In partnership with Beyond The Valley
Over the first three days (December 28 till 30) of Beyond The Valley 2023, the Aussie festival felt like just that – albeit a great one. For its fourth and final day (December 31), however, Beyond The Valley shed its skin and turned into an all-out party to ring in the new year.
- READ MORE: Only one in the world: 5 reasons Beyond The Valley is the Australian music festival you can’t miss
Despite a drastic dip in the temperature – dropping as low as a chilly 12 degrees compared to the usual 30-plus degree weather expected this time of year – punters donned their Sunday best to end the four-day extravaganza. As the old saying goes: if you look good, you feel good. And boy, did it feel good soaking up the positive vibes and energy in Barunah Plains.
Here are the biggest highlights of BTV’s New Year’s eve offerings.
Gold Fang kicks off day four with a strong start
As brisk winds blew down on Barunah Plains at 2pm, Australia-based Trinidadian dancehall artist Gold Fang turned up the heat for revellers at the Valley Stage with an energetic, dancey set.
Between serenading the women in attendance and quick bursts of banter with the crowd, the rapper-singer and occasional model gave Beyond The Valley a much needed change of pace, performing an array of dancehall numbers that got the shivering crowd moving and warming themselves up for the rest of the day ahead.
For his set, Gold Fang delivered hits from his 2023 debut mixtape ‘SMOOVE KILLA’, a handful of singles and his latest cut, ‘Pull It Up’, with great swagger.
Salute wows the Dance Dome
As the heat picked up for a handful of hours in the afternoon, thousands of punters squeezed their way under the tentage of the Dance Dome for a thrilling 90-minute DJ set by Salute.
Over the course of his set, the master selector treated fans to an unpredictable journey that spanned genres ranging from house to breakbeat, disco to post-dubstep, R&B to jazz and everything in between.
Though many DJs stuck to one genre for their sets this weekend, Salute showed everyone at Beyond The Valley that sometimes, the best sets are the ones that don’t subscribe to a fixed sound and instead focus on delivering the best time possible.
Big Wett brings slut-pop to life
If there was ever an artist on this year’s Beyond The Valley line-up that was the definition of a breakout star, Big Wett would be it. The rising “slut-pop” star gave Beyond The Valley its wildest – and horniest – set of the year.
Armed with two back-up dancers and a whip, Big Wett led a masterclass in channeling endorphins into cheeky, good-spirited fun. As she kicked off her set with ‘Eat My Ass’, we couldn’t help but notice the look of pure shock on an older security worker. That shock soon turned into laughter, and then amazement as she worked her way through tracks like ‘Number One Pussy’ and ‘King Dick’ – a telling sign that Big Wett’s confident stage presence and talent goes far beyond her sex-driven bangers.
Big Wett was born for the brightest lights and if 2023 was merely her rookie year as a performer, her future can only be described as boundless.
Flight Facilities turn back the clock
As night fell on Barunah Plains, the anticipation for midnight’s New Year’s celebrations were at an all time high. Playing into the timely moment of reflection and reminiscing, Flight Facilities treated festival-goers to a celebration of not just 2023, but of music from past decades.
From start to finish, the veteran electronic duo acted as guides on a historic journey through the most defining tracks of the last five decades, with each track evoking waves of nostalgia stronger than the last.
From ABBA to Cher to Eurythmics to Boney M. to Madonna and more, Flight Facilities’ decades set proved to be the ultimate playlist to pre-game to before the New Year kicked in.
Peggy Gou rings in 2024 with a bang
What better way to ring in 2024 than with the hottest DJ of 2023? This past year has birthed stars across all genres, but perhaps there’s no other artist who’s been catapulted to the top of their domain quite like Peggy Gou has.
Paying homage to her fellow DJ pals including Skrillex, Four Tet and more, Gou’s set was an adrenaline rush of top-tier dance music. But despite the barrage of bangers that she threw down, it was evident that everyone was waiting for ‘Na Na Na’. To say that hearing ‘Na Na Na’ being sung by tens of thousands of fans was an experience unlike any other would be a sore understatement.
Right from the time the clock struck midnight and 2023 bled into 2024 until the very last second of her set, Peggy Gou spent the first two hours of the new year proving to all the naysayers that she’s deserved all of her flowers long before ‘Na Na Na’ blew up and became one of the defining dance songs of 2023.
Quite literally the most anticipated – and attended – set all weekend, Peggy Gou’s two-hour long New Year’s set captured the very essence of Beyond The Valley: a fucking good time.
