Cocoon In The Park review

Main Image: Chris Gibbons

Last weekend saw the fifth installment of what has become one of the most highly anticipated events in the city of Leeds. For one day, Temple Newsham's back garden is taken over by Sven Vath and a careful selection of some of the biggest names Cocoon has to offer, providing a thirteen hour soundtrack of jaw dropping techno.

The five year milestone brought cause for a line up more than capable of supporting the celebrations; the Gods were out in full force, as Richie Hawtin and Ricardo Villalobos joined Papa Sven with support in the form of Fabric resident Craig Richards.

After the heavens opened last year, and with reports suggesting it’d be repeated again this time around, most of the week leading up to the event was spent checking the weather forecast. To the delight of the ten thousand tech-heads raring to go, it couldn't have been a better day; the rain stayed well away and the sun kept on shining.

Unfortunately we had missed Richards, who had begun at the early hour of 10am. We arrived well into Ricardo's set, queuing up to the sound of Cevin Fisher's 'The Freaks Come Out' (above) before dancing through the barriers to Lil Louis' 'French Kiss'.

From the off it was safe to say that we were going to be subject to an array of old and new techno and house worked perfectly together from start to finish. There was already a large proportion of the crowd at the festival, and the location itself allows for just the right amount of space wherever you are. After a brief spell taking it all in from the top, we headed for the front and set up camp.

Villalobos was on top form, providing the perfect warm up for Richie Hawtin who was set to follow. Minimal beats laced with mystical percussion and stints of pounding bass led for a driving set spun across three glorious hours, allowing for those of us that were slowly just arriving to do so in style.

By 4pm the park was full and more than ready for Minus and Enter front man Hawtin to take up his position on the stage, and set about crafting together his usual techno masterpiece. It was full steam ahead, and the energy of the crowd was wild as trippy bleeps crept over the pounding basslines that we were subjected to. There was never time to stop.

The relentless techno caused nothing less than a constant sea of fists (and even the odd unicorn 's head on a stick) pumping strong through the sweaty, warm air for the full two hour duration of Hawtin's set. We had hoped he was going to play longer than that, and it seemed his set was almost over as quickly as it had begun. All the same, it was powerful, the crowd loved it and next up we had the usual mammoth set from the daddy of Cocoon himself to look forward to.

Sven brought the pace back down and began a build-up of melodic, groovy and deep techno such as Alejandro Mosso's recent release 'Grinding Love', gradually creeping towards the heavy hitters that dominated the majority of his set.

Driving basslines layered with rolling percussion brought many a techno face alive, the selection including lots of releases from the Cocoon label; it was the showcase we all been waiting for. Sam Paganini's 'Polyester' really brought a stomp with it as the crowd marched along in true Cocoon fashion.

The show was complete with theatrics; blasts of fire, confetti, the lovely dancers we have come to love, and even Sven's brother all gave us plenty of entertainment (as if the tunes themselves weren't enough!). 

Plenty of techno later and a crowd worked to its limits, Sven Vath completed the day with DJ Rolando's classic 'Knights of the Jaguar' (above), a very special moment as we all celebrated what had been possibly the best Cocoon in the Park so far, certainly the best day of the year. The fireworks display topped it nicely and we left the field with not only dazzles in our eyes but smiles plastered across our faces. 

Like this? Check out when we made Sven Vath Artist of the Week here.

Tickets are no longer available for this event