This weekend marked
the end of day festival season with the much-anticipated Hackney Weekend.
Although I hadn’t actually looked at the line-up since I booked and wasn’t
particularly fussed who was playing, due to it costing just £2.50, I was
pleasantly surprised. We arrived early so as not to miss Bombay Bicycle Club,
who were first up on the ‘In New Music We Trust’ stage. They were awesome and I
was even more pleased, as I missed out on seeing them in April when they
clashed with a friend’s 30th. Following them were Santigold, who
wore amazing costumes and even brought a pantomime horse to the stage. Enough
said.
Ben Howard was dreamy,
Florence and the Machine was, as usual, incredible and Rihanna’s headline act
was out of this world. When Jay-Z joined her on stage, the crowd – who
were already giddy with RiRi love – seemed to reach another level of energy;
more than I think I’ve ever experienced at a gig of that size. We weren’t even
close to the front.
The only
disappointment was the ‘Special Guest’, who was left unannounced for so long
that we assumed it would be a bit better than Dizzee Rascal. He played his
latest track that seemed to be about not doing drugs; funny in an audience of
pilled-up sixteen year olds.
All in all though, a
really well thought out and well laid out festival. The toilets were the best
I’d ever experienced – apart from the queues – and the bar was never too busy. I
think Radio 1 did a pretty good job. Let’s just hope they come back next year,
when the hype of East London will have been and gone. Fingers crossed.
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