Review: Harvest Rock 2025
Heavy rain may have derailed festivities on Saturday afternoon of Harvest Rock 2025, but it did little to dampen spirits as the two-day music festival transformed into a dance party in the mud. See the gallery.
Isn’t it ironic that the last act to play the main stage on the Saturday of Harvest Rock, before a thunderstorm paused the festival, was an Australian band called Cloud Control.
The weather was the one thing organisers couldn’t wrangle, and was a momentary shame considering the effort it would’ve taken to revive the festival – now in its third year – from its brief hiatus.
As Cloud Control neared the end of their set on the Harvest Stage, the rain began. Ponchos emerged from bags, and raincoats were zipped up. Many trudged over to the smaller of the two stages – the Vines Stage – in hopes of catching Bag Raiders play their hit ‘Shooting Stars’, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Instead, warnings flashed on the screens on stage telling punters they were going to switch off the power – not a good thing to read.
Then a notification came via the Harvest Rock app: WARNING: ADVERSE WEATHER ALERT.
IF YOU ARE AT THE FESTIVAL, PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE. OR, LEAVE THE FESTIVAL SITE AND RETURN ONCE IT HAS PASSED.
We left. It was miserable, plus there was no music playing, and the organisers were closing the bars and the food trucks anyway.
Thankfully, I live basically two minutes from the festival site. I holed up from the storm with some friends. Others flooded the East End. From all reports, it was bedlam, of a beautiful kind.
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The Exeter was so full they were turning people away. People flooding into the Howling Owl were demanding staff play The Strokes. The newly renovated Belgian Beer Café – now called Laneway Social – had its first taste of a truly busy afternoon. The economic flow-on effects from Harvest Rock will probably triple this year.
The pause meant Wolfmother missed out on playing, but there was a happy ending; the band ended up performing later that evening at the Hotel Metropolitan to a packed beer garden of pleased fans.
To their absolute credit, the communication from organisers during this ‘pause’ was helpful and kept many people safe and happy. Without pass-outs, they would’ve had thousands of shivering, wet, pissed off people to contend with. Pausing the show was the right thing to do from a safety point of view, and hey, we all still got to see The Strokes.
Before that, The Presets put on a masterclass performance on the Vine Stage, turning the now-ruined grass into a mud bowl. Belter after belter reminded us of why they’re one of the greatest Australian electronic acts to ever do it, and they rejuvenated a now happily drunk crowd.
M.I.A. kept those good times rolling. As one of the most-anticipated acts on the bill, she drew an enormous crowd. It was her first live show since Julian Assange was released, she said, but it didn’t show. She’s a seasoned professional and, despite being notoriously mouthy on social media, kept the conspiracy woo woo lowkey in her crowd chatter.
But it was The Strokes that I’d wager 90 per cent of the ticket-holders were there to see.
Flanked by an impressive lighting rig, the New York rockers put on one hell of a show, blasting through their more than two-decade-long discography, playing the hits and some newer tracks to boot.
While I could be to blame for only arriving at The Strokes as they started, thus being about 100 metres from the stage, the sound was too low; a problem pervasive throughout the entire weekend on both stages.
Julian Casablancas – the frontman and vocalist – was also visibly drunk, or maybe he’s just like that. Either way, his crowd banter was unintelligible and bizarre. It didn’t really matter, though – it just added to his rockstar persona. For a band to maintain such a lofty level of coolness over the period of time they’ve been active is admirable.
SUNDAY
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Day two started sunnier, but dreary weather eventually caught many off guard.
It was a different vibe from Saturday, with cowboy hats and Post Malone merch replacing the black sunglasses and The Strokes tees of the previous day.
Day two was more yee haw than New York Cool, with country rock headliner Jelly Roll drawing the new demographic. It was a younger crowd too, with the likes of Ruel and Royel Otis the big names for Gen Z.
It also made for very different programming across the two stages: Harvest Stage was for the country heads, but the real party was at the Vine Stage, which this reviewer was parked at for most of the day.
Basking in the rays, which more or less dried up the prior night’s mud slurry, attendees caught local favourites TOWNS and Coldwave early on. But it was when Sneaky Sound System took to the Vines Stage that the vibe really came alive.
The duo have more hits than you’d realise and got everyone into the groove, primed for a Groove Armada DJ set that committed the eternal sin of DJing: it was a bit boring. Four on the floor, mid-tempo house music can only keep a half-buzzed crowd going for so long.
PNAU was the polar opposite. They were at full pelt from the very moment they stepped onto the stage, and the rain returned right as mega-hit ‘Embrace’ started playing.
The surprise highlight of day two, however, was Ministry of Sound Classical. With Groove Terminator at the centre of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, EDM bangers from days gone by were brought into a new, beautiful light.
Old school dance tracks, built on pretty basic beats and melodies, were turned into something exquisite when performed by the orchestra, which sailed and soared through Avicii’s ‘Levels’, A-Trak’s remix of ‘Heads Will Roll’ and Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’. It was the meta rendition of Tiesto’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ that almost brought a tear to my eye.
Jelly Roll continued the good vibes through to the end of the day. I genuinely had little idea what to expect beyond knowing one or two of his choruses from social media short-form videos. His humility and appreciation for the crowd were refreshing after Casablancas’ dull banter, and he seemed to be having a ball on stage during his first time in Australia.
The crowd loved his rendition of Keith Urban’s ‘Somebody Like You’ and he looked totally amused when he covered The Angel’s ‘Am I Ever Gonna See You Face Again’ and was hit with the Australian chorus interjection we’re known for.
A Shaboozey cameo was also welcomed – the second time on stage for the US artist that day, and a shock appearance from Teddy Swims – in Adelaide for an Entertainment Centre gig on Monday – caught everyone by surprise.
The country rock singer summed up the vibe of the two days well: “Heaven feels like Adelaide in the early Spring”.
Despite the brief deluge, the show went on, and everyone was smiling. Harvest Rock is rare because you never feel unsafe or uncomfortable there, even during a thunderstorm. Somehow, everyone was there for the music, and it was damn good this year, too.