Ever wondered how a Parklife festival first began? Interested in the tunes spun at past Parklifes? If so, keep reading as we delve into Fuzzy Director John Wall’s private music collection and stir up some of his favourite Parklife moments.

John has a room full of vinyl so extensive you could get lost in there for months only finally finding your way out with the help of other similar wanderers. Hell, there's even a box of robots a Japanese soldier in there who thinks that World War 2 is still going. John's vast vinyl hints at the music love that inspired him and fellow Fuzzy founders to put on the first ever Parklife in Sydney more than a decade ago.

Chatting to John about music is always time well spent so I thought I would pester him to share his recollections of records spun and what better place to start than with the first ever Parklife… the year was 2000…

“At the time there were no outdoor dance music events”, shares John with an ironic smile. So, in the hopes of filling this gap, Parklife was born - at the time a simple deep house party in Centennial Park in Sydney with 3 local DJs in a gorgeous park setting… there were just a couple of hiccups. “Hardly anyone came!” laughs John, “It was pretty disastrous. And it bucketed down with rain for almost the entire day.” Which begs the question, why didn’t it end there? “The small crowd who came did actually have a really good time”.

When it comes to remembering the music that was played at the inaugural Sydney Parklife John says that the one track that has stayed with him was the last track played at the end of the night: ‘Sense of Danger’ by Presence. “It stuck in my head for a few reasons,” he says. “We were playing it a lot in the lead up the event and one of the main lyrics is ‘when I sense danger I trust my heart and I carry on, let my feelings rule my head.’ The sentiment was pretty appropriate in the lead up to an event that was looking like being unsuccessful.”

So how did this song end up being played last at Parklife? “On the day,” recalls John, “the last DJ said ‘do you want to play the last song of the night?’ And that song just seemed like a natural choice.”

Flash forward to 2012 and everyone is gearing up for this year’s Parklife and with a line-up to suit even the most discerning of music lovers it is going to be a beats-filled day not to be missed. See the full line-up in our Artists section.