The Overview of Electric Gardens Festival in Sydney

Introduction: From London to Sydney

Damian Gelle and Anton Marmot met in London in the '90s over a mutual love of music and enjoying the hedonistic spoils the capital has to offer. They decided to go into business dabbling in event promotion and all things electronic until 2004 when they had their “eureka” moment. What London needed was an electronic music festival in the heart of the city, and the location they chose was right on their back-door step - Clapham Common.

The Rise of SW4 Festival

Over the next ten years, SW4 became the “largest electronic festival” in London and continues to this day, playing host to 70,000 people across two days featuring the crème de la crème of the electronic world providing the soundtrack (Smith, 2019). Fast forward to 2014 and leave the old world, Mary Poppins, and bad weather behind: The pair decided to return to their motherland Australia, and the festival bug has proven hard to shake for both. Hence, Electric Gardens was born.

The Birth of Electric Gardens Festival

The 2016 large-scale, multi-stage Down Under incarnation of the event took place in the lush surroundings of a subtropical botanical garden in the heart of Sydney: Centennial Park, on lands traditionally in the custody of the Gadigal clan (Jones, 2020). After strolling past a variety of wildlife that calls Centennial Park home, including pelicans, black swans, mallard and white ducks, and purple swamp and common moorhens, attendees were welcomed by another species: The common drug sniffer dog and their uniformed handlers. The festival offered beer gardens and well-maintained, ample chill-out zones for people to eat, sit down, and relax while still being able to enjoy the proceedings on the stages. This was a nice touch and something rarely found and executed in this manner at other festivals.

Culinary Delights and Social Responsibility

Rows of food trucks offered fare ranging from ice cream to Mexican, via organic Asian food, to the staples of pizza and burgers. It was refreshing to see that Electric Gardens was providing healthier, nutrient-dense options and that, with Sea Shepherd Australia, Electric Gardens has found a support-worthy charity partner (Thompson, 2021).

Highlights of the Festival: Headliners and Performances

Headliners included Bedrock Records founder John Digweed, cue the Trainspotting soundtrack, playing a set of upbeat progressive house and trance. His punchy distinctiveness and earthy rhythms also dominated one of the after-show parties. Fifty percent of the Grammy Award-winning duo Deep Dish, in the form of the Iranian-born DJ Dubfire, followed with a set of jet-black polished chrome techno, which was a nice change of pace and mood—starting off techy and evolving into a brooding, heavy yet minimal techno extravaganza.

The Grand Finale: Fatboy Slim's Performance

Finally, Norman Cook, in his EDM alter ego Fatboy Slim, had the masses congregate in front of the main stage, itching for a good stomp, and the vibe instantly went up. It was what the day was building towards, and the anticipation was palpable. Not unlike a dance music conductor with a Hawaiian shirt fetish, he proved to be an MC in its purest form, signaling the crowd to the meter and pauses of the dropping big beats. Fatboy Slim juggled his signature big beat with more contemporary fare, throwing in crowd pleasers for good measure. In unison with the visual aesthetics and oversized glow sticks that were handed out, his set created a pulsing mélange of sound and spectacle. Teasers and allusions to his hits, peppered with a sheer endless stream of classics from all genres, formed the foundation of his set, including an homage to the Thin White Duke—right here, queen bitch, Rebel Rebel, right now, rockafella skanking into the night.

Conclusion: The Essence of Electric Gardens

In many ways, Fatboy Slim’s set signified the essence of Sydney’s Electric Garden Festival: An enjoyable, well-orchestrated event with the right amount of well-trusted elements, engaging and uplifting. As the festival continues to evolve, it remains a beacon for electronic music lovers, offering a unique blend of music, culture, and community.