Now in its fourth year, Let Them Eat Cake has swollen from 6000 to 9000 punters. Coinciding with this year’s event, Resident Advisor named LTEC the number one New Year’s Day festival in the world. It’s not hard to see why, the lineup is killer – a refined cut of the best, most creative international dance acts around and a host of top quality locals. Wandering around the Werribee Park site, it’s evident the setup is equal to the carefully curated bill. It’s all green and easy at LTEC, despite the glaring heat.
Baby-faced Ben UFO drops glittering disco funk as we drift past the pyramid-shaped Bastille Stage. It’s early afternoon, but he could easily be playing a headline set. His beats are so sweet and whomping that he manages to draw a crowd out from under the sheltering trees and into the full sun for a daytime dance.
We collect a Negroni and some other fancy-arse cocktail on our way through the Food Rave, where Melbourne’s best food trucks are plying their wares, and head for another early peak. Over at the Guillotine stage, Motor City Drum Ensemble (AKA Danilo Plessow) has opened his set with hammering house beats and skittering high hats – he’s just ploughed right in, and the crowd is going crazy. Nearby, Seven Davis Jnr is wailing and rapping through a live soul/funk set, his peroxide blonde crop a glowing beacon on the Palace of Versailles stage.
Heading back towards the Bastille Stage, we spot three separate people in top hats. The joyful, artful threads of the LTEC crowd sets it way apart from any other dance festival. There are boys in drag and floral two-piece playsuits and girls dressed as Polynesian princesses and art nerd hipsters. Every festival has a vibe and this one is breezy and laid back; moderately toasted, but happy.
The kids who want to stomp stick with Motor City, while the “older, sophisticated” crowd (says my older, sophisticated friend) make their way towards Four Tet. Kieran Hebden starts out slow, dreamy synths rolling into reggae and snail-paced funk, and people are uncertain. He gradually winds up, skipping up the BPM with amazing cross-jumps and leisurely twisted knobs, until his set finally explodes in hail of original material from across his last few records.
While Four Tet plays, hometown heroes The Opiuo Band are killing it with a live electro funk set on the Versailles stage. Over at the Swamp Shack, adjacent the various foodie delights, Salvador Darling Experience have mustered a small but truly bonkers crowd for their bouncing drag party. As they scream to a finish, Slum Village start a two-man hip hop onslaught next door on Versailles. Germany’s Kristian Beyer from Âme is halfway through his monster three-hour set back on Bastille: a thudding swamp of unbroken trance beats topped by big, drifting melodies morphs, before a heaving crowd, into R&B-laced house.
We wander around the tiny green site, past the abandoned outdoor canvas of artist Ash Keating, the 19th century mansion looming in the background. As the night wears on, it will glow with light projections. Come eight o’clock, we’ve hustled up in front of the Versailles stage again. Daniel Avery is about to start his pounding headline set on Bastille, but Com Truise has unexpectedly caught our attention. The American producer explodes off the stage with massive ‘80s-flavoured synth beats, glitch so icy and hot it’s hard to tear ourselves away. But over on the Guillotine, DJ Tennis has started and he’s every bit as awesome, slaying the crowd with arpeggiated melodies over huge trance beats. Briefly, we wander away for the toilets and catch good time all-girl quintet CRXZY SXXY CXXL playing Justin Timberlake for a bunch of grinders assembled in front of the Swamp Shack.
The day has already been incredible – truly the best one-day festival we’ve ever attended – but LTEC has saved the best for last. As Tennis continues to heat the crowd with his glorious techno, Jon Hopkins takes to the Versailles stage for the headline set. He’s playing live, which means many heart-lifting, head-wrecking highlights from Immunity and Insides. We’ve seen this set before, maybe half a dozen times, but it never loses its power. Hopkins builds and breaks these thunderous, rolling beats, but it’s the melodies that carry you away. He’s an absolute genius. It was the perfect end to a perfect first day of the year: a sea of arms waving at this sweet guy on stage, feet slamming in joyful rhythm.
BY SIMONE UBALDI
Loved: Watching DJs hug.
Hated: Actually nothing.
Drank: Fancy-arse cocktails.
