-coloured glasses are glued on or I am easily drunk on the elation of being around live music that I don’t register the negatives – that not a bad thing, for me at least.
With a festival program chockers with not-to-miss mostly homegrown acts, I appreciate I will not see everyone perform and could not deliver a blow-by-blow account. I will be sure to share my opinion of honourable mentions and highlights that a I catch each day.
DAY 1
Georgia Corowa: Early punters were treated to Corowa with her electric acoustic guitar on Song, sing us a sea-breezy, easy listening set which sure charmed the gathering crowd.
The Steele Syndicate: The eight-piece groovers of indie funk-rock playing to the early birds and early afternoon arrivals hook me in with their brass section. After a few songs, some of young punters braved the full sun to enjoy being closer to the rhythmic funk and blues style numbers played.
Electrik Lemonade: Coming onstage, Electrik Lemonade bring forth a hybrid mixture of funk rock, hip-hop-funk tunes to their eager fans in the crowd. It’s a momentous set that doesn’t let up and gives punters a massive hit of charged music that sure has feet tapping, heads nodding and booties of all ages, shapes and sizes, shaking about.
Ian Moss: The iconic Aussie legend is back on Soul. Moss easily puts the crowd in a rapture. Most punters are belting out the lyrics to the well-known mix of Moss and Chisel songs even behind their masks. We nostalgically trip down memory lane with song, as a rain shower falls from the sky. Try as it may, it does nothing to dampen the mood of the audience singing along to ‘Flame Trees’. I see punters swaying to the music as they robe up in plastic ponchos.
Sofia Isella: This quirky 16 year old, performing on Song was impressively able to draw a bunch of plastic coated punters towards her as she flipped from her Violin intro to a cracker of a song ‘What Dress Will I Wear When I Get Buried’ all while the rain shower morphed into a downpour. Yours truly got drenched and wished she had a dry dress.
John Butler: As if on cue, the clouds stop shedding water as Soul headliner, John Butler takes the stage. Fans of all ages and genders just get nuts for Butler, every time. Tonight is no exception as he is playing all the crowd favourites ‘Spring To Come’, ‘Miss Your Love’ and ‘Better Than’. While I dry my camera, I hear wetted punters let rip as they sing along, screaming and cheering at and for Butler with a healthy hysteria all the way to the closeout.
Day 2:
Day 2 of CMF is shaping up to be a very warm one with bright blue skies and no rain. Friday’s crowd looked substantial and today’s crowd, I find out by mid-afternoon, is a sell‑out!
Sunny Coast Rude Boys: I join the early crowd gathered at Sun for an engaging ska-reggae set by Sunny Coast Rude Boys. Before their set ends, a young girl joins them on stage (if I heard correctly above the music, her Dad is in the band). I do know her mum was in the crowd as she tells me so with a smile full of pride. Looks like she’ll be the cool kid at school on Tuesday, for sure. See folks, it’s all about the family experience at CMF!
JaZZella: Performing her first of two slots on the festival program, JaZZella is up on Soul giving punters a taste of her melodic vocals and while I don’t know the name of her songs, her lyrics are very relatable. JaZZella has an effervescent stage presence and is winning over more than a few hearts in the crowd s they clap from the shaded slopes.
WAAX: Radiating a feverish punk-rock energy on Soul, WAAX push out a frenzied set to fans and other punters ahead of sundown. Lead singer Marie De Vita claims the stage with chaotic moves that has audience eyes darting from side to side of the stage. For a couple of minutes she drops on her knees to sing with a calm composure before getting back up and thrashing about again. I’m exhausted just from watching this powerhouse front woman!
Sametime: These lads have matured their indie-pop-rock, lo-fi sounds and Sam Aiken’s stage presence is more honed since I last saw them play. I can’t help but notice the excitable fans who have come to see this set as they cheer and sing along. Their fan base has grown considerably in a year who we could say have taken the time to ‘Get Ta Know Ya’ music (wink).
Jaguar Jonze: Impressive and had a pretty bit fan base in the crowd. Not only does she deliver her songs with smooth forceful pipes Jonze gets on flute and guitar demonstrating what a powerful all-round performer can pull off all with elegance and feminine style.
Ball Park Music: Bringing a motza of fans to the fore, Ball Park Music are killing it from the get-go. (What’s this, Sam Cromack is on stage with a sieve on his head? Sorry, I missed that episode lol) Fans are manic with excitement and as they play their banger ‘Everything Is $hit, Except My Friendship With You’ I see in the eyes of nearby masked faces, they are recruiting more followers. Ball Park Music continue to drop a high vibration set for the crowd from the smoke-filled stage. If only to get a head start on exit before a full capacity crowd attempts to leave, I made a premature exit before Ball Park Music tied a big bright bow on the sell-out Day 2 of CMF.
DAY 3
Mayah and the Band: Taking the reins as the first to ride Soul on the final day of the festival is Mayah & the Band. Giving the slow-moving crowd a peppy set, it wasn’t long to see punters get a little livelier as the band’s set gained momentum and hooked punters in. Although I didn’t stay for the full set, I was enjoying the vibe so much that in case I got hooked by ‘Indecisive’ feels from Mayah I darted away to catch the tail end of Jamison’s polished performance to the dancing punters gravitating to her on Sun.
Andrea Kirwin and the Yama-Nui Social Club Soul: With a voice that is like a rich textured velvet that secreted a drizzle of melted honey on the high notes, it was hard to not be captivated and stay awhile to listen and watch Kirwin and her talented ensemble. Bringing soul sounds of yesteryear and harmonies spiced with a little folk-rock and jazz here and there - I feel like Sam Cooke in heaven would be cutting shapes to the rhythms put out on Soul right now.
The Whitlams: Tim Freedman could never disappoint and this three-piece iteration of The Whitlams doesn’t either. With Freedman sitting high on keys, the crowd get all their favourites, including ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ and of course ‘No Aphrodisiac’. It is so cool to see well-regarded local talent, OJ Newcomb (Band of Frequencies) up on stage, I know he gets around (with more than few, bands that is) and now with the Whitlams! The crowd sang along to most songs and swayed to the melodies till the very end of the set.
The SUPERJESUS – with Sarah McLeod, the epitome of a rock n roll goddess comes out tinny in hand raised to her fans. The usual favourites are played and punters go berserk as clambers towards the crowd atop speakers may times during her set while Slack, Rudd and Dragani rip it and smash it up to give us a staunch set. Fans are in an intense frenzy and I spy a few of the loyal wolf pack – it is the beanies and earrings gave their masked-up faces away.
Sneaky Sound System: Whom else to bring a slice of disco glamour and pumping mixes to keep the crowd primed? The energy bouncing off the stage is high as the stars in the sky which seem to sparkle in time with the bass beats. Miss Connie Mitchell and Angus McDonald ensure ‘UFO’ is delivered as expected and of course another punter favourite ‘ I Just Don't Want To Be Loved’. The duo leaves the crowd orbiting from their dazzling performance.
Xavier Rudd: This modern-day storyteller and down-to-earth singer, song writer and musician is the perfect choice to close out CMF for 2021 and the thousands of fans are in the crowd solidify it. I’m not sure I could guess the millions or billions of fans he has attracted across the planet. I not only got tingly feels during the harmonica intro to ‘Follow The Sun’ but also as I listen to the punters singing along so clearly and sweetly with him. A punter tells me his whole body is covered in goosebumps at closing as the Gubbi Gubbi Dance Troupe which gave a uniqueness to today’s performances. The Troupe enhanced the feel of Rudd’s anthemic ‘Nanna’ – like that man said to me, “you know it’s great energy if your body hairs are standing to attention. Right?”. I love that CMF was opened by Traditional Custodians with a Welcome to Country and that Gubbi Gubbi people are closing out the festival too.
Among the punters I spoke with each day – all reported they were having a blast, many couldn’t say enough how they love CMF and that the whole family gets to come along – one mum tells me it’s the only family outing she doesn’t need to bribe her angsty teenager to come along to.
No single genre or style defined the high calibre solo artists and bands of CMF 2021 who gave a terrific entertainment experience to their audiences and fans. Having fresh home grown or adopted talent hitting the stages this year, has been a double bonus for them and for us!
With the pandemic cripples the music industry and related restrictions are a constant dark cloud that washes out or foreshadows live music – I am always overwhelmed with joy, each time the music industry runs the gauntlet and dodges a lock-down to blast out live music for starved punters. Not to mention that these precious wins help line the pockets of performers and other creative industry workers hurting for the duration of this pandemic.
My experience of a scaled down CMF 2021 was positive and enjoyable, not even an over enthusiastic fog machine operator couldn’t obscure my festival joy. It wouldn’t surprise me if there had been one or two squeaky cogs behind the scenes during the three-day event, it’s to be expected at some level with so many moving parts to a multi-day festival. I do confidently suspect that if a rusty part was reported, team CMF would have seen it oiled up quickly and efficiently to keep things moving smoothly.
I know that after 365 revolutions around the Sun, I’ll be back here at the Sunny Coast for CMF 2022, whether the format is scaled down pandemic style (not that much different to its early years), or a five-stage, surf-side big shebang. Either way, CMF packs an entertainment punch that goes the distance without trying too hard while serving up quality acts. I hope you to see your smiling or masked faces there and will leave you with a few more snaps!
