Not being a big fan of a longer than one day festival, I was slightly hesitant about taking up the offer of the weekend long Boardmasters Festival but after seeing the line-up which included a dance act which never fails to entertain me-Basement Jaxx, plus the duo who’s sun-kissed rnb, house and garage vibes always take me to a great place- Bondax, and one of the funniest producers I have had the pleasure of interviewing-Benga, I simply couldn’t resist heading down to Newquay for the weekend.
Arriving at the festival after 2 hours sleep following my birthday celebrations and a 6-hour car journey behind me, I was surprisingly ready to check the vibes straight away. Running over several days and including a well balanced mixture of surf, skate, bmx and music, there was no doubt, I wouldn’t have a minute of boredom at Boardmasters and right I was. On the Friday my highlights had to be Benga, simply for dropping a great mix of dubstep to grime classics, which saw the crowd hyped and ready for the bass injection that was to be provided by Redlight. Kicking off his set with a remix of Breach’s Jack, he had the crowds full attention and the set did no wrong for me as I found myself singing a Whitney Houston house remix at the top of my lungs at one point. In fact I was enjoying myself so much that I didn’t quite make it to the Marley Point to see Dusky, a bit of a shame, as the night ending with me hearing the smash ‘Nobody Else’ would have finished off the day in the perfect way, unlucky for me that there was a clash in the schedules but I did manage to see Bondax earlier on at this incredible stage. Overlooking the cliffs and beach whilst listening to the highly talented, young Bondax duo drop infectious house, garage, disco and rnb sounds and then ending their set on their remix of Blackstreet’s No Diggity, it was a memory I won’t forget in a hurry.
On the second day, I decided to check out the skate competition and Fistral bar. The atmosphere was great and the compere provided great entertainment throughout the competition. I even managed to do a bit of shopping as some cool brands had come down to create pop up stalls. My favourite being Stupid clothing where I managed to bag myself a sick new jumper for a sick price. I even managed to test out the Marley headphones, which I would consider buying for my future DJ sets.
Returning back to Watergate back, I was ready for the act I was most looking forward to all weekend-Basement Jaxx. They did not disappoint. Performing timeless classics such as ‘Where’s Your Head At?’ ‘Romeo’ and ‘Red Alert’ but what made it even better was that the vocalists included Vula, garage legend Kele Le Roc and Dejavu FM favourite Shakka who all had the crowd rocking. Never ones to put on a shy stage show The Jaxx even brought out at rather large and fully functional robot to get the crowd geared up for more. After this performance, I had to head to the VIP to cool down a little but found myself dancing to a lot of garage until the late hours.
For my third day, it was going to take a lot to top the night before but it kicked off to a nice start with several topless surfers getting ready to compete at Fistral Beach. To sit on the beach was not only relaxing but surprisingly educational as by the end of it I came to realise, I simply knew nothing about surfing when I had arrived at the beach but left realising it’s a sport I need to take more of an interest in. For the evenings activity, I was intrigued to see what all the hype was for Ben Howard which had been the hot subject all day by fellow festival goers. Don’t get me wrong I am a fan of his releases but wasn’t convinced on him as a festival headliner. As I thought, a few tracks excited me and he was a great live performer however, the encore was a bit too down tempo for my likings. I quickly headed over to the Unleashed stage to see a fellow female DJ who I have seen live a few times over the last year and has had me hyped everytime- B.Traits. The bass from the speakers hit me and it lifted my mood from average to enlivened in minutes. You can see why some are dubbing Traits as the next female DJ to be as well respected in the male dominated scene as Annie Mac. Moving from one international DJ to another, Grandmaster Flash was up next, 20 minutes into the set I found myself heading straight to VIP due to too much happy and polite ‘cheese’ coming from the speakers. The likes of the Beatles and the Jackson’s weren’t exactly what I wanted to hear after B.Traits.
Given that Boardmasters had been putting on after parties every night, it would be rude for me not to attend one. With CJ Beatz and host Fontz headlining, I found myself at Berties Nightclub getting down low to some sick rnb, hip-hop and bashment. It really was the perfect way to finish my three days at Boardmasters and it’s safe to say I wouldn’t hesitate about attending again.
Fearney
