No sky too gloomy for infectious, high-energy crowd and stacked inaugural line-up at Middies festival

A music festival on a long weekend is always a good idea. One boasting a line-up of sun-soaked WA bands delivering unrelenting batches of easy, breezy weekend tunes indulging you to crack a tinny and have a bloody good time at the beach is even better. Within the current landscape of music festivals cancelling left, right and centre, starting the inaugural Middies festival was no doubt a daunting experience for its trio of organisers. Luckily for us, and as evidenced by someone cheerfully informing organisers had sold the last of their 1000 tickets at the door as he trotted past about 5pm on the day, the event happily proved a sell-out and unequivocal success. In typical Albany fashion, Saturday’s gloomy skies were bookended by a Friday and Sunday of gorgeous sunshine, though the spotty rain had dried up by the time the festival’s gates opened. Luckily the remaining stiff breezes proved no deterrent for keen festival-goers, who gleefully flocked to the grassy area by Middleton Beach in their hundreds. Early entrants were visible thanks to their fluorescent pink and orange Smirnoff hats and sunnies, as were the more organised patrons, who cleverly set up camp chairs and picnic blankets at the back of the throngs. While the over-18 age cap limited younger people from attending, the event was by no means restricted to one demographic, with parents joining their adult children and older couples enjoying a twist on their date night seen alongside flocks of teenagers and twenty-somethings from all over the Great Southern. Experience local party starter DJ James Thorne opened the day at 3pm, before youngsters Lights Out took their particular flavour of pub rock to the stage and magnetic crooner Jack Hamilton delivered his cathartic set. The gentle trickle of arrivals became a flood by the time Perth indie rockers Lazy Haze climbed on to the block, offering the crowd a slice of laid-back summer groove. Two-piece Ruby Hoo ramped up the lazy leisurely energy of the crowd to a stir with infectious riffs, kicking the crowd to its feet with full-throated earworms such as Lovers and Before It Was Now that demonstrated the source of their rising reputation for a good live show. Crowd-pleasers Dear Sunday capitalised on the eager audience with a flavoursome batch of easy, breezy summer singalongs, no doubt notching fresh fans with the high-energy hit Never Again, introspective Knock Knock and heated Luude collaboration Wanna Stay. No heads were safe from the dozens of beach balls lobbed above the crowd during the final set of headlining act Beddy Rays but neither the imminent concussions — nor accidental punches to the head from wayward volleys — could dampen the spirits of the excited crowd. Self-dubbed, “kings of a good time”, the Brisbane four-piece were the perfect finishers to the fledging festival, with their slightly rogue energy and mountain of frenzied guitar-laced hits ensuring everyone left with a high heart rate and a few mosh-sustained knocks. A hearty, explosively fun mantra to living (and drinking) while you’re young, Sobercoaster capped off a set list filled with hits such as Week On Repeat, Wait A While and acclaimed, gritty cover of Thelma Plum’s Better In Blak. As 3 Stripes and DJ James Thorne played out the show, the only conversation topic more popular than who, when, and how the event was going to come back bigger and better next year, was which taxi companies would be more likely to take you through the Macca’s drive-through on the way home.