What's the most Australian way you can recover from New Years? A day at the beach? A day at the cricket? A BBQ by the pool?

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

2009 demanded more from West Australians to prove their worth after the festive season.

There was nothing more appropriate than travelling down south in the old car with a dodgy radio with no air con, a couple of swags or a tent to pitch, an esky full of the most inconspicuous items you could find to hide alcohol in and a change of clothes; all for the pleasure of spending a weekend full of great music, a cold drink in your hand (or two) and several litres of water a day. Post New Year's Day was the annual Southbound festival in the south west town of Busselton.

The first thing everyone would have noticed was the heat! It was hot, stupidly hot. Like the hot that made you wish you had just stayed home with the air con at max blasting your face. A true Aussie scorcher, heading to 35®, that could be felt as early as 9 in the morning. Then it's the long tedious walk from the car park of doom to the entry gates, while trying to carry all your stuff, kicking yourself for packing so much and waiting in the longest line ever. By the time you reach the gate, you wished it was the end. Alas there was another 300m walk just to the campsite. Once that tent was pitched and an old drink was in your hands, that feeling of "why did I do this" kicks in. Then the music starts and it's soon forgotten.

This year's Southbound was organised to the best of standards. Shaded areas were available everywhere, recycling stations left-right and centre. The general store was well stocked and fairly priced, food and alcohol was available everywhere. The main highlight was the toilets, SO MANY TOILETS. If you had to wait, then you weren't doing it properly! People reading this who attended would agree, this was by far a 5 star festival that all future events should take note of.

The Friday night was all about the campers, the devotees to the festival who were roughing it out to enjoy the 2 days entertainment. Perth locals Drapht had the crowd motivated in the peak heat of the day, stating amazement with the large number of people gathered in the sun to hear them bust out favourites such as Jimmy Ricard. Those wanting a break from the sun could check out "The Other Stage" in a large circus like tent, with fantastic performances by artists such as Pete Murray, The Drones, TZU, the ever entertaining Architecture in Helsinki (who's Beep Beep Beep could be heard all the way to the camp grounds). The undercover stage topped off with a massively popular performance by Bliss n Esso, with numbers spilling onto the main grounds just to get a good listen.

The magic was also happening on 'That Stage', the Friday main stage for the night. A huge array of Australian acts such as Wolf and Cub, Bluejuice and End of Fashion had us all dancing in the sun. As darkness fell at the crack of 9pm, Birds of Tokyo ignited the stage with Ian Kenny's bold and powerful vocals bellowing out ever popular tracks across the grounds such as Wayside, Silhouettec and closing with Off Kilter screaming appropriately "so long, this is my goodbye".

It was then time for who we had been all waiting for. Swedish rockers The Hives kept us waiting in anticipation for them to burst on stage and impress us. From the reactions, they most certainly did! Front man Pelle Almqvist was the most colourful of character he could be in a black and white suit, which matched with the other band members. Pelle's antics were never short of amazing, instructing the crowd that there should never be silence. He tested his proclamation by making sure we were all cheering once they were silent. Boasting that we were there to see them only, not the other bands, he was never shy to show his pride. Lead Guitarist Mikael Karlsson was as creepy as ever with his perverted stares and lip licking constantly through the show. The Hives busted out a solid set with favourites such as Walk Idiot Walk, Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones, Main Offended, Hate to Say I Told You So and their most recent success Tick Tick Boom. Most memorable was a 2min time freeze as they stood solid halfway through song, only to have people throwing bottles causing them to duck occasionally.

The campers retreated tiredly to their quarters, with day trippers heading to local accommodation in town. As much rest was needed for the next day. Saturday proved more that a relief with lower temperatures and a fantastic breeze that kissed the skin with its cooling breath all throughout the day. This was the big day with over 30 000 in attendance for the main day of the festival. An enthusiastic crowd was treated to brilliant local and International acts such as the cute and shy Soko, Rootsy Ash Grunwold, Santagold, Lykkie Lee, Murs, Pete Murray again and many more. A personal highlight was to see Late of the Pier perform magic on stage with their multi instrumental talents and psychedelic disco rock. If you get a chance, check them out!

The main acts for Saturday would have to be Tegan and Sara who drew a huge initial crowd to the main stage. From there it just got better, with the Mystery Jets, Blue King Brown, The Kooks, The Cat Empire and others. The night ended on a high with popular Aussies Faker who had the crowd singing along to favourite radio hits and headliners Franz Ferdinand entertaining with the well known catchy rock ballads. Ian Kenny returned to close with Karnivool, drawing a strong competitive crowd to the International headliners on the opposing stage. While belting out new tracks and some off the prior Themata release, many were disappointed at the lack of power songs from the Persona EP such as the ever popular Fade and Headcase. This goes to stand for Ian's direction at focussing at the future of Karnivool's success which is well expected.

Once again, we retired to our tents, the car park turned into a waiting que of 20 000 people trying to head home. All cosy in our canvas domes, we dreaded the 5am rise the next day to beat the traffic out of the festival. Other's left it till later and suffered the long ques and bumper to bumper traffic heading north back to Perth. If Sunset events continue to produce an A grade festival, heat and traffic is never going to stop people going to the Southbound festivals. Others take note, if you haven't been to one yet, we better see you in 2010!

Shane Musarra