This weekend in Victoria Park the 10th edición of The Field Day Festival has taken place. I had long been waiting to see how would this London Festival look like and finally I had the opportunity to enjoy it. Considering that the weather forecast announced rain for the whole weekend, and that the line-up for Sunday was unavoidable, I decided to skip the rainy Saturday and hope for the rain to stop for Sunday. I have never missed a pair of wellies as much as last Sunday.
UK festivals tend to place an area for games: the fête. Victoria Park was conquered with the usual Field’s Day village fête in the middle, surrounded by a number of stages. The fête raised funds for charities and it allowed to play sack races, to support local mini-breweries, and to meet health charities. The festival also had an attraction area with swings and a sort of wheel. I didn’t like the idea of mixing alcohol and spinning, although the attractions changed completely the way the festival looked like. A remarkable distinct feature was the possibility to pay with cash/card, instead of buying inconvenient tokens that then you can exchange for drinks or food.
With such a extensive line up, I was expectant to see how the stages would fit within the festival. Five out of six stages were tents, that helped to protect ourselves from the rain. Whereas Return of the Rural and Shacklewell Arms tents were massive, Jägerhaus, Moth Club and Verity were tiny. The scheduled concerts overlapped extensively, the stages were far apart, and the muddy field didn’t persuade us to wander around back and forth, so we designed carefully our plan for the concerts.
The first performing artist I saw was Adam Green, component of the Moldy Peaches . Recently he has published an album with the great Binki Shapiro. Dressed in his Aladdin suit (maybe to promote his film), his songs distilled originality, humour, good vibes and indie rock. He delighted us singing some of his most Moldy Peaches famous songs.
In the Return of the Rural tent we enjoyed most of the concerts and protected ourselves from the rain. A succession of amazing groups performed here: The Temper Trap, Avalanches, Air.
The Temper Trap is an aussie band well known for their song Sweet disposition that appeared in the soundtrack of the beloved movie 500 Days of Summer. Their atmospheric sound under the rain in the tent produced an unforgettable oniric sensation.
We then started dancing from the very first chord with Avalanches. The group has just recently released their new song Frankie Sinatra but for the Field Day, their DJ set performed the classics of the band.
The festival closed with the indie queen PJ Harvey, who recently performed at the Primavera Sound in Barcelona. The band opened playing hardly the drums and inviting us to join their songs, right after, Harvey entered the stage wearing a black raven costume and holding a saxophone. They played tracks from the new album The Hope Six Demolition Project, that speaks about Kosovo, Afghanistan and the refugees. Her powerful and silky voice were the best performance in the whole festival. Also, her dancing and her attitude in the stage made all the audience fall in love with her, what a character!
My Sunday not so sunny Funday festival has taught me that the line ups in these venues are far more international than regular Spanish festivals. However, sometimes the sound wasn’t as sharp as I have wished for. Also, I´ve learned that muddy fields may be a common feature of UK festivals. The awesome disposition of the site, the possibility to meet really unique people, and the fact that the festival made me feel as if I were on holidays, made Field Day unforgettable. I can´t wait to go to other fêtes and open air festivals in this island!
Stereo Giraffe 