By day, reggae beats drifted across beaches and translucent waters and giant inflatable water slide mazes. By night, the best of grime, hip hop, garage and bass drew crowds to stages that made it feel like you’d stumbled into an IRL Game of Thrones episode – think forts, colosseums, and an abundance of Khaleesi braids.
Quite possibly the most epic of such settings was The Moat, where i-D swapped out water with soundwaves for our Saturday night stage. Finwa kicked off the evening of grime, garage and hip hop, which T_! kept up as the hoards came on down. At the strike of midnight, the Queen of Manchester’s underground scene Madam X brought her quintessential dark and dirty vibes to the dungeon-esque setting.
Then it was on to one of the evening’s most anticipated artists – West London grime MC AJ Tracey. Though relatively new to the scene, you’d never know it from his flawless set and the mob busting to get in to the already overflowing moat. Finally, the evening was rounded out with two pioneers at the top of their respective genres – Zed Bias bringing the garage, and Hatcha the dubstep.
The rest of the festival saw similarly can-I-relive-that-why-is-it-over-take-me-back-now-plz moments. Joey Bada$$ brought the main stage down on Thursday with his extensive back catalogue of bangers. i-D favourites Little Simz, Lady Leshurr and Abra balanced out the abundance of testosterone, simultaneously smashing their sets with ease and expertise. Novelist heated up the (rather large) British component of the crowd with a rousing ‘Fuck David Cameron’ chant.
And in the most poignant example of ‘oh wow maybe Game of Thrones is right and magic is real’, Stormzy lit up up set with a literal storm. The rain rolled in as he took the main stage for one of the festival’s final sets, lightening flashed exactly as the beat to Know Me From dropped, and probably somewhere a dragon was born.
In that moment, with rain pouring down on outstretched hands and thirsty mouths, no one cared about anything, or any time, but then. And isn’t that what festivals are all about?
Credits
Text Georgie Wright
Images Lula Ososki