FUTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2014

A crowd of some 35,000 festivalgoers converged on Sydney’s Randwick Racecourse on Saturday, for a day of raging sun, dancing and electronica. Crowds were set to party as a colourful montage of costumes paraded the grounds, everything from dinosaurs to bananas were spotted, with native-American headdress proving to be the most popular.

Pharrell Williams swaggered on stage mid-afternoon, wearing his trademark gigantic fedora. He performed a fantastic mix of songs, in what was an all-too-short, 30 minute set. Nevertheless Pharrell delivered his smooth style, including hit favourites like Get Lucky and songs he had written for other artists, like Gwen Stefani’s Hollaback Girl.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis turned the heat up a notch; revving up the crowd. Although they may have peaked too early – playing their three major hits first – they proved hip hop can have a social conscience with songs like Same Love (something only too relevant to Australians today). Macklemore did get up close and personal with his fans (sort of), crowd-surfing using a blow-up rubber dingy towards the end of the set.

Though there were some epic headline acts, the smaller stages meant that audiences were never stuck for choice. Future suffered an under-representation of female artists, but Aussie girl Katie Valentine certainly did her best to make up for this, dishing out some killer beats that had the audience grinding.

As things began too cool and the sun dropped, Tinie Tempah made sure his crowd remained hot and sweaty. Rudimental followed with an absolutely epic set. With uniquely London charisma, they sustained their energy, dropping the crowd-pleaser Waiting All Night towards the end.

Cut Copy provided some much needed Australian blood as their indie-electronic-pop went down a treat. Audiences were left dreaming of candyfloss clouds, as they were swept through classics like Take Me Over to newer songs from their most recent album Free Your Mind.

As expected Deadmau5 ended the night by delivering an enormous set in heavy electronic style, though the glamour of lights may have shone brighter, the crowd couldn’t get enough.

Contrasting the other headliners, dreamy French alternative-rockers Phoenix, gave them a run for their money. Their set of kaleidoscopic synthy beats and dreamy vocals were a perfect comedown to the sometimes over-powering rhythms of earlier acts. Lead singer Thomas Mars lived up to his reputation standing on the barricades and crowd-surfing at least four separate times, to the glee of many tear-stained cheeks and out-reached hands. (ATS)

Check out our AMG gallery below for some of the best moments of Future Music Festival 2014.

Photos: Alexis Talbot-Smith