In 2019, you’ve got to give festival organisers snaps for having a crack at bringing a new, large-scale music party to New South Wales. Festival X will debut in Australia on the tail end of spring, kicking off festival season in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne with a pop, hip-hop and electronica-laden multi-stage event.
The one-day festival’s headliner will be Scottish DJ and singer Calvin Harris, hopefully bringing out huge party hits like the very appropriate ‘Summer’ and festival crowd aware ‘I Feel So Close’. They’re top notch, sweaty late-night bangers, but huge international hits like ‘This is What You Came For’ might not produce the same frenzied fist pumping and ballad sing-a-longs without queen Rihanna on vocals. Similarly, we’d love to see Dua Lipa rocking the lyrics on the more recent ‘One Kiss’, so hopefully the festival lines up some stellar ladies to cover both these huge names on the mics, as there hasn’t been any mention of the originals appearing at the festival.
Other names on the bill include Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren, who’s performed his synthy trance tracks on massive festival stages like Tomorrowland, plus ‘Gucci Gang’ rapper Lil Pump from the US. Sydney’s own electro-dance music producer, DJ and singer Alison Wonderland and Aussie DJ and vocalist Anna Lunoe will join what is a disappointingly male-dominated line-up.
The Sydney show will round out spring at the Sydney Showground on November 30. The Optus presale starts on July 29, with general sales open from August 1.
