LoveBox Police State 2009

I went to LoveBox festival in Victoria Park on Sunday. It was wicked! I loved it. Saw Rodrigo Y Gabriella finally. I don't think it was their best perforance but it was still kick ass. We checked the band stand by the Tree House, there was a guy who looks like a very slim victorian gent, pocket watch and all that... with tights on. Mr Bruce and his sidekick DJ producer Mr Chuckles, aka The Correspondents, drew hundreds of people to this small corner of the festival and they rinsed it! HipHop/DnB/Jungle but with a 1920s jive sound and witty MCing. An amazing show and everyone was jumping!

The other side was the side everyone knew about but nobody wanted to talk about. The police and security firms were bloody everywhere. They had meat heads back from Iraq taking up positions on the barricades. The whole thing was surrounded by 2 15 foot metal walls with CCTV set up. Sniffer dogs going up and down the turnstyles backed up by a team of plain clothes coppers. 18 year old middle class kids were constantly getting dragged off somewhere not knowing WTF was going on. A friend of mine had a spliff on her and was friggin strip searched. She was very distressed about it. She's a responsible and successful hard working adult and had never been done for anything in her life. I managed to get a smoke in the main area but it took over an hour to smoke it for all the patrolling policy enforcement officers. They were f'in everywhere and if it wasn't for the quality of the performers the whole thing would have been fcuked. Check out the Correspondents though, they rock!