Future Music Festival, Sydney

The Future Music Festival took place last weekend at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse. The festival is predominantly dance-based and combined DJs with bands like Does It Offend You, Yeah? and was headlined by a typically barnstorming set by The Prodigy. It wasn't just for the danceheads though, and any rogue indie kids could escape the doofdoof with Franz Ferdinand, Empire of the Sun and Operator Please.

An innovative addition to the festival was the Cirque De Surreal-themed Smirnoff Precinct. Located next to the Pink Flamingo Stage, the two storey precinct featured live streams of the onstage action and had the appearance of a mad hatter's party, with a massive table in the middle where performers put on an hourly show while punters drank Mojitos and Mules. Upstairs, festival-goers escaped the carnage of the festival at a chilled out club with heaps of comfy seats and table service, while others took advantage of the elevated dance podium which overlooked the main stage.

In a time when promoters can be lazy enough to just stick a load of bands on a stage and get away with charging stupid amounts for tickets, it is pleasing that there are still some nice touches like this at festivals. As anyone who has been to the likes of Lattitide or Glastonbury will tell you, a festival experience should be as much about what is happening off the stage as on it. It seemed that, with the death of the wonderful, relaxed and diverse Great Escape Festival, Sydney had given up on the idea of a festival that offered more than just the bands on the bill. However, with Playground Weekender being all about the FUN and with thinking outside the box like the Mad Hatter's crazy precinct at Future Music, maybe there is hope for us who want more for our festival dollar than watching Dizzy Rascal turn up for the zillionth time.