Awesome festival. The tiny crowd was uber-uber-friendy (it felt like a big house party at times), the soundsystems were solid, the drinks were reasonably priced and the door staff were mellow as you like. The setting, to cap it all off, was stunning. Perfect.
Musically, the festival consisted mostly of mellow(ish) house/techno, garnished with a wee bit of banging stuff and a smidgeon of dubstep (which is why I'm posting here). Mala, who suffered some horrible technical glitches, put on a really good show on Friday night IMO. A typical (dare I say it, famailair) selection of immaculately mixed dark 'uns went down a storm, which was a surprise considering the crowd was so house-oriented. Good to see some proper skanking breaking out after so much polite bopping about too. One complaint tho: Mr. Spangled (you know who you are) behaving like a full-on tit right under Mala's nose for most of the set. You should know better you silly boy! Shackleton put in a blinder on Saturday night (that's it on the dubstep front, btw), playing a savage set which sounded more 'live' than any of his I've heard previously. Lots of chopped up bits n bobs were melded together beautifully, anchored down by some seriously thick bass frequencies. Some mouthwatering new stuff emerged at various intervals too (as far as I can tell). The overall pacing and beat selection was spot on, and the whole thing was genuinely genre-bending. All in all, it was undoubtedly the best set of the festival and a privilege to witness. Nice one.
Other higlights were Andy Stott (the only person to rival Shack I'd say), who played some beautiful, dubby warehouse techno (capped of with some lovely-sounding dustep crossover tunes), Raudive, ripping some stylish and appropriately trippy stripped-back minimal, and Portable, who became something of a drugged up super-pest as the festival wore on, much to everyone's amusement. Nice one geezer!
So what to say? More dubstep next year please! But no complaints whatsoever, really. This could well be the friendliest little festival in the British Isles, and for 50 quid a ticket, it's a bargain. Roll on 2009!
Anyone else go?
Hay-on-Wye, Freerotation Festival, 8/9/10th August
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maxbacharach
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Hay-on-Wye, Freerotation Festival, 8/9/10th August
Last edited by maxbacharach on Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
definatly one of the funnest weekends i have had in a while. the music was ace, although at some points on the saturday it did get a bit too chilled i thought. could have done with a bit more of the rough end of the techno scale to keep me going. not really wanting to complain though cos it was still great. shackleton and mala where both ridiculous as usual. shackleton stole it for me too. im gonna miss those type of sets when he goes to berlin. what really made the festival for me tho was the set up and the people. everyone was super friendly and it was basically a two day party in a hotel/mansion with about 3 hundred people camping in the garden. couldnt think of a better way to do it.
out to everyone i met along the way. see you around or see you next year.
finally out to Portable - we will never forget.
(sorry i didnt make it to the napier last night max - only got in at 1 and was finding it a little hard to function. how did it go? this is luke btw)
out to everyone i met along the way. see you around or see you next year.
finally out to Portable - we will never forget.
(sorry i didnt make it to the napier last night max - only got in at 1 and was finding it a little hard to function. how did it go? this is luke btw)
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ajantis_art
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thought the festival was amazing. great people, great vibes, great place. really nice being out in the middle of nowhere. nice number there too, i think the less people there are at a festival the more easy going the security are. the only hassle i saw them give out was telling peple to pack there tents up at 2pm sunday afternoon. pity the weather was shite but i missed most of it anyway.
shackleton blew my mind out, absolutely blinding set. was chatting to him later and he said he really enjoyed it. most of my lot i was with were techno heads but all of them said it was the best music of the festival. saw the start of mala which was great until the sound fucked up, then i went outside for a cigarette and ended up chatting shit for an hour and missing the rest. who copped a look at the rubber tree! amazing! that scooby doo tree was pretty epic too. wondeful seeing all the valleys in the morning/evening.
good to see ben ufo, kev, ben elgato and tommy 4line up in the place, pity i didnt catch the rest of the forum gang. anyone know who the "cornish pasty" guy was in the run-dmc style dubstep tee?
cheers to everyone who said happy birthday! will definately reach next year!!!
shackleton blew my mind out, absolutely blinding set. was chatting to him later and he said he really enjoyed it. most of my lot i was with were techno heads but all of them said it was the best music of the festival. saw the start of mala which was great until the sound fucked up, then i went outside for a cigarette and ended up chatting shit for an hour and missing the rest. who copped a look at the rubber tree! amazing! that scooby doo tree was pretty epic too. wondeful seeing all the valleys in the morning/evening.
good to see ben ufo, kev, ben elgato and tommy 4line up in the place, pity i didnt catch the rest of the forum gang. anyone know who the "cornish pasty" guy was in the run-dmc style dubstep tee?
cheers to everyone who said happy birthday! will definately reach next year!!!
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ufo over easy
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4linehaiku
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ajantis_art
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