ST. KILDA FESTIVAL REVIEW: SUNDAY 19TH FEB 2023
St. Kilda Festival returned last Saturday and Sunday to beautiful weather and attendance all round. With over five stages, there was plenty of talent on display from the local stage all the way to the main stage.
The first day of the St Kilda Festival, titled First Nations First, paid tribute to First Nations music, culture and community. Presenting an array of established and emerging First Peoples’ artists across the St Kilda festival stages, Saturday’s lineup featured Christine Anu, Lady Lash, Caution and Credence Blanco.
Some of Australia’s biggest acts took to St Kilda Fest including Confidence Man and Genesis Owusu, but it was the local stages that delivered the most promising and inspiring performances.
The sun was beaming down on this Sunday afternoon with all of the streets teaming with excited punters, particularly around the strip of shops that led to the local stage. Sat on the edge of an intersection, there was a meeting of many different musical worlds, from blues rock to pop punk, the local stage was demonstrating a variety of influences for up an coming, and established local artists.
The first act I was able to see was Brooke Taylor, an energetic blues singer who would connect with the audience through her electric energy on the stage. With songs such as ‘I Still Close My Eyes’ and ‘Shot Down,’ she was able to demonstrate her evident experience in the Melbourne music scene with over a decade of experience under her belt. Along with her quirky crowd interaction, there was laughter and dancing filtering the street as people would slowly retreat from the main stage to see her performance.
After a walk down the road, I would arrive at the Catani Gardens Stage to see JK-47, 2020 Triple J Unearthed ‘Artist of the Year’, one of the most promising Australian hip hop artists of his generation. This performance was far more than just music but a platform to educate and inspire young people in fighting against a system that has affected our community since inception.
A system that actively suppresses the voices of First Nations peoples, every break between songs would see JK create conversations to the crowd. Flowing beautifully, this performance would leave the crowd inspired, angry, entertained and educated in not only JK’s experience but the governmental and societal systems we live in. A truly great performance that was concluded by his recent like a version cover of ‘Changes’ by Tupac, performed in unison with the crowd this moment was a highlight of the entire festival.
Lastly at the local stage, I managed to catch the entirety of the Delsinki set. Supported by heavy guitars, saxophones and trombones, the sheer noise by this band led to a huge crowd filtering to the St. Kilda side street. A meeting of many different musical influences including Brooke Taylor, there was a round table of seasoned Melbourne artists on this final performance of the local stage. Songs like ‘Across the Ocean,’ was a crowd highlight. The instrumentation was beautiful as the set was illuminated with guitar, drum and saxophone solos.
St. Kilda Festival truly exemplified the diversity within our music scene. With an incredible lineup that showed many underground and underrepresented voices, this gave punters a true insight and appreciation of our music industry that is not often displayed.