Another Day In Forgotten WA

Laneway Festival is on its seventeenth lap around the sun, which means it’s time for us to start browsing the General Store, buying yoghurt pouches and listening to preparation albums so we aren’t all doing the ‘watermelon trick’ at each artist’s set. Or… is it? On the ninth of August, Laneway announced that their seventeenth lap back to Perth shall be no more. Has the decision of Laneway ‘taking a break’ sunk us further down the hole of geriatric claims that Perth already gets? Is this the nail in the coffin of Perth being the forgotten child?  We now question more than ever, if Perth is just… Ok?

Whilst Perth does have a reputation for being a touch tame, especially when it comes to our club culture, (…take it from me, a nightclub worker that is actively witnessing the death of partying), it isn’t like we let the stars that grace our presence know that. We show up and show out, whether it’s singing the strongest for Role Model who brought out Robert Irwin as ‘Sally’  last year at Perth Laneway, or for Perth-adoring Frank Ocean who cherishes us!

Perth getting left out of the equation has given me a moment to reflect. A reflection of what I’ll miss about Laneway. Is it the overcrowded bubblers that spit a lukewarm suggestion of water? Maybe. Is it the Vodka Red Bull that costs the same as my student amenities fees? Kinda. But mainly, it’s that moment when the world stops as I transfix on my idol as if I’m Bruce Wayne in ‘The Batman LEGO Movie’ seeing the love of his life. But none of that feeling is for us this coming festival season.

And they ask why us ‘Perthians’ buy a one way ticket to becoming ‘Melbournians’… Well, this is a lot of our ‘why’! A lot of the youth await the chance to see their idols at Laneway and other events (…that avoid us) as a form of escapism from the fact a lot of us don’t have access to fly to other states, access to the funds to go to solo artist concert access to have a good time. Laneway says this isn’t goodbye, but this feels like goodbye.