Field Day Festival 25/05/13
With the concept of one-day ‘festivals’ on the rise,the May bank holiday weekend provided the perfect excuse for any inner-city park capable of containing three large, circus-like tents, a few hundred portaloo’s and a selection of burger vans (falafel for the vegetarians) to be filled with music, festivities and obscurities. Having browsed the seemingly endless options being provided between my three favorite cities – London, Bristol and Brighton – I decided to keep things local and head down to Victoria park in east London for Field Day.
With a line up that pretty much guaranteed to fill the park full of miniature denim jackets and undercuts, this years target audience had not changed. Now in it’s seventh year, Field Day has seen the likes of Jessie Ware, Maya Jane Coles, Jamie XX, Simian Mobile Disco, and Metromony grace the multicolored big tops. As well as fielding heavyweights Solange, Disclosure and How To Dress Well – this year the organizers have shown they know what’s trendy by deploying the likes of Four Tet, new – and very young – kid on the block Happa, Mount Kimbie (who seem to be Field Day residents), Seth Troxler, Animal Collective, Julio Bashmore and Canadian producer Jacques Green.
Also on the lineup were Disclosure. This being only a few days before their new album ‘Settle’ dropped – their set turned the Bugged Out stage into something like a scene from March Of The Penguins, with people clambering over each other in order to get the best possible snap chat. Upon hearing the hook from ‘White Noise’ bleed into the mix, the crush became all too much for me and I had to vacate. I have to hand it to the boys though, having played countless gigs over the past few months to plug their new album, they put on a great show with live vocals along with a live midi drum setup. Some of the tracks off the new album are something worth investigating – see the link attached.
Having elbowed my way past the Bugged Out crowd of what seemed an endless mix of small girls with Obey rucksacks and large muscular lads from Essex, it was off to the Desperado’s stage for some good old fashioned tech-house music courtesy of Waze & Odyssey. These Bandito’s put on a great show in a bar decorated as an old mexican saloon. Having been kitted out with an awesome visual set-up, this was the stage of choice for people just wanting to dance to some classic 4/4 with DJ’s Ben Pearce, Oneman, Bok Bok and Todd Edwards to name a few.
Field Day brings somewhat of a unique atmosphere I find hard to put my finger on. Although being in the middle of London, were it not for a handful of tower blocks on the horizon, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in a field somewhere outside of Chelmsford, full of that weekend-long community spirit felt when spending a number of evenings away from home in a tent, washing yourself with baby wipes and living on a diet of flat lager and shit pizza. What I mean to say is although only being in Victoria park for a single day, with the variety of activities, acts and the effort put into the overall vibe of the event, you’re made to feel like you’re part of something special.
@MaxiHouse
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