24 September 2016 (gig)
27 September 2016
A melancholy and sombre feeling has very much been present throughout London since the announcement of Fabric’s closure. The iconic venue has been immensely important to dance music; drum and bass in particularly having really benefitted from the support provided by this champion of underground Sonic’s. It’s no wonder many are feeling left without any love.
Thankfully for drum and bass, Tony Coleman, Chris Goss and the Hospitality team are renowned for spreading love and have taken a huge leap creating a festival that would make any dnb head salivate at not only the line up on offer with its ‘something for everyone’ approach but by going that extra mile to add a truly unique experience.
Into jump up? How about Turno, Dominator and Logan D on a 3 way back to back to back? Neurofunk more you thing, no worries how about some Black Sun Empire or The Upbeats? “Minimal rollers” I hear you cry, well how about a dose of Dub Phizix. “Got any jungle guy”, well yes how about Randall b2b Uncle Dugs?! Or if it’s more of the soulful sound that you need, well Spectrasoul b2b LSB have that covered. Dancefloor beats, that would be Dimension. Or for those don’t want a set that’s pigeon holed by one sound there’s always BBC Radio One’s DnB ambassador DJ Friction or Brazil’s finest export DJ Marky to scratch that itch (literally in Marky’s case, the guy can scratch with a 1210 upside down, no joke)!
Line up aside, it’s clear from stepping foot in the festival that this is unlike any other festival you may have visited. For starters, programmes were given away for free on arrival saving you the £5-£10 most corporate festivals would not bat an eye lid at taking.
The food offering on site is a far cry away from the greasy burger vans you would expect and instead is nothing but London’s finest street food. Anything from the godly gourmet beef patties from ‘Burger and Beyond’ to the deliciously divine beef brisket in a bun from ‘Smokestak’.
Hospitality’s attention to charitable issues is legendary with DnB circles and this festival is no different having invited Pass the beat to help raise awareness of the good organ donating can do. Did you know that a pair of eyes can help up to 12 different people?! I didn’t but do now and will be registering to ensure I make a difference when I’m gone.
Musically, the artists at this festival didn’t disappoint. In fact the only criticism I have of the line-up was it was too bloody good and inevitably there were some major set clashes and a hell of a lot of running between tents.
Whilst running between tents like a crazed mad man the following amazing spectacles were witnessed; S.P.Y’s packing out the Hospitality tent at 2pm and then causing one hell of a roar double dropping Break’s ‘The Flux’ into Calibre’s remix of Bad Marsh & Shiri’s ‘Signs’; Jenna and the G’s live performance of Dkay and Epsilon’s ‘Barcelona’ and Shy FX’s ‘Feelings’ with a soulful jazz twist; DJ Friction causing dancefloor destruction double dropping two of The Prototypes biggest anthems into each other in the form of ‘Rocket Guns Blazing’ and ‘Pop It Off VIP’ and DJ Marky having the whole crowd singing along to his hit ‘Silly’ whilst lasers bounced off the disco ball inside the tent.
For me and many others, the most memorable performance of the evening belongs to the London Elektricity band Live band. This was the first time this iteration of the band has performed live, the last live London Elektricity band gig being 10 years ago live at the Scala. At least 12 different musicians were present- not including vocalists- all working in harmony to create a truly unforgettable experience. Standout moments of this live spectacle had to be ‘Just One Second’ with the crowd all joining in singing the lyrics that remind us all “The city’s beautiful…” and a funky recreation of Cyantific’s bootleg remix of Daft Punk’s ‘One More Time’ as the encore.
The only other frustration experienced at this festival -other than having too much amazing music - was the fact most of the stages really did suffer from lack of loudness - perhaps council imposed noise restrictions were to blame? Hospitality’s tent was the exception to this, however all other tents experienced common complaints about the quietness. This was so bad that DJ Marky stopped playing in protest, clearly seeing the crowd’s frustration at not being able to hear. This protest fell on deaf ears so he resorted to plan b and turned around all the monitor speakers on stage to try and give the crowd some more volume. Now that is Hospitality at its finest.
Even with the sound issues, this was an amazing day out and I cross my fingers that next summer London will again experience some amazing Hospitality once again.
