River Sounds
River Sounds - Bellingen Showgrounds, Bellingen, NSW
19th - 21st August 2022
“how goods the music been”
The inaugural River Sounds festival took place at the Bellingen Showgrounds from the 19th - 21st of August. What an impressive 3 days it was, especially given that most festivals suffer some teething problems in the beginning, not to mention the previous postponements due to Covid and lockdowns.
Originally announced for August 2020, River Sounds has been on MFA’s radar for a long time and to be honest we attended not knowing what to expect. Bellingen is a small regional town on the mid-north coast of NSW with a distinct bush hippie feel so I think I can be forgiven for having my doubts about whether they could put on a full weekend festival that had a lineup that included some big-name artists, a local stage and a boiler room.
“It’s been the best day ”
Well didn’t the team from GIGBIG surprise the shit out of me. They did everything right. The music was on point, the stages were located perfectly, there was a wide variety when it came to food and beverages, lots of seating and shockingly, amenities that stayed clean up until it was home time.
“Everyone’s so happy ”
“So good to have this in Bellingen”
River Sounds was an all-ages event and sure the crowd had strong hippy vibes but that only made for very fun & friendly interactions. There was no segregation between the 4500 attendees when it came to the different age groups, except for in the Bar Area, with everyone mingling happily. This festival was a credit to the organisers and we thank Ben and his team for having us along. With this event clearly a massive success we can’t wait for River Sounds 2023.
River Sounds Festival Our Rating
Public Transport: N/A
Line-Up: 🎫🎫🎫.5
Amenities: 🎫🎫🎫🎫
Food: 🎫🎫🎫🎫
Bars/Alcohol: 🎫🎫🎫🎫
Merchandise: 🎫🎫🎫
VIP Package: N/A
Over All: 🎫🎫🎫🎫
Day 2 Summary:
The Local Stage
Little King was a great mellow opener until changing the playing pace with their latest track with Hip-Hopper Wild Card
Tanuki provided a bluesy-jazz sound to the day that the locals were loving.
Rear Wheel Drive served up the classic Aussie rock vibe that had everybody at the stage bopping along.
Samba Soul, a 14-piece percussion group were a sea of white and red with drums of all shapes and sizes, maracas, cowbells and everything else you can imagine that if you bang or shake makes noise. Their timing was impeccable with a beat to rival the rave stage
The Boiler Room
Dave Forward was all smiles and dreads as he dropped his vinyl-based DJ set.
Jimmy D and Jason Lewis delivered high-end city club beats to the festival with a psytrance flavour that packed out the Boiler Room
Biz had a prog tech house feel with energy and fist pumps galore to the booth
Katch from Resin Dogs did a solo shift in the club-inspired area using classic samples, tracks and the vintage vinyl method which is a lost art to some on the current DJ circuit.
Simon Caldwell had no room left in the Boiler room with a crowd that’s age spawned generations and a temperature difference that made it hard to go back outside.
Main Stage
Sunfruits had a fun indie rock sound which was the perfect opener for the big top tent.
The Pinheads stepped up the rock levels with crunchier guitars and a frontman who worked the stage like a visual delight.
The Lazy Eyes served up a very casual groovy vibe that kept the crowd happy.
Jerome Farah got everyone bouncing and was definitely a crowd favourite, crushing it with his tracks ‘Vibrate’ and ‘Concrete Jungle Fever’
Stonefield proved girls know how to rock with cracking guitars and strong drum work.
Resin Dogs brought an old skool hip hop flavour to the festival, even using a scratch table. They played originals from 1987 before launching into some current hits with horns that added a jazzy touch.
Baker Boy exploded onto the stage to chants from the crowd that were squashed against the barrier, and it was clear that’s who most of the younger punters were there to see. The highly in-demand artist fulfilled his set with an unending smile and a high-intensity energy level that was hard to keep up with.
Regurgitator was clearly who the older attendees wanted to see and as one of the country’s best rock bands, they didn’t disappoint, playing their best-known hits from the controversial ‘I sucked a lot of….’ to the commercial chart-topping ‘Polyester Girl’ with the crowd singing along word for word.
