Crowded House at Sandalford Estate

Recently Jason and I had an afternoon/evening with Crowded House at Sandalford Estate Winery in the Swan Valley. I made some triple chocolate muffins and bacon and egg pie which we added to some good quality vintage chedder, gherkins, and crackers as well as some good scorched almonds and our picnic was set.

Neil Finn hit the nail on the head when he said "what a wonderful place to be on a Sunday evening". And it truly was, the temperature had dropped to a balmy 25 degree evening (well down from the 36 degree day) so we had a beautiful breezy, warm spring evening with a fantastic sunset.

The beautiful sky just added to an all-round lovely evening, with a great venue that catered for the 8000 plus crowd with ease, creating a chilled, relaxed atmosphere.

Here we are with Kent and Fiona, just chilling, eating our picnic food and listening to the warm up bands.

A couple of stage shots and some of the fantastic surrounds we were treated to. The lake and fountain was a lovely touch.
Neil Finn introduced himself as: “Neil, full of zeal. Neil, Neil, lemon peel from Te Awamutu.” His sense of humour was evident as well, encouraging the audience to wave to one of many planes that flew overhead towards the airpor: “We couldn’t afford fireworks so we asked Qantas to supply a plane,” he joked after playing Four Seasons in One Day.

We were treated to some old Crowded House favourites, i.e Don't Dream it's Over, When You Come, Locked Out and Distant Sun, ensuring plenty of crowd sing-a-longs and dancing, as the signs requested:
Finally, the last song of the night one of my favourites. During this song the crowd raised their mobile phones on Finn’s request, waving them slowly above their heads as all the lights were turned off. And with that, Better Be Home Soon boomed out. It was a magical moment.
All in all it was a great night out and we both had a lovely time.