Rainbow Serpent Festival
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Rainbow Serpent Festival is a four-day annual open-air
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
and
arts festival An arts festival is a festival that can encompass a wide range of art forms including music, dance, film, fine art, literature, poetry and isn't solely focused on visual arts. Arts festivals may feature a mixed program that include music, lite ...
that takes place during the
Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Ja ...
(26 January) long weekend, in
Lexton, Victoria Lexton is a town in western Victoria, Australia, in the Shire of Pyrenees local government area. It is on the Sunraysia Highway, north west of the state capital Melbourne. At the 2016 Australian census, Lexton and the surrounding area had a ...
, west of
Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...
. The festival is mainly known for its focus on
electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
, with
psychedelic trance Psychedelic Trance, Psytrance or Psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full ...
,
minimal techno Minimal techno is a subgenre of techno music. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition and understated development. Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detro ...
, and
chill-out music Chill-out (shortened as chill; also typeset as chillout or chill out) is a loosely defined form of popular music characterized by slow tempos and relaxed moods. The definition of "chill-out music" has evolved throughout the decades, and generally ...
on its main stage, but it now features music across many genres, many art installations, workshops, and other attractions such as market stalls, healing arts and multi-cultural foods. Approximately 12,000 people attend the festival each year. The music is presented over a number of separate stages and features both Australian and international musicians. Many people dress up in colourful costumes, often featuring glitter and beads. Some of the days have themes; in 2016, these themes included different colour parties and a "safari day".


History

The name Rainbow Serpent comes from the Aboriginal Australian creation myth of the
Rainbow Serpent The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different Aboriginal peoples. It is a common motif in the art and religion ...
. The first edition of the festival was in 1998. The 2020 festival was cancelled due to site damage caused by bushfires in late December 2019. The 2021 Festival was presented as a
streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
event due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...
.


Description

The Festival extends over four days, on the long weekend which is always closest to Australia Day, on an open area of land near Lexton, in Victoria. It is mainly known for electronic music, with sub-genres psychedelic trance, minimal techno, and chill-out music, but it now features music across many genres, as well as art installations, workshops, and other attractions. There are market stalls, healing arts and multi-cultural foods. The music is presented over a number of separate stages and features both Australian and international musicians. Approximately 12,000 people attend the festival each year.


Stages

Five stages are listed on the 2020 Festival website: Main, Market, Sunset, The Playground, and Temple.


Main Stage

The Main Stage focuses on harder music such as
Psytrance Psychedelic Trance, Psytrance or Psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full ...
. Usually, the stage begins with an ambient act and progressively increases in energy throughout the night. The Main Stage runs for 20 hours, starting at 8:00 pm Saturday night, and finishes 4:00 pm Sunday afternoon.


Market Stage

The Market Stage plays a large variety of music ranging from
ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...
,
glitch hop Glitch is a genre of electronic music that emerged in the 1990s. It is distinguished by the deliberate use of glitch-based audio media and other sonic artifacts. The glitching sounds featured in glitch tracks usually come from audio recording de ...
, and
tech house Tech house is a subgenre of house music that combines stylistic features of techno with house. The term ''tech house'' developed as a shorthand record store name for a category of electronic dance music that combined musical aspects of techno ...
to
psytrance Psychedelic Trance, Psytrance or Psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full ...
. The Market Stage is the longest running stage at the festival, starting on the Friday night, and finishing early on Monday evening, it runs for about 72 hours continuously with no breaks except for one hour for the Main Stage opening ceremony. Many of the headliner acts actually play on the Market Stage, rather than on the Main Stage depending on their music style. The Monday afternoon on the Market Stage is widely regarded as one of the highlights of the festival, much like Saturday night on the Main Stage.


Sunset Stage

The Sunset Stage plays a variety of music throughout the festival, however, it closes for the 24-hour duration of the Main Stage opening. The Sunset Stage has more acts and genres than the Market Stage and the Main Stage provide.


Playground Stage

The Playground Stage, introduced to the festival in 2009, focuses on live performance music. The genres covered include dub,
reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
, hip-hop,
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
,
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...
, electro-swing, and
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
. It also showcases non-musical performers ranging from magicians to comedians,
mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...
s, and fire twirlers.


Notable Acts

2010 –
Robert Babicz Robert Babicz (born January 5, 1973 in Niemodlin, Poland) is a Polish-born music producer, mastering engineer and live performer living in Malta. With a career spanning nearly three decades covering genres from techno to acid house to minimal, Ro ...
,
David Tipper David Tipper, or Tipper for short (born c. 1976 in Wimbledon, London, England) is a British composer and producer specialising in electronic music that ranges from Ambient music, ambient, through trip hop, to uptempo nu skool breaks. His live p ...
2011 –
Shpongle Shpongle is a psychedelic electronic music project from England that formed in 1996. The group includes Hallucinogen and Raja Ram (one of three in The Infinity Project). The duo are considered to be one of the progenitors of the psybient gen ...
.
Alex Grey Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) is an American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner known for creating spiritual and psychedelic paintings. He works in multiple forms including performance art, process art, installation ...
painted live on the Main Stage during Shpongle's performance. 2014 –
The Orb The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...
2015 –
Pretty Lights Derek Vincent Smith (born November 25, 1981), known by his stage name Pretty Lights, is an American electronic music producer. Pretty Lights was originally a music project consisting of Smith and Michal Menert, who left after the release of their ...
2017 –
Hallucinogen Hallucinogens are a large, diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorized ...
2019 – Patrick Topping 2020 – Larry, Jason and Vernon Guruwirri, sons of "Mr Didgeridoo" Djalu, perform in their new band Malawurr and share their skills and culture in a
yiḏaki The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...
workshop.


Problems

Festival organisers have been criticised for the number of drugs and sexual assaults at the event and, in 2016, the future of the festival was questioned. Fans have defended the festival in response to critical reports. The festival has a social services space called "The Nest" to address instances of sexual assault and harassment. Victims are given access counselling and support services and medical resources. In January 2019 the then Mayor of the Pyrenees Shire Council supported the push by Rainbow Serpent organisers for pill testing.


Incidents

In 2012, Daniel Buccianti, a 34-year-old man, died due to a combination of prescription medication and
LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
. According to
Victoria Police Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''. , Victo ...
the death was not suspicious. That same year, a 25-year-old man suffered a
cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possib ...
, also due to a drug overdose. He was hospitalised, but survived. In 2014, a man was charged with 210 counts of "upskirting", and there were numerous other assaults and drug offences, along with ten people being hospitalised many for reasons related to drugs. In 2015, a sexual assault was reported to have occurred at the festival, as well as 45 arrests for drug offences and an assault on police. In 2017, a 22-year-old man died during the festival after drinking
amyl nitrite Amyl nitrite is a chemical compound with the formula C5H11ONO. A variety of isomers are known, but they all feature an amyl group attached to the nitrite functional group. The alkyl group is unreactive and the chemical and biological propertie ...
. Police also reported two sexual assaults, and a number of assaults, including one assault on police, and drug offences.


See also

*
List of electronic music festivals The following is an incomplete list of music festivals that feature electronic music, which encapsulates music featuring electronic instruments such as electric guitar and keyboards, as well as recent genres such as electronic dance music (EDM ...


References


External links

* {{coords, -37.306, 143.481, display=title Festivals in Victoria (Australia) Electronic music festivals in Australia Trance festivals Doofs Music festivals established in 1997 January events Summer events in Australia