Grooved and Mooved In Maitland

Aloha! What's crakalackin?

Groovin The Moo has been doing the rounds in regional Australia over the past couple of weeks and last weekend the 'Moo Crew' brought the vibes to sunny Maitland (defs should reconsider spelling as M8land, because those kids down there are pretty friendly).

The lineup this year was very, very good, a lot of old time faves like Flight Facilities, Ball Park Music, The Preatures and some fresh ones like Meg Mac and One Day - although the One Day collective have individually familiar faces themselves, i.e Spit Syndicate, Horrowshow, Jackie Onassis and Joyride.

The first act of the day were The Soorley's. They brought the most cheerful folky festival vibes ever, you could see how happy they were to be frolicking around up on stage and it was so good to sit down on the ridiculously lush grass and watch with a bevy in hand... or in each hand.

Between The Soorley's set and Tkay Maidza's set I had already tallied a total of 5 cow onesies, made  friends with a guy who may have peaked too early and regretted not applying sunscreen, sun safety is cool kids!

Tkay is a weapon on stage, she had the crowd in the palm of her hand the whole time, dancing her ass off a sass-rapping the bejesus out of everyone. Her set is a non-stop banger marathon and I get sad every time it's over.

I found out Meg Mac has a huge following of fan boys who are really convinced she will someday take their hand in marriage. This was my second time seeing her live and from watching her in a tiny Spiegeltent where she was so nervous the whole time, to seeing her captivate a massive crowd of really enthusiastic fans, I can probably say she was one of my favourite acts of the day. Her voice is flawless, the amount of control that girl has over her pipes is enough to make you shed a single tear of appreciation.

Maitland is a funny place, mullets are in high abundance, by 3:15pm I had spotted a total of 17 cow printed clothing/accessories and overheard some brilliant conversations during Sticky Finger's set such as, "Pinky promise we will be dating by next Groovin." The Sticky's get people in a really feel good mood, if you weren't watching them from the pit, you were up on the hill having a little sing along with the rest of the punters. They brought out the One Day crew to join them onstage who were fresh from killing their own set, in which they performed their freaking beautiful Like A Version of Scribes Not Many, that was a really great moment.

"Pack 'er up boiiizz" was the heckle of the day, it became a sort of mating call in a way, if you were able to find someone who knew what the heck you were on about you instantly became bff's. Speaking of friends, another highlight of the festival was when Ball Park Music covered the "Friends" theme song and everyone in the crowd did those little claps at the same time, I really liked that, that was nice, ty Ball Park.

The Moulin Rouge tent was the place to be at night, between Hot Dub's time warp, Broods' heavy feels performance, RL Grime's trap arm inflicting mix and Flight Facilities' classic Flight Facilities all round hits for days set, it was a great time to be alive. However, some of the funnest moments went down during Zan Rowe's mixes, girl knows how to host a party, dumping all the fire bombs, Uptown Funk, The Voice, Lose Yourself,  I was having the best time, I kind of wanted her to keep playing forever.

So Groovin' brought it, ending on a high with Owl Eyes on the mic singing my personal #1 Flight Facilities song Stand Still. A few "PACK ER UP BOOIIZ!" later it was catchya Groovin The Moo and hello freezing cold sprint back to the bus so it wouldn't leave us stranded in Maitland having to catch a train all the way back to Sydney, thanks for waiting, Darryl.

fin.

Stay groovy, Love Kritty xx