10.30 - Day three, zombies walk dead-eyed towards over-priced bacon and egg roll trucks, the fee is small compared to the life giving benefit of salty sustenance. I’m sipping my coffee and listening to Ngaiire again playing in the Splendour Forum tent at a School of Life session. The sun is just for show in the blue skies today and the temperature has dipped below 20. 

11.04 - Failed attempt at the crafting tent. Day three brains are well past creativity. I did get to see Patience Hodgson (who in has been instrumental in the tent’s activities for a few years now) wearing a jacket made from thin metallic tinsel, energetically leading a 30 strong group of crafters through each felt and pom pom laden station. 

1:05pm - The booming voice of Gold Class vocalist Adam Curley has lured quite a crowd into the GW Mclennan tent so early. It’s also responsible for the goosebumps covering my arms. The Melbourne four piece are tighter than my pockets after 2 days of festival priced food and drinks. As Curley slinks effortlessly from stage to barricade and back again he swigs from an assortment of liquid remedies (water, orange juice, beer) for whatever he is feeling right now (dehydrated, hungover, tired). It’s working. 

1.57 - It’s day three but I’ve managed to confuse the tents again. The Melbourne Ska Orchestra are definitely not Perth’s pop punk outfit Tired Lion. BRB sprinting to GW McLennan.

2.20 - The great thing about this Tired Lion set is these guys are a budding rock n roll force to witness and heaps of people have shrugged off compound hangovers to rock up early. The other great thing is the shade which you can sit in. 

2.36 - Tony Jones gets an Amphi-worthy cheer as he takes front and centre of the annual Splendour #QandA panel. A significant part of his intro is taken up with a good old fashion Pauline Hanson bash. Maybe they regret letting her on last week? Either way, the man has his audience pinned. I can hear disembodied voices from my position up the very back of the capacity Splendour Forum, with people craning their necks at the tent’s fringes to catch a glimpse of Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, ALP mp Terri Butler, journalist/foreign prison detainee/apple of Australia’s eye Peter Greste, LNP MP Andrew Laming and military drone expert Sean Wismal

2.54 - I’m going to have to let everyone else on the #qandasitg solve the ethics of drone warfare, how to get Bernie Sanders elected, and the increasing isolationism in foreign policies because one of my most hotly anticipated acts: Melbourne avant-dream poppers Sui Zhen, are about to play. 

3.46 - Sui Zhen are so cool man. So much satin. They’ve put a freeze on the arvo festivities. There aren’t many people here, but those of us in the tent excitedly bounce along to the saxophone infused pop. There’s a slightly awkward bleed from the DJs blasting King Kunta in between sets at the Mix Up tent. Despite a sweet and relatively low key afternoon, my energy levels are at an all time low. 

4.00 - Coffee #3 from the Amish barn, which according to the Splendour website is meant to be some kind of gambling house of temptation. Maybe by night. By day two bearded dudes sell coffee and a tired-looking security guard limply warns drunk people against climbing hay bails. Day three is grating. 

4.19 - LA future soul bright sparks, The Internet are in fine form and Australia loves it, back again after an appearance at the Laneway festivals earlier this year. I can see their set from the Carlton Bar’s big screen. Don’t judge me.

4.25 - The perfect pick me up and cure all for moat superficially unpleasant things: Marlon Williams. This modern day Elvis is just so damn charming he could honestly walk on stage and bleat kiwi boganisms and I'd swoon. But he doesn't. He brings to life country and bluegrass classics as well as his originals with super human vocal control.

4.45-  Trek the hill yet again over to the Amphi for my teenage loves, Tegan and Sara. 15 year old me weeps as they play an acoustic version of The Con and quintessential hit Walking with a Ghost. This is pepping me up, 2007 indie rock is the perfect pick me up for a sleep-deprived punter. 

6.00 - After a brief zip back to camp to pick up jackets, I squeeze into a packed Tiny Dancer stage for Brisbane-based RnB star on the rise, Wafia. She has the whole crowd singing along for most of the set, she’s excited but cool and collected the whole time. The crowd (me) is wrapped around her finger.

6.35 - Quick peak at Splendour veterans The Jungle Giants last song (2015 indie pop banger Every Kind of Way) with the entire tent acquiescing to lead man Sam Hales forceful request to see the entire tent moving.

6.50 - Infinity, presumably - After Courtney Barnett wraps up her last Australian show of the year, I have entered the special kind of purgatory exclusive to stretches of time at festivals where there are no acts you want to see and everyone is way more fucked than you.

8.45 - It was a precarious stretch but The Preatures put me out of my first-world hell, Isabella Manfredi is a rock god.

9.54 - I trudge once again into the Amphitheatre with a steady stream of people to lap up James Blake’s third Splendour slot. Each time he moves up the bill, and this year he has made all the way to the main stage. His off kilter brand of dirty house mixed with his distinct choir boy vocals kind of confuses the crowd ready to riot at Flume. Admittedly, it is strange seeing such introverted music on this gigantic platform. I’m into it though. The DNA-altering bass Blake’s live sets are known for almost mutes the thousands of chattering voices in the Amphi. Except the dudes behind me: “Nah, it’s good but it doesn’t suit the venue,” roughly translated to WHERE FLUME. By the time I leave to catch a snippet of Jake Bugg the Amphi is a sea of heads and hands.

10.17 - Escaped the throng at amphi to see Jake Bugg close GW Mclennan to a thinning, it’s a tough slot up against the Sydney producer and the otherworldly sounds of Iceland’s Sigur Ros. 

10.45 - Flume O’clock. According to Twitter sources the Amphi is now full of 10,000 punters, I believe it. Everyone is moving at once in controlled chaos. Harley Streten begins by toying with everyone in a 5 minute intro before launching into every Flume-drop™ hit off his self-titled debut and this year’s follow up, Skin. Splendour-kin Remi, Baro, Jess Kent, Ngaiire and collaborators Kucka and Vera Blue join him in a pretty impressive cameo list. Everyone loses their collective shit at each spicy addition. Although I had my doubts, Flume lived up to the significant hype of his festival closing set. In somewhat of a running theme for the day he ended with a neat, “Fuck Pauline Hanson.”

It’s as good a note as any for the crowd to return to civilisation as law students, teachers and generally respectable members of broader society as the dust settles on a pretty damn hitch-free Splendour in the Grass.

- Grace Pashley: The Amplifier