A Day on the Green: Red Hot Chili Peppers Review

It’s coming to the end of summer in Australia but on the 2 March, 2019, the sun was shining brightly, it was a 38 degree day, and it was time to hop on a bus with a picnic and head to Geelong for A Day on the Green with three legends.

The bus pulled up to Mt Duneed Estate and we disembarked as the heat hit us. After a short while queuing (thanks AAMI), we were in and the excitement started to take hold. Over the next three hours the green filled up with 20000 people, but our biggest challenge was trying not to overheat.

Sitting on a Spartacus flag, we gathered our picnic and started to enjoy the day, lathering sunscreen every half an hour. Hummus, crudités, cheeses and chips were arranged beautifully on a platter, whilst we sipped on G&Ts, getting ready for the big event.

The first band on were Slowly Slowly, who were pretty ecstatic to be there. Their emo songs poured out into the air and a few sticky bodies started swaying to the beat. Next up was George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic and I was incredibly excited about them, only to be let down. As a teen I was obsessed with Parliament Funkadelic but, unfortunately, their performance on the day was lacklustre, with Clinton coming across as cocky. The highlight for me were the dancers, who gave it their all despite the extreme heat.

The weather started to cool down as the sun was setting and you could feel the excited electricity shooting through crowd. Then it happened: Flea – a founding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and one of my idols – came on stage and his bass reverberated across the crowd. The rest of the band appeared, kicking off with ‘Around The World’, and what an opener. I’ve wanted to see the Chili Peppers since I saw them at Reading Festival as a teenager and was disappointed. This time around, however, they completely delivered, playing an assortment of new and old songs, including classics like ‘Under The Bridge’, ‘Californication’ and ‘Suck My Kiss’ from Blood Sugar Sex Magik. In between songs there were instrumental interludes and charismatic jamming sessions, showing how well they play together.

I’ve been to a lot of music concerts but this was right up there as one of my absolute highlights. The only downside to the day were the few people in the crowd stealing passes and not really caring about others around them, as well as the extortionate prices for drinks.

A Day on the Green was a fabulous event and I would highly recommend going. As long as the headliners are your idols, and you have a good bunch around you, it will be a day to remember.