<
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/oct/09/all-aboard-the-new-music-festival-heading-to-regional-victoria-via-steam-train>
"With varying degrees of validity, many cultural experiences bill themselves as
“immersive” these days. Sound Tracks – a limited-edition music festival that
takes a steam train to regional Victorian destinations – does not employ the
word. But hopping on at Melbourne’s Southern Cross station with retro boarding
pass in hand feels as immersive as stepping into a dream.
This is the first of three train trips planned in the initiative; we’re headed
to Charlton, just over 200km north-west of Melbourne. For the next three days,
a mixed bag of music fans and train enthusiasts – all of whom managed to snap
up tickets within 20 minutes – inhabit this locomotive. It’s like a school camp
gone surreal. When we board, carriage by carriage, on Friday night, there’s an
authentic mustiness to the train which infiltrates the clothes as soundly as
the trip will infiltrate the psyche, and which the single cardboard air
freshener hanging in one corridor cannot hope to dispel.
My “roomette” is in a stainless steel 1962 carriage with a narrow zig-zag
corridor. I have to step over my suitcase (rookie move, bringing that) and on
to the bunk to hoist the door shut but there are many cunning compartments and
a pull-down basin. I’m not alone in marvelling at the novelties – noises of
appreciation ricochet through the carriage.
This train, to no surprise, abounds with kitschy delights. The club carriage is
resplendently 70s with its semi-circles of banquette seating around tables
bearing pineapples spiked with mini frankfurts and pickled onions. At the rear
of the train is a cocktail bar, where the Sam Boon House Band plays jazz. To
get to the rave car at the other end, we must leg it, Liam Neeson-style,
through the 13 carriages. And what carriages! It’s nirvana for train heads:
there’s a 1923 timber car with beautiful ornate detail; sitting cars from the
esteemed Spirit of Progress ranging from 1937 to 1951; and Overland and
Southern Aurora sleeping cars from the late 50s.
By the time we reach our first stop in North Geelong, the train resembles a
kids’ party amped up on artificial sweeteners. The antics in the rave car –
where DJ Westwood and, later, Adriana, oversee frenzied proceedings – threaten
to bounce us off the tracks. Once we start hurtling towards Ballarat, the mood
ramps up to even higher velocity – before finally the party shuts down about
1am and the train chugs sedately overnight to Charlton."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
