...was WAY too long ago! A whole decade in fact! But there is a fairly good reason why this is. I'll get to that shortly.

It was back in 1999 and Silverchair and Powderfinger were headlining. Eskimo Joe had a hit single with 'Sweater', Shihad had converted to Pacifier and Phil from Grinspoon had pink hairclips in his hair.

I rocked up to the festival bright and early with a good friend of mine, Amanda, who at the time, was in a wheelchair - still to this day we are unsure why she was paralysed from the waist down for about 4 months. I was not entirely convinced (and perhaps quite selfishly so) that my day was going to be moshtastic or crowd-surfingly amazing, due to my new mission of ensuring Amanda could actually see the bands she had forked out the (remember when festivals were this cheap) $60 to see.

Eskimo Joe was the first band of the day and they were extremely high on Amanda's must-see list, despite them only being a relatively new band. I scooted her around towards the front. Advantageously, the crowds had not yet poured into the Domain and there was enough room and visibility to satisfy my festival buddy.

I, however, was not so satisfied with this arrangement and knew that at any given moment, Amanda could lose her perfect view to some tall/wide/multiple bodies unaware of their view blocking powers.

I moseyed my way up to the barrier and called a lovely, older gentleman, security guard over to hear my plea, explaining that the band on stage was my disadvantaged, crippled best friend's favourite band. How great it would be if she could cruise on around to... the other side of the barrier.

And that's when it happened.

As soon as I got the approving nod, I ran back to my soon-to-be-over-the-moon pal and whisked her around in front of the barrier where her grin from ear-to-ear rivalled the width of the stage. Eskimo Joe played a wonderfully energetic set and I was a new convert.