Over the weekend, boutique dance and hip-hop bash Listen Out wrapped up for another year.

It was one of the festival’s biggest years ever, with headlining sets from the likes of OWLSA head Skrillex, Brockhampton, ‘Cola’ hitmakers Camelphat, Skepta, and Confidence Man. It was also a big year for newcomers, with the likes of Glades, Kira Puru, and Petit Biscuit throwing down some of the best performances of the day.

Music Junkee was among the thousands of punters that braved the icy wind at Sydney’s Listen Out leg on Saturday. Here’s what we learned.

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Glades Are Ready To Take Over The World

Glades may have drawn the short straw with an early afternoon set, but the Sydney trio still managed to draw a big crowd to the 909 stage.

Punters were rewarded with their enthusiasm: Glades delivered one of the strongest sets of the day, skating through a hit-laden set that included  ‘Not About You’, ‘Do Right’, and their most recent track ‘Eyes Wide Shut’.

It used to be rare that a pop act would draw such a crowd at an Australian festival, but as we saw with Splendour in the Grass back in July, pop is not just being grudging accepted by promoters and audiences — it’s beginning to dominate proceedings.

Out of nowhere @GLADESMUSIC are the best performance of Listen Out so far

— Tommy Faith (@tommyfaith_) September 29, 2018

The 909 Stage Was The Hottest Property Of The Day

Having been scheduled in the same time-slot as Brockhampton and Skepta, Perth bass don Enschway and Gold Coast producer Fisher certainly had their work cut out for them.

But any concerns about whether they would be able to draw a crowd quickly dissipated upon cresting Centennial Park’s small hill and witnessing the sea of people that stretched far back from the 909 stage. Perhaps it was Brockhampton that should have been worried.

Enschway’s set was predictably crushing, with drops that threatened to rearrange vertebrae. He wasn’t afraid of dropping a few throwbacks either, including the crowd favourite ‘Better Off Alone’ by Alice Deejay. The crowd only swelled for Fisher, who’s currently riding a wave of popularity following the release of the excellent single ‘Losing It’. That track was the highlight of his relentless set, although the punishing ‘Ya Kidding’ came in a close second.

By the time Snakehips rocked up at the same stage a couple of hours later, it was clear the 909 was where the crowd wanted to be — you were lucky if you could nab a free spot within 50 metres of the stage. The British duo’s set was wall-to-wall pop bangers, including plenty of their own (‘Cruel’, ‘Don’t Leave’.)

The standout was, of course, the heady emotional sing-a-long of ‘All My Friends’, which can encourage the most cynical of festival goers to fling an arm around their neighbour.

Replacement Act? What Replacement Act?

Punters may have been disappointed when US rapper Lil Skies pulled out of the festival at the 11th hour, but Sydney’s Manu Crooks more than made up for it.

Crooks’ afternoon set on the Atari Stage was one of the day’s standouts — drawing a massive crowd as he cycled through recent hits like ‘Fuego’, ‘Different League’ and ‘Best Years’. He even set aside some time to ad lib a bit of Drake’s ‘God’s Plan’.

There’s a reason why Crooks is widely considered Australia’s hip-hop saviour: it’s because he’s the best in the game right now.

Skrillex Still Pulls The Punters

There are a fair few cynics out there that argue Skrillex has had a hard time adjusting to the post-dubstep world we’re now living in. And, if his last few lacklustre singles have been anything to go by, those cynics have a point.

But there’s a reason why Skrillex can and will always pull a crowd: his sets are fucking insane. From the moment the first wub-wubs echoed over Sydney’s Centennial Park, it was on for young and old.

He crammed in as many hits as he could manage: from Kendrick Lamar’s ‘HUMBLE.’, to Post Malone’s ‘Congratulations’, to the Vengaboys, to Flume’s ‘You & Me’ remix, to (spectacularly) Nero’s ‘Promises’.

There was plenty of his own material to work in too, including Jack Ü cuts like ‘Where Are Ü Now’ and ‘Take Ü’, and his own singles like ‘Would You Ever’ and ‘Purple Lamborghini’ (which, whatever you think of the actual song, slaps hard in a live setting.)

Then, of course, there was ‘Bangarang’. With Skrillex standing atop the decks waving an Aboriginal flag, it played out over the frenzied audience while pyrotechnic blasts threatened to singe the eyebrows off the front row.

Even the most hardened cynics would have struggled to not enjoy themselves.

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Jules LeFevre is Junkee’s Music Writer. Follow her on Twitter. 

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Photo: Anthony Berlangieri/inthemix