Live Review: Alison Wonderland's Scarehouse Project proves she can deliver a killer festival
After touring her massive show across warehouses in Australia and America for three years, ALISON WONDERLAND has moved onto bigger things. Her festival tour SCAREHOUSE PROJECT was a way to bring all the energy and theatrics of her live performances into an all encompassing festival experience. Parklands and farms across the country were converted into horror themed stages, incorporating performance, visuals and interactivity for a festival nothing like we'd seen before.
A project like this is a huge undertaking, but after her history of leading her own warehouse parties she was overly prepared to deliver more. Alison Wonderland brought a crew of local and international music pals, pulling some huge names in rap and dance music to crowds around Australia. Sure the Scarehouse Project was wrapped in tantalising mystery and boasting a killer line up, but how did it stack up?
THE ACTS BROUGHT THE ENERGY
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Even if the Sydney crowd was a bit lethargic while the sun was up, the names on the bill sure weren't. Sports and Young Franco lit up the stage with infectious joy and USBs full of bangers. Haiku Hands and Lunice acted as their own hype machines, revving up the crowd with frantic physical performances. On the side stage, programmed by LA party crew Brownies & Lemonade, acts like Danger and duo Sachi plumbed the depths of Soundcloud to bring niche sounds to an appreciative crowd.
THEATRICS PAID OFF
From the start of the day, the mystery and horror was laid on with cryptic texts guiding punters to busses, to take them to the slaughter. Alison and her team put a lot of love into customising the festival experience. Throughout the parkland were cages filled with painted zombies and costumed scary people, under a looming neon sign commanding "KILL THEM ALL". Everything from her redesigned occult-inspired AW logo to the shade cloths printed with spooky graffiti to the reusable printed cups all helped create a festival experience like no other.
FESTIVAL FOR THE SENSES
Music festivals are evolving into fully fledged experiences and the Scarehouse Project was ahead of the curve. Both the Scarehouse and Brownies & Lemonade stages boasted killer LCD visuals, smoke machines and lighting. Acts like Antony & Cleopatra, Lido and Party Favour used these set ups to their full potential, delivering engaging live performances that were exciting to be a part of. When the sun went down the show was even more impressive, with Alison pulling out all the stops for her own performance featuring pyrotechnics, confetti and flame throwers.
STAY COOL
Between acts, text on the big screens reminded festival goers to look out for their mates. Free water and sunscreen in between the two stages made for a well established safe party zone. Sure there may have not been much seating or shade unless you were in the VIP area, but blue shirted crowd carers could always been seen roaming the crowds cooling punters with sprays of water and perking them up with lollipops.
LOVE WAS CONTAGIOUS
As Sydney was the third show of the Scarehouse tour, the whole touring crew have obviously gotten cozy and it showed. A$AP Ferg brought on Manu Crooks half way through his set for a repeat performance of his banger, 'Assumptions'. For a special performance with "his best friend", Lido invited the woman of the hour, Alison Wonderland, to the stage for a bear hug and a joint percussion sesh to her remix of his track, 'Crazy'. And in the most special stage crash of the night, Alison paused her closing set so a fan could propose to her girlfriend just days after the same sex marriage bill had passed in parliament :')
Images by BRAYDEN SMITH
WORDS BY HOLLY O’NEILL
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