The unlikely duo of Murray Wiggle (The Wiggles) and Wally Meanie (The Meanies) join forces early in the day with their Bubblegum Machine, welcoming early birds to Victoria Park for 2017's annual Reclink Community Cup.
Boxwars exhibit their biggest ever event at their first Cup appearance. Cardboard aircraft jet across the green field, with children of all ages inside the marvellous creations. By mid-afternoon most of the aircraft have been disassembled, but a few thrilled youngsters have managed to keep a hold of at least their headpieces.
The first regular act of the day is Jen Cloher, whose bouncing indie tracks welcome the ever growing crowd. Courtney Barnett joins her partner on stage, and debuted in the setlist is Cloher's latest single Forgot Myself.
The beginning of the match erupts in roars of support and team spirit, as Megahertz and Rockdogs file out of their changing rooms, both with an entourage of cheerleaders to follow. Rockdogs take the lead pretty quickly, but that doesn't prevent both teams from having a could-have-been-choreographed dance together at quarter-time to Destiny's Child's Bootylicious.
Another quarter and Rockdogs are still in lead, playing one helluva game against their radio presenter opponents.
At half time we're getting funky to Remi Kolawole and his eponymous band REMI. There's a prominent stench of marijuana floating through the crowd, and one punter who's very eager to bust a move.
He's joined by Sampa The Great during For Good and our grooving is well and truly underway as the two own the stage among the rest of the band and a Rockdog's player rises up on someone's shoulders.
"This is a song for the warmer days, about getting drunk with your friends, and it seems like most of you are already halfway there," Remi laughs as they progress through their set.
Back on the field, we cop an eyeful from the first streaker in the third quarter, who's chased off by a player. The Rockdogs' water boy comes to hydrate the team, also butt-naked. One streaker scores a goal with his own footy, and another crouches down on the field to skull his beer; Megahertz score a goal and the ball ends up in the grandstand, which is caught by an eager punter.
Throughout the day the smell of sausage sizzles lingers around the field, and the consistent queue for the portaloos and beer finally begins to ease, despite remaining constant eye-grabbing entertainment.
The first and only female streakers of the day make one hell of an appearance, wearing only their Rockdogs merchandise and holding a STOP sign.
Towards the end of the game a children's drum kit is assembled to the left of the goalposts, a guitar resting on the kick drum, as a Megahertz player gets taken down in a domino effect tackle.
Winning the game with an outstanding performance, Rockdogs take The Cup and the enormous crowd erupts in a roaring cheer. Two naked males join the celebration, one on top of the other's shoulders. The fields celebrations separate and within minutes the oval is covered with ecstatic punters and flying footballs, cheerleaders and a brewing mosh pit for The Peep Tempel.
After a few minutes of sound checking by fellow team mates, The Peep Tempel take the stage with Rayguns. The crowd screams along beneath the setting sun, and we dance around, clinking our Young Henrys tinnies. Carol brings even more punters to admire the Peep's engaging set, and they hold our attention during Constable as they say a big thanks to the constables present. The stage is ambushed by cheerleaders, who pretty quickly take their stage performances to the next level. Blake Scott drinks from The Cup, spilling booze on his team jersey, and suggests that the cheerleaders remain on stage for the rest of the set; both team's colours becoming a blur in the dark.
Through another intermission, our footballs fly across the field as we await the day's headlining band, Spiderbait. There's some comedy banter from our host on the stage, and before too long we're aware that although it's below six degrees, Kram is wearing thongs behind his kit.
Kram begins on the vocals, and soon he's mixing it up with Janet English among the songs. Even from a distance their sound is crisp, as their amplifiers are at 11, and it's the perfect soundtrack to having a kick around. Fucken Awesome gets us singing along and soon they're joined on stage by Dan Sultan. Beneath the field lights, the excited crowd begins scattering at the end of the set, young kids still singing Black Betty as their parents drag them home.
Comments