Glade Festival Review

Glade Festival 2009: there is something special about this place. Maybe it is a combination of the acts, the people and the venue that gives this festival a brilliant vibe.

Located at a secret venue just outside of Winchester, it brought together some of the best underground electronic acts with a few lighter treats thrown in for good measure. We heard music from Booka Shade, Freestylers, Squarepusher, Finley Quay, Nitin Sawhney, Kid606, Underworld, Freeland, DJ Zinc, Hostage, Drums Of Death, Rusko and Benga.

The venue is situated in a scenic bowl surrounded by trees. As you arrive in the main area you see tents, tulips as big as houses and wicker statues. Then your eye is almost immediately drawn to the Mad Max-esque spire of the Arcadia stage, spewing out flames into the night. This a sight not to be missed, especially late at night when it is surrounded by hundreds of people, with performers doing all manner of fire tricks from its balcony.

Despite the rain and the mud a brilliant and colourful crowd of people, many in all manner of weird and wonderful fancy dress, was in brilliant spirit and up for a magic weekend. Most people arrived on the Friday, me and my partner in crime started out in fine style with a set from A Skillz, a brilliant set which set the standard for the weekend. Highlights of the day included Drums Of Death, manically running round on and off stage. Singing, drumming and knob-twiddling, getting the crowd going in a similar fashion to punk gigs I’ve seen. Digital Mystikz were on fine form bringing their own spin on the dubstep genre, keeping things a bit more ambient whilst still maintaining a hard edge. I found it a breath of fresh air.

As we got drawn further into the night, I found myself in the Interstellar Circus. I saw an act which started out as 50’s happy dancey jazz, which slowly descended into Drum‘n’Bass with a very eloquently dressed man MCing. The place was brilliant, something always happening, Cabaret acts, Sword Swallowers, Trapeze, all manner of odd ball delights.

Saturday, although I was hung over, I started with my absolute highlight act of the weekend, Japanese Popstars. I’ve never even heard of these guys before, but I’ll be seeing them again. The keyboardist was in full flow, chucking himself around, all electro pistons pumping to the pulsating beat, getting the crowd in full flow ready for the rest of the night!

Next up, Beardyman with The Bays, a jam band mixing pot of rock and electronica, Beardyman supplying vocals and sound fx with his mouth, thru an array of stomp boxes, accompanied by some of the best visuals I saw all weekend. Later, Freestylers with special guest Tenor Fly, one of the biggest names in Breaks/Jungle, introducing him as the “Baddast-av-badmen-av-Brixton” , playing plenty of wicked tunes, some I hadn’t even realised they’d done, I was hoping for the tune Freestyler, but everyone was loving and lapping up every moment.

16bit brought us what I can only describe as the most heavy dubstep I have ever heard, almost industrial, not for the faint hearted, obviously having a right laugh finishing their set with Brenda Lee – My Boy Lollipop, putting a smile on everybody’s faces.

By Sunday, the pains of the tent were beginning to set in, but the weather was being nice to us at least, nothing worse than strong winds. After seeing a slightly disappointing set from Mum Dance, we came across a Laptop DJ called Raffertie, delivering one of the best sets of the weekend, mixing house, dubstep and the odd bit of cheesey old skool dance. Lulling people into a false state of security with a number of old skool tunes and then bringing them back to earth with Prodigy – Breathe (NumberNin6 Remix), at times mixing 3 tunes at once, this guy needs to be looked up! After catching a blindingly wicked set from the maddest Scotsman Hostage, who delivered us a lovely slice of wobbly house with a few treats slipped in, including his take on La Roux – In For The Kill, we move on to see the tail end of the headliners for Sunday, Underworld. I myself am not their biggest fan, only knowing a few tunes, but I could still see, these guys were on form, you know its coming, but when?

Finally, the moment comes, Born Slippy(Nuxx) and the crowd goes even more mental than it was before. Then, reality sets in, homeward bound, off up the motorway we go.

 

Charles 'Pish' Heap