Basement Jaxx Golden Plains: After the clouds cleared at Golden Plains, it was clear we were all waiting for one thing
When the clouds cleared at Golden Plains, it was clear we were all waiting for one thing: basement jaxx golden plains. Thousands of strangers gathered at the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre over the weekend (7-9 March) under warm skies, drawn together by the festival’s famously welcoming No Dickheads Policy. The amphitheatre transformed into a couch-filled, kaleidoscopic living room where ceremony, slow-building sets and unforgettable voices shaped the weekend.
Festival atmosphere and headline moments
The eighteenth edition arrived in vivid colour: mirrored sunglasses, glittered cheeks, flags and drifting costumes refracted sunlight across the grassy bowl. A Wadawurrung Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country opened the weekend and grounded the gathering in its connection to the land, smoke drifting across the amphitheatre as the crowd fell into stillness. Nolesy’s long blink then signalled the official start, and a ripple of cheers spread across the hillside.
Early sets moved the crowd from wired indie rock into dreamier, soulful territory. Public Figures delivered a burst of wiry indie rock that sent initial ripples through the audience, while New York experimental pop duo Water From Your Eyes later shifted the mood with warped melodies that shimmered through the warm air. As the sun dipped, delicate electronic textures softened the moment toward dusk.
Basement Jaxx Golden Plains and the waiting crowd
The Sup became Golden Plains’ unofficial living room: sofas, vintage armchairs and inflatable lounges were strapped in, dragged through gates and arranged across the hillside, creating what felt like the most comfortable dance floor in Australia. That domestic, communal layout amplified the weekend’s emotional peaks — when Obongjayar’s set pushed from delicate falsetto to thunderous intensity, and when Marlon Williams and The Yarra Benders performed with Ngā Mātai Pūrua in a set described as almost ceremonial.
Obongjayar’s vocal extremes registered as one of the weekend’s most striking performances; Marlon Williams carried a voice that felt both ancient and intimate, lifted further by the rich harmonies of kapa haka group Ngā Mātai Pūrua. These moments threaded a sense of ceremony and grandeur through an otherwise laid-back, sunlit festival experience.
Immediate reactions from the field
By mid-afternoon the hillside had settled into prolonged, meandering hours where groups reclined on couches and surrendered to long musical arcs. The weekend’s warmth and soft afternoons encouraged lounging, and the festival’s tradition of bringing furniture amplified that communal feeling. Performances swung between intimate vocal showcases and textured electronic sets, leaving audiences both hushed and wildly animated at different turns.
Across the bowl, the combination of ceremony, striking solo voices and inventive electronic sounds left a clear impression: Golden Plains delivered both contemplative and cathartic moments in equal measure. The welcoming policy and the ceremony at the start threaded through the weekend as a common frame for that experience.
What’s next
The amphitheatre will quiet, couches will be packed away, and the memory of warm afternoons and those vocal peaks will linger — along with a collective sense of anticipation that the weekend only sharpened. After the clouds cleared, crowds were united in waiting for basement jaxx golden plains; whatever that waiting signifies, the festival left a clear impression that next time the hillside will gather again, expecting something equally singular and communal.
