“Brunswick St vs. Chapel St, beards vs. bottle blondes and tatts vs. tans – the north-south divide is a  rivalry that runs deeper than the Yarra.”

The Best of Both Sides Festival (affectionately known as BOBS) is now in it’s 6th year, embracing Melbourne’s bewildering north-south rivalry with a party that doesn’t let the river get in the way.

BOBS is a free, week-long festival that runs over the week of Easter holidays – it took place this year from March 30^th till April 5^th at Lucky Coq (Chapel Street, Windsor) and Bimbo Deluxe (Brunswick Street, Fitzroy), giving good reason for Melbournians to stay local for the break.

Along with the sister venues’ everyday undertakings (DJ’s, $4 pizzas, comfort, good times) BOBS Festival was jam-packed with a line-up of the very best in electronic culture, visual entertainment, booze and home-grown musical talent, with over 35 musical acts playing everything from house to hip hop, rock to reggae, garage to electro and almost everything in between. Parties were hosted by cutting-edge electronic music label Chameleon Recordings, Melbourne Techno Collective, Scattermusic Records and Suck Music, to name but a few.

Up and comer’s like JPA and ‘just back from the Grammy’s’ M-Phazes joined Melbourne stalwarts 99PRBLMZ, Paz and Matt Radovich and familiar faces Ezra Harvey (a.k.a Tigerfunk), Jens Beamin and Baby Goggles across 7 days at the 2 venues.

Party-goers took advantage of a special promotion from UBER heavily discounting their fares to and from the venues, the Robert Burns Hotel rocked up with paella, and Sailor Jerry’s hosted a party with free barbers and tattooists. The favourite of the day was a tattoo of a slice of pizza, now adorning the flesh of a BOBS patron for no (monetary) cost! There were even arm wrestling competitions (organised ones!) and live muralists in the house.

Check out all the fun times that were had right here: www.bestofbothsides.com.au