SummerSalt @ Seppeltsfield Wines, Seppeltsfield SA 24/3/2024
Welcoming festival goers eased into Seppeltsfield Wines, eagerly on a perfect sunny Sunday morning in the Barossa Valley. Travellers from all over South Australia made their way by bus or stayed for the weekend in the Barossa to celebrate the wonderful alternative pop/blues/soft rock musical artists in a crisp setting. Crowds steadily entered as the morning turned to a busy afternoon at the 2024 Summer Salt Music Festival, featuring headliner, environmentalist and all-round nice guy, Ziggy Alberts and fellow talented Australian musician Matt Corby. Along with Australia’s Mia Wray, Kita Alexander and Thelma Plum, James Bay, the UK folk rock talent also graced the one stage at the festival this year.
With the gentle breeze and rural landscape overlooking wineries and the stunning SA countryside, the festival was set up with a Seppeltsfield bar, food stalls, merch stands and orderly areas for BYO picnic and seated spaces and a premium standing area at the front. This family friendly festival had the most relaxed and chilled vibe, which was maintained even while spotting the odd, young, messy party goer.
Mia Wray started with Monster Brain and Kita Alexander followed with her fun performances of Queen and Best You Ever Had. The powerful Thelma Plum performed her brooding fan favourites, like We Don’t Talk About It, and Not Angry Anymore. Goosebumps and tears were seen and felt among the audience during Homecoming Queen and the empowering Better in Blak. These talented Australian women entered the alternative pop scene and feature on Triple J, with a confident presence on stage, warming up excited crowds of all different ages for the evening ahead.
Matt Corby started in the late afternoon, humbly walking onto the stage, barefoot, draped in a loose forest green shirt and blue jeans. He quietly set himself up and let us into his world, hypnotising us with his insane falsettos and flawless vocal gymnastics. His penchant for blues and folk sounds were seamlessly blended into his set with every song he performed, including mesmerising us with the stunningly unique live renditions of Monday and Resolution. He opened his set with Reelin’ from his 2023 album, Everything’s Fine and his most recent single, Desert Land. He heated up the crowd with the melancholic and sad-sexy All Fired Up, then bought us to his Triple J Like A Version of TLC’s No Scrubs, where the entire audience sang along with him. He obviously ended the set with Brother, Corby’s emotionally charged and gorgeous sounding award-winning song. This RnB roots modern icon is shy and has considerate stage presence with few conversations in between songs. Although rarely opening his bright blue eyes after he sings each song, he loudly makes up for this introversion, with his outstanding instrumentals on guitar and piano and his classic multi-layered, perfectly executed vocal talents. It was an absolute pleasure to be front-and-centre to witness Corby, especially during his spine-tingling performance of Souls A’ Fire, a classic sounding vintage funk and RnB song.
James Bay wore his all-black outfit and fedora, complimenting his groovy guitar playing and audience-engaging personality. He performed Leap from his third album, Summer Nights and the popular Let it Go and Hold Back the River, which turned crowds both crazy and romantic as they danced amongst other wined-up diehard fans in the mosh pit. Bay was also seen on side stage supporting Matt Corby and relaxing until the end of the night to Ziggy Albert’s music too, a true testament to his loving demeanour.
Ending the festival, was the sweet smiling and genuine Ziggy Alberts. Beginning his set with his Intro Better than Breathing, from the Made of Water (Deluxe) album and blue lights on a backdrop of an ocean wave pattern, audiences knew they were in for another beautiful experience with Ziggy Alberts. The sounds of the ocean and Ziggy saying that the water is the “only place where holding your breath is better than breathing…” led him onto the stage, wearing a cream linen shirt, starting the night with the wholesome Hands I Can Hold and Simple Things, where the crowd began their first of many sing-alongs for the set.
Another favourite moment was where Ziggy places his guitar on his lap and plays the strings like a piano singing one of his loved, older songs Getting Low. He lulled the crowd afterwards, softening us with the beautiful sounds of Warm Coffee, making people in the mosh pit cry. Among his melancholic tunes about love, girls and looking after the environment, he also thanked the kids on their parents’ shoulders in the crowd and thanked us all for supporting him and his Independent and family-run record label. Anecdotes behind his songs like Heartbeat and Gone (The Pocahontas Song) are what make Ziggy so relatable and loveable. On the night, his poetic lyrics and catchy songs like Runaway made the audience sing whole verses while Ziggy played guitar for us and smiled at thousands of fans. His signature delicate vocal quivers were present in his new song New Love, which he said will be released April 5. He was feeling a lot of energy on the night, claiming it was very Cancerian of him to blame the “Full Moon out there” on how hyped he was. Grown men shouted from the mosh pit; “He’s a good-lookin’ rooster”, women swooned, and kids cheered as Ziggy stole our hearts again when he said; “We are thousands of people singing together: I think that’s as close to Heaven on Earth as we can get.”
Even with the hiccup of selling out of some of the foods at the few food trucks catering for thousands of people and traffic jams leaving the make-shift car park amongst the vines, the Summer Salt Festival was a success. I would consider making a trip of it again next year if it’s back in rural SA. The alternative line-up, relaxed vibe and calm space was unforgettable.
Live Review By Zara Zampaglione