Nothing can stop the rock. Not even the cold weather of southern Victoria on New Years Eve. Yes. I'm talking about the Falls Festival, reputedly Victoria's best known New Years Eve event.

No doubt you've heard by now about all the pre-event dramas that went on with Falls and right here I want to congratulate all the organisers for pulling off what would have been no small task.

Basically heavy rain and fog made the Lorne site unsafe. Permission wasn't given by the council to move to the Offshore site at Touquay until 4pm on the 29th (Falls was due to start at 10am the next morning...) so everything had to be dismantled, trucked 50 k's down the road and rebuilt at the other end in as little time as possible.

Tim McGregor, co-organiser of the Falls, said that calling it off entirely was never an option, but the sudden move caused total confusion amoung hundreds of people who had shown up early and now sought to spen the night in their cars parked along the main road going into Torquay. People were arriving constantly over the next twelve hours and once everyone finally got in, all you could do was... wait. And curse at the weather for screwing with the festival.

It should be schooners all round for Tim, everyone at Asholrien and all associated companies that worked on the Falls, because as we pitched our tent at 1am, there were people working all night and then all through the next day until the stage was completed and Falls could get underway late in the afternoon. This unfortunately meant the scratching of five bands who were billed to play earlier in the day.

Rising stars, Killing Heidi were the first on stage, as the rest of Falls was literally still being built around them. By this time there was probably a three hour wait in the queue for beer tokens and then a similar wait to go to the bar. I don't know about anyone else, but I just didn't think that a beer was worth waiting that long for.

The ever increasing crowd were then treated to fine show of talent from Alex Lloyd ,Primary, Area 7 and Pollyanna before darkness fell as Frenzal Rhomb blasted over Torquay (hmm... wonder how the locals took that?) One thing that shits me about Victoria though is its tendancy to drop to near fucking zero temperatures at night, particularly on the coast. I was wearing everything I took down and was still frozen. But the Falls will go on... Enter Regurgitator and The Tea Party, taking it to the near 15000 crowd. Torquay was rocking as waves of crowdsurfers came over the fence into the pit area. Seems the security weren't quite sure how to handle this many people at once but they worked it out pretty quick.

With The Tea Party over I got back to my tent to escape the cold as the music side of things wound down for the night...

The last day of '99 dawned over the Falls, the sun finally showed, hang-overs were widespread and the beanie sales were going through the roof at the market stalls. At 10am, as the more hardened partygoers were already queuing for more beer, a myriad of performers were preparing to rock Torquay into the New Year. Twenty straight hours of music followed from the likes of Felicity Hunter, Mach Pelican and The Fauves. Toe To Toe were there, as well as 28 Days and Superheist. Something for everyone!

The last day became the last night, maybe 16000 packed into the main arena and the tunes of You Am I and Violent Femmes kicked the party into 2000. And yes, they played 'Blister". Way to start the New Year, some damn fine bands, rivers of beer and 16000 people doing some hardcore partying in one of the most scenic areas in Australia. Though I didn't see why it was necessary for some asshole(s) to throw beer cans at the Femmes. If you don't like the bands, show some respect or stay home. Midnight passed with no cataclysmic events and with y2k well forgotten, the music and beer went well into New Years Day. And with a tear, so ended the Falls in 2000. In closing, a Falls quote from Jay of Frenzal Rhomb: