After a trouble-free start in Brisbane on Saturday, yesterday's Melbourne leg of the
Laneway festival left fans divided. Literally.
The Victorian version of the Laneway festival was marred by long queues, complaints over low stage volume levels, shifting playing times and angry patrons. By the end of the day, frustrations boiled over at the new Little Londsdale Street Stage.
At about 6:30pm after a set by festival favourites The Drones, a long line to enter the stage area snaked down the road for several hundred metres. By 7pm queuing fans were being told they would not be able to enter the street due to overcrowding. Police gathered and at one point could be seen organising security while looking at blueprints of the area, before one policeman told the crowd via megaphone to disperse.
Ticket holders, desperate to see the stage's headline acts Architecture in Helsinki and the immensely popular US DJ Girl Talk, instead crowded the street entrance and argued openly with security, with some clashes leading to several festival goers being taken away by police. Punters, media and some artists who had left the area were refused re-entry, while a man toting a homemade sign reading "Laneway Refund. Sign the Petition." with an email address underneath, was met with cheers.
By the time Girl Talk hit the stage, hundreds of shunned ticket holders had assembled on the lawn of the Melbourne Library next to the Little Londsdale entrance. When a nearby speaker began loudly pumping out the DJ's set, the lawn and surrounding garden was suddenly transformed into a giant impromptu dance party. One which, from some reports, was louder than at the actual stage area.
Did hometown punters pay the price for the festivals expansion this year? Give us your views in the
Melbourne Laneway Festival forum.
READ OUR REVIEW OF THE 2009 LANEWAY FESTIVAL
(Pics: Kristy Lee)