An evolution was upon the Toons as thousands gathered for a miscellaneous weekend of music that gave the bank holiday a good seeing to. The two day festival held in Newcastle and Gateshead saw a rampage of mainly fifteen year olds plastered with fake tan, along with headliners Calvin Harris, Paolo Nutini, The Futureheads and Enter Shikari. The festival now has three stages separated by the Tyne River and the Millennium Bridge, which proved to be a struggle when a thousand other people wanted to see the same band.
Sunday was DJ day, kicking off with Lincoln’s Jaymo & Andy George, who really got the crowd going with a brilliantly energetic set of electro synth to indie sounds, setting the mood nicely for Yorkshire man Rusko. Blasting out his new single ‘Woo Boost’ an instant knee wobbler, along with remixes of Kid Sister taking dubstep from the dingy clubs to the masses, cementing its ever growing popularity. Further in the evening London dubstepper Benga brought his broken dubstep and electro swing to the stage, getting the crowd pumped for Doorly and Fake Blood.
With the sun setting behind the Baltic stage and the decks gyrating out “I think I like it” you could have mistaken this for Ibiza Rocks, but looking right you see the luminous Millennium Bridge, and then you think – who needs Ibiza really? There were less of the fifteen year olds here as most were catching Calvin Harris, but I couldn’t be in two places at once. Fake Blood spun out a brilliant hour set, a good end to Sunday. Disappointed they didn’t play ‘Fix Your Accent’ though, that would have been nice.
Monday saw a more poppy/alternative mix with Ellie Goulding gracing the main stage with her contemporary class of electro pop. A microphone malfunction at the start of ‘Lights’ didn’t seem to faze Ellie as she set of a Mexican wave across the crowd, who then seemed to warm to her sweet vocals as she continued with her set. Not the most outstanding performance of the weekend, ending in her hit single ‘Starry Eyed’ that seemed to be the one everyone was waiting for.
Young new talent Egyptian Hip Hop gave a bit of a shy performance with most of their songs played through a curtain of hair and masks. However, their 80’s rhythmical bass and melodic grunge gave the north a Mancunian touch, with more experience and a little growing up they’ll get there. The Emerging Stage saw various new up coming talents such as local lads Brilliant Mind, who had a likeliness to The Cure with their literate indie-rock with the added swagger of front man Callum Lynn – like a young Morrissey in the making – an all round impressive bunch.
The mass surge towards the Baltic stage soon built up for Hadouken!, involving a number of police cars and ambulances, however finally getting there via the seven other bridges though, the rave began. Hadouken! certainly cranked it up as lead singer James Smith strolled on with can of cider in hand to ‘Rebirth’; you could feel the crowd’s anticipation for the beat to drop. They proved to be for the masses as everyone jumped in unison to an hour of hardcore punk with dubstep-heavy bass. Playing out on ‘That Boy That Girl’ people began to filter out with ripped tops and one shoe, a very good hour indeed.
Running over to the Main Stage where hardcore rock met glowsticks, Enter Shikari headlined their first festival. Not really my cup of tea but fair play to them – they certainly got the whole crowd jumping for an hour. Even if most were teenage emo rockers all on legal highs, you couldn’t help but join in. Seeing the weekend off with searing riffs mixed with dirty dub beats and a hint of acoustic guitar pretty much sums the weekend’s mixed array of performances.
An overall splendid two days of assorted music with a constant buzzing atmosphere which invigorated the whole city, a definite must for next year.
