2001 will go down as the year the Big Day Out lost its innocence.

Ostensibly headlined by Limp Bizkit – fresh off the allegations that they fuelled the riots that ensued at Woodstock 99 – with support from German industrial rockers Rammstein, BDO 2001 turned disastrous on an extremely hot Sydney evening. It was there that fifteen year old Jessica Micahlik was crushed in a sea of bodies watching Limp Bizkit. Grinspoon, her favourite band who missed this year’s edition of the festival, would later play at her funeral.

Inquests ensued; resulting in future Big Day Outs having a D-shaped barrier, but some say that the Big Day Out has never fully recovered from this disastrous year.

However, it proved to be the making of Brisbane five-piece Powderfinger. Thrust into headline position – they reportedly refused to replace Limp Bizkit directly, kowtowing to Rammstein’s previously higher billing – and becoming the second last band of the night on the main stage, they hit large. “These Days” had become a massive, massive hit, while fellow future superstars

Coldplay played in afternoon slots, sandwiched in between a brutally awesome Queens of the Stone Age and first-time Australian tourer P.J. Harvey. Funnily enough, it was probably at the drive-in who were the most talked about band of the festival; ironically the band stopped their Sydney performance after twenty-five minutes as a result of moshing.

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