Friday, January 27, 2006

Happy Australia Day

From the people who brought you the drunken masses of New Years Eve, Cricket Matches and the Melbourne Cup, comes the latest installment of 'is this entire country intoxicated???'... its Australia Day! Mind you, it is our own damn fault for choosing to partake in these large congregations of youthful exuberance, but gosh - these people seem to be just constantly drinking to no end. Lest we be so judgemental.

Australia Day marks the arrival of the First Fleet to Sydney cove in 1788, providing the foundation for the white settlement of this country. Conversely, indigenious groups have declared it to be both a Day of Mourning and Day of Survival. Officially, it is accompanied by the year's 'greatest Australians' being declared and publicised in the newspapers - seeming as if Nicole Kidman has won half of this years awards, from Outstanding Performance by a Anthropology Student to Best Red-haired Humanitarian in a Non-Scientology Role. If only her Oscar run was this thorough and complete - it really seems as if there is a shortage of celebrities for this country to fawn over.

Yesterday we attended, along with 70,000 of our closest friends, the Big Day Out concert and festival extrodinare. It was an all day event, my friend Tyler and I getting picked up by Peggy straight from the airport, as we had just returned from the reef. The grounds were at the spacious Sydney Olympic Park, held over several acres and spanning multiple venues, giving you much to choose from at any given time. There were different types of musical genres all being played, from techno / electronica to rock. For those of you so inclined, the set list can be found here.

But back to the cutting social commentary... with our friends Rich and Michelle, we took a good spot for people as well as concert watching and hunkered down for the afternoon to laugh at drunks. It was a fairly Anglo crowd, with some noteable exceptions (both green and token - pictured). All were jovial and good-natured, quelling Peggy's fears that our section would mirror those she's experienced at the Cricket matches and erupt in violence.

Having known Peggy and her family for eight some-odd years, I've been fortunate enough to attend the San Diego County Fair each summer, where Mrs. Mannen is one of the HFICs (Head Fairgoer in Charge). Chana has the logistics down cold of crowd-control and people management. Should San Diego / Del Mar ever be invaded by Tijuana, the fairgrounds would be an excellent rallying point for the fleeing masses, solely due to the organizational abilities of the Fairgrounds staff. That being said, what we witness yesterday was just the opposite. People jumping over 8ft barricades in order to get down to the stadium turf, human pyramids formed, then collapsing on crowds of people. Aluminium cans (as opposed to plastic cups) being sold by the million as an alcoholic beverage container. No visible security / staff, other than aimless alcoholic beverage container recyclers with large bags mingling amongst thousands of screaming, stomping fans -- no doubt trying to casually and convienently perform their recycling duties as close as possible to the stage of their favorite band.

The Australian acts got the best response, with the finale performer really receiving only a lukewarm reception. I guess that people had already had their fill of sunshine / booze / distorted guitar riffs and co-incidentally began heading for the exits. What we had been waiting all day and night to finally see, ended somewhat anti-climactically. Having had early, 6am wake-up calls three out of the four days, as well as sleeping on a boat / in a loud, cheap hostel on those occasions, we were absolutely spent.

posted by ncawthon at 6:00 PM