Spilt Milk 2023

Spilt Milk

Gold Coast, Qld - 26/11/23

Spilt Milk returned to the Gold Coast on Sunday the 26th of November and MFA was in attendance to experience one of Australia’s most anticipated events on the festival calendar. To describe the day as humid would be an understatement, with the clouds keeping the sun’s shine restricted, the day was thick with moisture and steam making for a “water is my best friend” kind of day. We arrived early, around, 10:00 am to be met by a decent crowd set up in front of the entry gates. Now when those gates opened the festivities kept coming, every time we walked past they were still coming, spewing in continuously until about the 7 pm mark. It was around this time that if you looked around at the number of attendees you would have thought a chunk of the GC’s under-30 population was here to enjoy the company of some of the best artists and bands in the industry right now.

Spilt took place at the Carrara Sports Complex, the complex being located a short 7.6km or 13-car ride from the centre of the Gold Coast (this becomes important later in the story). Inside the sports grounds, stages both large and small were strategically placed around the grounds and while the dotted locations made for very little crossover with the acoustics, trying to traverse between stages once all 36000 ticket holders were in attendance, plus staff, was a time-consuming and patience-needing exercise. The bottle-necks happened at the various entries to the main stadium and as such the main stage, the Angove stage, which would be where fans would experience the big international names due on stage including Post Malone, Dermot Kennedy, Latto & RUEL, were tricky to navigate but a gold star for the patrons as not once did we see any “dickhead” behaviour.

Strategically placed next to each of the three larger stages, and more at the far entry point of the main stadium. It didn’t matter if you wanted sweet or savoury, hot or cold, a snack or a meal, literally every type of cuisine was on offer Brazillian BBQ, Japanese, Pizza and pasta, Hamburgers, Greek, Kebabs, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Turkish, Vegetarian, Salads, Loaded Fries, Frozen Yogurt, Doughnuts, Dagwood Dogs, Hot Dogs, Vegan and even the great man himself was there with Colonel Sanders setting up a KFC store which was giving away a range of items including Nugget inspired merch. Speaking of Merch, the range was huge! Not only could you buy a variety of Artist merchandise but Spilt Milk’s range of branded festival souvenirs was impressive, with a range of t-shirts, jumpers, hats, drink bottles and even a cute little shirt & short set.

For a festival that was scheduled to run across 12 hours, on a fluid-sucking hot day, with over 35k people attending, I was super impressed with the lack of drama. Sure a couple of people needed to attend medical, it’s a festival, it happens but the music never had to be stopped to pull someone out, I didn’t see people dropping like flies, I didn’t see any fights and if i’m honest I only actually saw police have to do their job once and that was at the front gate, the rest of the time they were just trying to not let their partner see them bouncing along to the music. Medical Teams were present in abundance, the duty of care obviously taken very seriously by organisers but again I don’t think they were given to much to do either. It’s at this point I would like to highlight how beautiful the Spilt Milk staff were!! They were helpful, kind and nothing seemed to much trouble for any of them, sometimes this is not the case when people are under the amount of pressure there is on event day.

Spilt Milk like most of the larger festivals had a VIP section and sometimes the extra dollars aren’t worth it, this was not one of those occasions. VIPs had access to elevated viewing platforms at both the Angove and Basquiat stages as well as their two VIP sections with private bar, private toilets, lounges, tables and chairs, shade and cloakroom. Also included with the pricer ticket were the quick “best dressed” lines. These were at all bars around the venue and the merch stores and the wait times for service were almost nonexistent. while e are on the subject of lines, usually they stretch on for forever at the toilets at a festival. Don’t get me wrong there was a line at most of the loos but it was four or five deep at most, not twenty of thirty deep which is closer to the norm. Spilt Milk can boast it had the most amount of Portaloos I’ve ever seen at one event. There were hundreds of them and thankfully for the drinkers, not squished into one location in an obscure corner at the back of the grounds, groups of them were set up in various positions around the complex and all easily accessible. Another easily accessible item was drinking water with tanks and troughs set up in multiple places as well as the council’s refill stations which were also available for punters to use when near the stadium.

Some Festival staples were present including Red Frogs handing out free sunscreen and free red frogs to all that need a sugar fix, Be Safe Lockers so people could safely stash their belongings so nothing got lost while having a good time & Glitoris to add that sparkle back to your make up if you had danced your off already. Some local market stalls set up near the Chill Out Zone also made a killing selling sunglasses, fans, hats, bags and clothing, all items that would come in handy to those on site.

Around 7:30 I situated myself at the top of the stadium which gave me a bird’s eye view of the comings and goings of the main stage located in the heart of Heritage Bank Stadium and with the crowds so thick getting from one stage to other had become a slow and arduous task despite the general orderliness of the well over thirty thousand crowds. it is at this height with this vantage point that you can really observe the “festival” and “festival behaviour” and Gold Coast you’re a great bunch. It’s also at this viewing point you see a lot of the ‘bad’ behaviour associated by the general public with festivals and their attendees doesn’t exist here tonight or in Australia in general. We do festivals differently here in Australia

Spilt Milk had an impressive roster of artists and with one reviewer and one photographer we were never going to get to cover them all so I’m just going to give you the highlights for me from each stage ( Feel free to comment if you have a different opinion or a favourite act we didn’t see)

Angove Stage: We shall crown Post Malone as king and Latto as queen of the biggest stage, both their sets were huge in production and obviously faves with the audience, both artists clearly establishing a connection with the punters pressed up against the barriers. Dermot Kennedy was engaging and perfect in his delivery and RUEL was absolutely faultless.

Basquiat Stage: Budjerah and the crowd singing ‘Therapy’, Peach PRC’s cover of the Paris Hilton track ‘Stars Are Blind’, and Peach Fur being joined by special guest Saint Lane.

Derbyshire Stage: The clear first place holder here goes to Australian metal band Redhook. They always bring a high energy to their sets but today’s was made even more memorable with lead singer Emmy coming out in a straight jacket and a Hannibal Lecter face mask. The Buoy, Gentperez and the amazing Jessie Murph set which included a magical crowd singalong were definitely our favourites here.

Now I have very few criticisms of this event (actually only one ) but I do have a warning, I probably wouldn’t make Spilt Milk your first festival. The 12-plus hours of solid music and the massive amount of punters is not for the faint-hearted. So if you are looking to come to Spilt Milk in 2024 (and everybody should) we highly recommended you attend a few warm-up festivals in preparation. Now for the complaint. Now lets be clear this complaint is a three-prong issue, only one of which has anything to actually to do with Spilt Milk or its organisers. The trip home. Free shuttle buses were provided by Spilt Milk but people had to lineup for three hours to catch one, so if possible more busses next year please Fam. Whoever it is in Queensland that controls the “Geo Tag” as this was turned off we were told, only allowing people to secure Uber’s if they walked out of the blacked-out “Tag” area (roughly 2km from the festival). The third, now remember when I told you how far it was from Carrara to the Gold Coast, my motel was closer than the actual GC, I was in a Maxi Taxi with groups of people all staying at the same motel and the Taxi Driver (Driver 135 045 534) charged us $200. This was after he tried to sting us for $240 and threatened to dump us on a dark side street if we didn’t pay immediately. Now given the bus was full of visitors to Qld, it didn’t leave a great impression (Annastasia are you listening). As I originally, said my only complaint is partially connected to the actual event but we are honest and feel it is our responsibility to be transparent for our followers.

There is a reason Spilt Milk is known as Australia’s fastest-selling festival and with two of the four shows completely sold out and the other two not far behind Kicks Entertainment can safely keep its crown with its only close competition being the newly established (here) KNOTFEST. Spilt Milk did what it promised, delivered a festival with something for everyone on the roster, but more than that they delivered an experience. One that was on such a scale that a lot of Aussie festivals would drown trying to keep up.

We would like to thank all the Spilt Milk Staff and the wonderful team at Kicks Entertainment for not only having us along but for also taking such wonderful care of us. We can’t wait to see what this fabulous team will deliver in 2024. See you next year Spilt Milk xxx