Field Day 2016 review

"A modern music aficionado's dream" - Drew Williams headed to Victoria Park for Field Day's tenth anniversary.

Henry Lewis

Last updated: 12th Dec 2016

A torrential downpour on Saturday afternoon created an underfoot quagmire at London’s Victoria Park that stuck around all weekend, but it didn't dampen spirits as Field Day celebrated its tenth anniversary.

For 2016 organisers hand-picked plenty of new acts alongside old friends who have helped the event become one of the most diverse events on the UK’s summer festival calendar.

The forward-thinking booking policy means punters are spoilt for choice: with local DJs, producers and bands alongside international rap acts and Mercury Prize winners. All this goes on next to eateries selling gourmet food, independent brewers pouring British ales, and the traditional sports day fun and games on the lawn.

(Credit: Field Day)

The choice of entertainment is a modern music aficionado's dream. Switching stages, genres and atmospheres is all part of the fun at Field Day, and this is none more apparent with the change in emphasis between Saturday’s techno-heavy schedule that makes way for the live bands the following day.

On Saturday afternoon Frankfurt-based producer Roman Flügel and his fellow German DJ Koze kicked things off in Resident Advisor’s red big top tent. The two, for reasons unbeknown, switched sets, however, the energy created despite monsoon conditions outside was never in doubt.

Next, after trudging through the mud to the main stage, Skepta triumphantly brought his blend of gritty London grime home to London. Older tracks such as ‘That’s Not Me’ and new ones off the acclaimed Konnichiwa were recited perfectly, with the crowd echoing the words of the British rap scene’s de facto leader.

(Credit: Field Day)

Over at the Crack stage, the heat rose as Motor City Drum Ensemble turned the early-afternoon into a proper knees up. Later on, Bulgarian KiNK was visibly delighted to take control, entertaining the swelling crowd with his unique blend of house and techno.

The swarming masses weren't to be found at the intimate Fader, as the impeccably dressed rapper Little Simz got spacey with a smaller crowd. At this point her infectious performance was the standout set of the weekend, that’s until it was immediately overshadowed by the magnificence of Floating Points’ meticulous jazz-inspired journey at Resident Advisor.

Sam Shepherd is a neuroscientist, DJ, producer and collector of weird and wonderful soul, jazz and samba records. For half a decade he performed only as a DJ, but since Elaenia, his marvelous jazzy masterpiece released in August last year, he’s been on the road with his live musical and visual spectacle. His Field Day set reaffirmed his status and proved why he’s one of the most in-demand acts out there.

Floating Points and Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) have shared a stage plenty, but it wasn’t to be this time. Hebden’s unpredictable outdoor set hinged on his epic nine-minute remix of Eric Prydz’ 'Opus' but mainly explored dub and garage sounds.

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Back at Fader, Novelist’s bouncing grime and hip hop carried on where Skepta and Little Simz had left off earlier, before Headliner James Blake’s victorious headline show. He transformed his usually low-key sounds into something surprisingly perfect for the bigger arena, with gorgeous renditions of ‘Limit To Your Love’ and ‘Retrograde’.

Sunday’s intermittent monsoon showers hadn't started when zany American singer-songwriter Adam Green stormed the main stage.

Always a fun watch, the sounds of ‘Friends of Mine’ off his 2003 album of the same name and ‘Never Lift a Finger’ off the soundtrack for his smartphone-filmed movie Aladdin wafted nicely across the site. ‘Jessica’, his hilarious dig at reality TV show fodder Jessica Simpson rounded things off after a his meandering ramblings took things slightly off piste.

Mystery Jets’ back-catalogue is enviable, but they omitted plenty of well-known material. Not that it mattered. Formed in 2003, they’ve outlasted their contemporaries from the mid-noughties London scene. Following a number of lineup changes, they’re still making singalong pop such as the resounding ‘Bubblegum’. Their set hinged on tracks off this year’s Curve of the Earth.

At the Moth stage, Everything But the Girl’s Ben Watt played through tracks off his two albums Hendra and Fever Dream, as well as a couple of singles from his back catalogue that stretches back over thirty years. The title track of the latter closed his set, not before the songwriter had introduced his bandmate Bernard Butler as one of Britain’s best guitar players. His performance did not go unnoticed. The rapturous applause he received was the loudest all weekend.

Australian electronic group The Avalanches recently returned with new music for the first time since 2000’s seminal sample-packed album Since I Left You, but their disjointed DJ set at ‘Rural fell flat. The lack of recognisable hits played a part, but that’s never been what they’ve been about.

As the evening drew in, Beach House’s dream pop brought the Shacklewell Arms - moved due to overnight flooding - stage to a close. Uniformly dressed and shrouded mysteriously under a dim light, Victoria Legrand’s soaring vocals complimented the crescendoing noise of her band, with ‘Myth’ off 2014’s Bloom, being the highlight.

Finally PJ Harvey brought the entire festival to a head on the main stage, playing material off her latest album The Hope Six Demolition Project. The sinister sounds of her band’s brass-heavy sound mirrored the unrelentingly ominous skies above - her lyrics too, about social housing issues in the US, were as dark as the angry rainclouds.

Both days at Field Day offer a distinctly different vibe. The program seems to be tailor-made for a hedonistic bassline-driven Saturday followed by a lazier Sunday in the company of more delicate live sounds, while the lineup and Victoria Park’s proximity to the city makes it unmissable for the well-informed London crowd it attracts.