I’m fairly fresh to the doof scene in Australia, but it didn’t take me long to fall in love with the most incredible culture this country has to offer.

True, unapologetic and respectful authenticity. Never have I felt so at home around so many other humans and I can’t wait to experience it again, the doof culture down under is the sickest shit I’ve ever experienced.

Top-notch Electronic Music

The quality of music is obviously highly subjective, however, to me the sets at a doof are of an insanely high calibre and I’d like to posit a theory on why (and no, its not drugs).

Music festivals in Australia is split into two camps. Bush doofs are small, community driven efforts often hosted on rural land away from the masses, run by networks of enthusiasts, artists and volunteers to make the magic happen. Depending on the maturity of the event, generally you could expect hundreds to a few thousand attendees. The alternative are commercial festivals, they gather attention from 10’s of thousands of people. Massive events, big money, sponsored, marketed, well known headliners.

I think this division is a huge contributor to the quality of the music. Because doofs are small and often underground events, as a DJ or artist, marketing and fame alone is not enough to land yourself on the set list. The events are organised by people who adore music, and they select cream of the crop artists to entertain the masses. The underground nature of these events pushes the lesser-known yet undoubtedly skilled artists to bring their fucking A-game.

Not to mention, the local electronic music scene in Australia is REALLY good. From psytrance and techno to drum and bass and dub(step), I think the real reason we are called “down under” is due to our expertise with sub frequencies.

The Authentic Self

When was the last time you let your authentic self out into the light? Can you remember? Or have the years of leaving your true self chained in the dank dungeon of your psyche ​caused you to forget it even exists. For myself, a turbulent childhood and lack-luster schooling experience left my inner child safely tucked behind a wall of indifference.

There’s some sort of magic to be found at a doof. It’s probably all the naked people, but something about it makes it so much easier to let go of all that baggage you’ve been lugging around and let your inner child play.

I’ve never been a dancer, more of the head-bobbing music appreciation type. Put me in the pit at a doof though, holy shit I’ve never had so much fun or kicked up so much dirt. Liberation from my external image, I danced my way straight into moments of spiritual and emotional enlightenment. It felt like there were moments where I had tapped into a pool of infinite energy, all the aches and pains of my body washed away and I was left with nothing but a glow of love and joy.

This is an experience I think everyone deserves, if not just to knock out all the cobwebs we gather over the decades.

A Positive Trace

I’m up-front with my bias against commercial festivals and one of the major reasons is their impact on the land. When ROI and profit gets involved, it’s easy to gloss over some of the consequences of collecting 30,000 humans together for a jolly time of music in the great outdoors. Depending on the collective attitude of the attendees, you can expect to see an insane amount of waste (of all kinds 💩). It’s been a known issue in the Australian festival circuit for a while now and it’s obvious: leaving such a mark on the land you’re enjoying so much, 2-caps-3-tinnys-and-a-line-of-ket-deep wriggling around in the mud, shows clear as day you haven’t found respect for country yet.

We aren’t owed this place or this experience, we have been blessed with it by an infinitely complex, endless series of events that have to coalesce in just the right way for any of it to be possible. Such a fantastical event deserves our respect and appreciation, for the land, for the people, and by God for the music. This respect is present in abundance within doof culture; not only is waste minimally generated by vendors and attendees involved, whatever is generated is managed exceedingly well by the organisers. The first doof I attended was considered really large compared to the norm, definitely on the upper limit of when most would consider it “commercial”, ~10,000 people. Despite the number, the essence of authenticity still managed to hold on and the majority of people did a solid job at looking after themselves and their camps. I didn’t think about it once during the event, it really was out of sight out of mind for 90% of our time there. Leaving the campsite at the end of the event was the only time we noticed waste left by others and even still, it was all grouped into neat piles, reasonably easy for volunteers to clean up. Not perfect but pretty impressive for so many people, can’t complain.

Just to double-down on love for the land, a number of doofs are actively regenerating the land they use for the events. Not only do they leave minimal impact on the land through vendor policies, use of bio-fuels and renewable energy sources for the event infrastructure, many doofs are going beyond and engaging attendees to donate labour and/or money towards land regeneration initiatives. I couldn’t think of anything better than improving the land used for such an awesome event because its means we can enjoy it for as long as possible.

Is the Doof for Everyone?

I can only speak from limited experience, but if you are an open-minded, respectful person that thinks nature is fun and beautiful and enjoys getting bass-blasted by delicious sound systems pumping a variety of electronic music, I think you will have a ripper of a time at a doof. I’m sure there are many opinions on what makes up “doof culture” but from what I know its everything that aligns with peace, love, unity and respect.

If you’d like to experience a bush doof for yourself but aren’t sure where to start, I run a small notice board for upcoming doofs in Australia focussing on the smaller community driven events:

Bushdoof.me - A guide to Australia’s best psychedelic arts and electronic music festivals.

Get to the doof, free yourself, don’t be a dick and dose responsibly ❤️

Return to posts