What Goes On
WHAT IS GOLDEN PLAINS?
Golden Plains is a Premium Festival Experience set in the Greatest of Outdoors on an Epic Long Weekend. It is a sister festival to the long-running Meredith Music Festival (December), and enjoys a reduced capacity and typically glorious early Autumn weather. In the 2008 Australian Festival Awards it took out the top award - Best Overall Favourite Festival, and also Best Management and Facilities.
SUPERNATURAL AMPHITHEATRE [ top ]
CAMPING [ top ]
Nearly all patrons at the festival choose to camp. The alternative is leave the site and go home or to a hotel room in nearby towns Geelong or Ballarat, both of which are about a 45 minute drive.
There are three main camping grounds at the site, Bush Camp, Top Camp and South Pines. You can camp next to your car. There is a no-reserving policy – if you wish to camp with friends you need to arrive together, convoy-style.
Campers are welcome to set up camp wherever they choose within the campgrounds. Bush Camp tends to fill up first, closely followed by the edges of Top Camp that are closest to the amphitheatre. Some campsites are as close as 30 metres to the back of the amphitheatre and have views of the stage. Campers seeking more space, peace and solitude can get as far away as 600 metres from the action.
CINEMA – ECOPLEX [ top ]
FREAK FILM COMES TO THE BUSH - OUTLANDS ECOPLEX CINEMA
Here is What’s Showing at the Ecoplex for The Third Golden Plains.
There is a Giant Outdoor Cinema at Golden Plains, in a magical grove of manna gums, with the natural canopy high overhead just sparse enough for the twinkling stars to shine through. What shows? That would be stuff that turned left at the lights, planted the foot and ripped the rear view mirror off, and then ate it.
It’s called the Outlands Ecoplex Cinema, and it sits at the edge of Bush Camping, in the area known as “Africa”. It consists of a large 6m x 6m screen purpose built between two ancient eucalypts, a six-speaker Super-Sonorama surround audio experience (which when coupled with Ultravision 3D effects and glasses REALLY puts you in the picture), and the action (or inaction) is projected by vintage 16mm gear out of a 1978 Jayco SuperTourer Caravan (with annex). IN OPTICALLY ENHANCED ULTRAVISION!!! Only ULTRAVISION with SUPER-SONORAMA provides you that “you-are-in-the-middle-of-it-all” effect… Accept no substitutes!
(not available in indoor hardtop - type cinemas - exclusive to the Meredith Ecoplex…)
The posse that run the Ecoplex say this: “We swim the sewers of cinema now-and-past, to salvage unfamiliar objects of wonder and delight. Join us at the Ecoplex as we celebrate both new and misremembered (and damn strange of course) instruments of celluloid enchantment… PLUS: (YES!) A WHOLE BUNCH ELSE!!!… the usual garbage sandwich of idiot cinema that only a Mother could love… Destroyed animation, anti-social children’s television, wrong media at its very best & worst.”
The Ecoplex runs basically all night, and is designed so you can drop in for a short or long while at any time – many of the films shown are indeed shorts so you don’t need to set your watch for the start of a feature.
PINK FLAMINGO BAR [ top ]
The fabulous Pink Flamingo Bar will Glow Pink Allnite and serve cocktails within certain hours to certain people over 18 with certain photo ID and certain manners and clean and tidy presentation. This year we are banning the use of sarcasm in conversation and saying ‘thanks’ more than once to the bar staff, whilst we are encouraging impressions (especially those involving costume or props), haranguing and short skits. The Flamingo has enjoyed a makeover this year.
We advocate the responsible consumption of alcohol at all times at Golden Plains. If you are under 18, you won’t be able to drink alcohol, or enter any licensed areas. Simple as that.
The Pink Flamingo is the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre’s cocktail bar. It sells two cocktails - the Pink Flamingo (vodka, pink grapefruit, some other stuff) and the Bloody Meredith (popular on Sunday - vodka, tomato juice, celery, two eggs, roast chicken and lemon meringue pie). The Pink Flamingo is for over 18’s only. You will need to have photo ID which will get you a wristband which will get you in.
HEAVEN ELEVEN [ top ]
Heaven Eleven is a 24-hour general store on site, selling milk plus eggs plus bread plus vegetables, toothpaste and flavoured milk. Margarine, beauty crème, condoms, personal items, torches, tent pegs, small pharmaceutical remedies, outboard motors and militaria. But mainly lollies.
Not sure where it will be situated this year, will let you know.
BARS/BOTTLESHOP/BYO [ top ]
Like most festivals, Golden Plains has a bar, called The Pink Flamingo Bar. Unlike most festivals, Golden Plains does have a BYO policy, and a bottleshop as well.
The Bottleshop (technically a Canshop as no glass is permitted on site) is open for limited hours on site.
Patrons are able to BYO, as long as drinks are consumed responsibly and no glass containers of any kind are brought on site. Be aware that car searches do place at Reception upon entry to the festival and any glass is then confiscated without being replaced.
The festival strongly supports the responsible consumption of alcohol.
In order to gain access to the licensed areas patrons need to have photo ID with them. Showing valid photo ID will obtain the holder to an Over 18 Sticker (non-removable, non-transferable) which goes onto their wristband. These stickers are available at Heaven Eleven and at the entrance to the smaller bars.
FOOD [ top ]
Buy cheap food or bring your own (but no cooking permitted due to total fire ban).
Ice is also sold in the International Food Court.
INTERNATIONAL FOOD COURT
The International Food Court will be operating 24 hours a day at Golden Plains this year. There are all kinds of inexpensive healthy and unhealthy food available here, ranging from pizza to Asian delights to Hare Krishna vegetarian delights to baked potatoes to hot chips to bacon and egg breakfast rolls to simple and delicious corn on the cob. Food at Meredith is inexpensive and we only allow vendors who sell good food at good prices to grace the Food Court.
SOUTHBANK
Southbank is another cluster of foodstuff issuers positioned to the South of the stage, on the bank of the Amphitheatre, hence the name. hahahahaha. More exotic tastes can be catered for down there. Southbank is also home to the city’s Chinese community, which settled there during the Gold Rush. You can rent a Cyclo (rickshaw) for as little as ten pesos and see all the major sights, including the Resurrection Shuffle. Women are advised to observe local cultural practices by only walking backwards and hopping every third step. Anyone with a beard may be imprisoned.
SUNSET STRIP [ top ]
Sunset Strip is located at the western tip of Top Camp. It’s (derr) a strip from which you can view the Sunset. For those who don’t live in the country or have regular access to immense, panoramic views of the sun setting without a building in view right through to the horizon, well, you get the picture. Sure, there’s a couple of haysheds and in fact a deserted gold mine in the distance, but that’s all. Someone once told me that looking at a setting sun somehow releases lithium into your system. Lithium is (or was) sometimes used as a medication to calm down people who were manic. Dunno if that’s true or not. If you are some kind of medical expert, feel free to set me straight.
SPORTSFIELD [ top ]
Will be in operation this year. It’s free, get bats and balls from the Info Centre. SportsField is comprised of dozens of totem tennis sets and a few badminton courts. There is no white water rafting on the SportsField.
INSPIRATION POINT [ top ]
Becoming Meredith’s best-kept secret, if a secret is something you can become. Inspiration Point is a rock garden just beyond the fringe of Southbank. It’s nice there. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the odd slippery handjob took place there.
INFO CENTRE [ top ]
Think of the Info Centre as the Concierge Desk of the festival. Our well-trained staff are there to answer any question, and ask a few of their own. This font of all knowledge is of course open 24 hours.
FIRST AID [ top ]
The festival has an excellent medical facility on-site again operating 24 hours. It is located to the far right of the amphitheatre as you look at the stage.
RECEPTION [ top ]
Reception is the place you check-in to the festival at. Reception is the place where your ticket (wristband) is scanned on entry, you are handed your free Official Anniversary Program event handbook, given some colour-coded recycling garbage bags, told The Rules and wished a Golden Plains.
TOILETS [ top ]
The toilets at the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre are widely regarded as some the finest festival toilets on the planet, and since their installation in 2006-7 have been a talking point and indeed a highlight of the festivals. There are currently about a hundred of these private, waterless, odorless composting beauties on site, built permanently into two separate areas either side of the Amphitheatre. They are user-friend-ly and enviro-lover-ly; private, clean, and waterless; with no pumping or transport required. Plus, about twelve months after operate, with some sophisticated but simple treatment they create perfectly safe compost to use on the site. WINNER!! Our thanks also to Natural Event.
SHOWERS [ top ]
Uncle Doug and Stu the Groundskeeper have built a permanent, excellent shower facility. In fact they have built two. One is next to the Pink Flamingo (on the Bush Camp side) and the other is on the other side of the Amphi, right up the back. They are completely private, sheltered, eco-friendly installations, and provide steaming hot water (or cold if its hot) from lo-flo yet good pressure shower heads. The shower facility is brand new and clean as a whistle and has many terrific and user-friendly features. It is open 24 hours a day, and costs $1 per minute to use. Our attendants will be on hand to provide coin change for you and biodegradable soaps and shampoos which help the waste water re-enter the Earth with a minimum of fuss.
DICKHEAD POLICY [ top ]
We don’t want any dickheads. Don’t bring any. If you are one, Golden Plains is not for you.