St. Jeromes Laneway Festival did not disappoint, the 2023 festival season has really started with the bar set high as a star studded line-up of international acts landed in Adelaide and energised its new inner city location Bonython Park. Headlined by sister trio, Haim and YouTuber turned hottest 100 Top 10 artist Joji, the day was spent deliberating which performance to prioritise as they were each as enticing as the next. With a recent surge in popularity thanks to a strong social media presence, the undoubtedly talented Fred Again.. was the artist to see for a vast majority, earning an uninterrupted time slot across the whole festival, event organisers made sure that there was no artist competing for their fans attention. Despite having a much smaller stage, international performers Slowthai, 100 Gecs, Chaos in the CBD and Ross from Friends were able to bring the house down with much more intimate sets which left opportunity for much more crowd involvement, especially from Slowthai who almost spent more time in the crowd than on the stage. However, even on the larger stage Turnstile lead singer Brendan Yates managed to get involved with the fans as he crowd surfed himself and the microphone stand into the ‘circle of death’ for part of their performance. Incredibly energetic sets set the tone for the day, despite most stages having no relief from the glaring sun, there were incredibly energetic sets across the board, more than you would normally expect from a touring festival – and one that you’d be kicking yourself to have missed at that!

Photography and Words: Nick Carfora