Words: Becca Allemand

Even amongst the mud – a classic consequence of Melbourne’s stereotypical and temperamental rainy weather – nothing was stopping anybody from entering the iconic 1940s warehouse, The Wool Store, located on the outskirts of the city in West Footscray.

The Wool Store features an almost European/UK vibe, akin to a warehouse party you could only find on the other side of the world. The huge open space was the perfect place to hold an event with an epic line-up as the soundtrack for a night that progressed into a synthesis of light, sound and colour.

Falcona has a fantastic rep for its music taste and quality boutique events in Sydney. So it was a call for a celebration for two reasons. One, because they brought the vibe down to Melbourne and two, because it was Falcona’s 10^th birthday.

As the shed began to fill up, the Falcona DJs joined together to start the party and celebrate their decade on the decks. The Approacable Members of Your Local Community followed with I Oh You DJs and GRAACE warming up the crowd.

Paces delivered an up-beat electro vibe and had the crowd in an absolute trance, as backdrops of flamingos and tropical palm trees transformed into roses before Carouflage Rose appeared. The rapper got us grooving along the dance floor to ‘Late Nights’ as he set the Hip Hop scene.

Young Franco, with his bubby, smiling persona always knows how to entice and fire up the crowd. ‘Drop Your Love’ was a personal highlight and you could witness the energy radiating off the audience.

Running Touch came in with a dramatic opening, arising from the top of a ladder and dropping “When I’m Around You” as he dropped to the stage for his performance, transcending the warehouse.

As the acts continued to play, you could take a much needed break from dancing by kicking back and relaxing in comfortable couches set-up in perfect chill-spots at the back of the crowd, and you could enjoy the luxury of the bar not too far away in sight.

George Maple impressed the crowd with her combination of theatrics, choreography and lighting. Her performance was captivating and left everyone wanting more.

But it was first sound of their guitar by DMAs that made the crowd truly lose it as they band emerged. They played a mix of up-beat songs to get the crowd going along to tear-jerkers and therapeutic singalongs such as ‘Do I Need You Now’. You could feel the overwhelming intensity of emotion in the room when their biggest hit, ‘Delete’ played and Tommy O’Dell’s comforting and delicate voice had the crowd come together.

DMAs left the stage without anyone feeling disappointed as the crowd’s hearts sank in their chest. Then finishing off the epic event was the one and only Hot Dub Time Machine DJ, Tom Loud (Lowndes) from Sydney and my, does he know how to attract a crowd. He took us through his favourite songs of every year back from the 1970s, navigating us through to today. As the years went by, the astrophere was filled with people unifying in song to classic such as Ignition – R. Kelly, Fatman Scoop ft. Crooklyn Clan – Be Faithful. To top it off, red balloons were dropped in the crowd as we went wild to Todd Terje’s Inspector Norse.

But the finale was sadly fast approaching when he dropped Duke Dumont’s ‘Red Light, Green Light’, leaving the crowd on an absolute high.

What a day and night party – another successful event organised at the Wool Store by both Falcona and Untitled. We can’t wait until the next one.