Presented by One Love and Totem Industries, Stereosonic kicked off with a bang on Saturday the 28th November at Moore Park and the Hordern Pavilion with 29,000 revellers turning up to the music festival. Touted as Australia’s fastest growing music festival, Stereosonic boasted a stellar line up including old school nineties act, Chicane, Dutch sensation Fedde Le Grand and the highly anticipated Canadian rodent, Deadmau5.

Sweltering forty-degree heat gave all males with a gym membership the go ahead to throw off their shirts and reveal their chiselled, glistening abs that they had no doubt been preparing for months. Apparently, it also gave them the go ahead to wipe their sweat-riddled bodies over unsuspecting festival-goers unfortunate enough to be in their path. There was no ‘shirts off party’ at Perth’s Stereosonic on Sunday however, with John Curtin of One Love vowing to remove anyone who brought their six-pack out to play.

Standouts for the day included trio Chicane, masterminded by Nick Bracegirdle, the bands writer and producer. The epic dance anthem ‘Saltwater’ transported the crowd to the nineties and was followed by hits that spanned from their debut in the late nineties to the late noughties such as ‘Don’t Give Up’.

Dutch artist Fedde Le Grand famous for (or perhaps infamous for) dance hit ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’ rocked out the track that pushed him into the international arena. Josh Dahlback, 23 year old Swede, showed that age and experience isn’t everything when he took to the stage and the upcoming Bloody Beetroots rocked out with their Daft Punkesque sounds.

Headliner Deadmau5 had pressure to perform after his energised appearances at this year’s Good Vibrations festival and his side shows at the Hordern pavilion. He didn’t disappoint – producing his signature pumping beats and climaxing tunes from his new and previous albums. You have to give the guy credit, he managed to keep the crowd happy while wearing a giant mouse-head in forty degree heat: that’s hot.

In case anyone was suffering from festival amnesia, we were reminded that we were indeed attending a Sydney summer music festival when confronted with $5 bottled water and $8 shots of raspberry cruiser (okay so it was about 200 millilitres but you had barely left the ten minute drink line before you had guzzled the whole thing down).

The Verdict: depsite the heat, drink lines and prices, toilet queues and abundance of shirtless sweaty males (and some females too) Stereosonic had a great atmosphere and some awesome international acts. It’s a welcome addition to the summer festival onslaught.