Splendour In The Grass has transformed into Barbie’s dream festival with the Byron Bay parklands swarmed by an army of Margot Robbie doppelgangers.
“Barbie-core unite!” yelled Mick Newton, 25, who sewed her own pastel pink outfit inspired by the $145 million-dollar movie about the iconic Mattel toy.
“Love Margot Robbie. Love Barbie. Love Splendour,” said another concertgoer, who arrived with her friend in matching fuchsia tracksuits which, in previous years, might’ve been mistaken as more Kath and Kel than Barbie and Ken.
“I’m 80 per cent Barbie, 20 per cent gay,” explained Cory Thompson, 20, who opted for a pink playsuit and cowboy hat.
The three-day music festival kicked off on Friday and plays out across the crucial opening weekend of Robbie’s much-hyped Barbie movie, arguably the biggest project of the actress-producer’s career.
The Aussie star has been on a weeks-long pink promo blitz around the globe that has seen “Barbie-core” become the hottest new fashion trend.
But there’s a problem rocking the Barbie world.
An unofficial poll by news.com.au showed 17 out of 22 Barbies interviewed at Splendour had not seen the movie they were honouring.
“It was actually a moral dilemma,” said Wesley Davis when asked about skipping the flick in favour of Splendour.
She arrived at the festival with a friend, dressed as “Modern-Single-Working-Woman Barbie”. The look added some variation to the more popular Barbie eras being emulated by punters, like Cowboy Barbie and Y2K Barbie.
The Smirnoff Seltzer Springs bar – a lush two-level Palm Springs-style oasis at the centre of the grounds – is providing the Barbie girls with their perfect Barbie world all weekend. And inside? Barbie’s real-life brother, Cameron Robbie … accessorised with a cowboy hat.
“I haven’t seen a lot of pink,” Cameron replied when asked about the global phenomenon his sister is personally responsible for, as Barbie lookalikes strolled past in various shades of fuchsia.
Maybe he’s more of a Ken.
“Barbie-core is huge at the moment. It’s definitely all of the Margot Robbie images that are out at the moment,” said Mick Newton, a punter who was swathed in pink and ready to party.
“It’s hard to avoid. It’s everywhere, it’s all over Instagram, all over the news,” added Ricci Newton, 26.
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“I thought I was gonna be the only one who looked like a Barbie but apparently everyone wants to look like Barbie!” said Rosie Sparks, 19.
Ash Prout, dressed in a Barbie crop top and cowboy hat, questioned whether the doll’s box office nemesis, Oppenheimer – the thriller about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer who designed the atomic bomb, which opened on the same day – would be represented at the festival.
“Is there any Oppenheimer-core?” he said. “Or is that just a suit?”
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